He graduated from Chicago's Austin High
School and trained at the Chicago Academy Of Fine Arts
interning as a cartoonist for WBKB when he began to
attract the attention of
Frazier Thomas, who had
recently joined WBKB from Cincinnati's WLW. Bruce Newton built the very first Garfield Goose while Brown created all the other puppets on the show including "Romberg
Rabbit," the "unemployed magician's assistant" ( a sly
reference to Rom's previous employer at WBBM-TV, Buddy Black, a
magician who pulled "Rom" out of a hat. When that show was
cancelled, Thomas suggested to Brown that he bring the character over to
his show "Garfield Goose & Friends"); "Beauregard
Burnside III," the sleepy secret agent bloodhound that could only
be aroused by a hearty "hot dogs, hamburgers, spaghetti and
meatballs!" yelled into his ear; and "Macintosh Mouse."
Brown stayed behind a black shade out of camera sight watching a ten
inch monitor while Thomas interacted. Brown's ability to bring life to
the simple puppets is uncanny. He also voiced and pulled the strings for
"Cuddly Duddly" on "Ray Rayner & Friends."
Brown
later began to submit scripts and comedy sketches for
"Bozo's Circus." When producer Don Sandburg (who also
played the mute "Sandy," ) wanted to move on to
California, he approached Brown while having an after
work cocktail at their favorite Friday night watering
hole. After some initial misgivings, Brown decided to
create the character of Cooky, the circus cook based on a
running gag between Bozo and Oliver O. Oliver about the
circus food (itself a reference to the questionable
culinary offerings at the WGN cafeteria).
The
following Monday, Sandburg put Brown on as
"Cooky" for the WGN-TV brass to see. Sandburg had
dusted off some scripts used on the old "Wally
Phillips Show" where Bob Bell
had played a
filthy chef called "Max." After cleaning it up
a bit, Roy performed two of the sketches. The brass was
out to lunch. The next day Roy appeared again and once
more the brass was out to lunch. Sandburg just hired him
for the show anyway.
Brown,
who had no previous experience on camera created the
persona of "Cooky" by taking one of
"Bozo's" wigs and cutting it down to size. A
little known tidbit of Chicago TV lore is that in
addition to Brown's many other accomplishments in Chicago
television, he also made "Oliver O. Oliver's"
noses.
On
January 22, 2001, Roy Thomas Brown died from congestive
heart failure. He was 68. His final appearance on
"The Bozo Super Sunday Show" was in October of
2000.
copyright 2001
Steve Jajkowski All rights reserved
Roy Brown
