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Cliffy the Clown - One of the
resident clowns on the circus variety program
SUPER CIRCUS which
debuted in Chicago in 1949 on ABC-TV. This popular family oriented
program featured Cliffy, Scampy, and Nicky the clowns.
"Cliffy" Sobier was the head clown in this group of zany circus performers.
Both Cliffy and Scampy, his sidekick (Bardy Patton/Sandy Dobritch)
had bald heads, cherry red noses and oversized shoes. Nicky (Nicky
Francis) looked more like a tramp with unshaven face, baggy pants
and a tattered old top hat. The three tumbled, bounced, and
slapstick-ed their way through Sunday afternoons on this live
sixty-minute program.
A popular segment on the show was when Cliffy, Scampy, and Nicky
invited three lucky children from the audience to reach deep into
jars filled with a mix of copper and silver coins. The kids got to
keep whatever coins they could hold in their fingers as they pulled
their hand from the jar.
The series later moved to New York in 1955 but Cliffy, Scampy and
Nicky were not to a part of the festivities. Ringmaster Claude
Kirchner who supervised all the insanity of this circus world died
from cancer on March 8, 1993 in Hawthorne, New York. See also
"CHILDREN'S SHOW HOSTS: "Claude Kirshner"
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