‘Remember the fun’: The Bozeum in Elgin will celebrate famous TV clown

Tom Holbrook’s passion for all things Bozo the Clown started with a little bendable toy he got from his mom back in about 1969.

Fast forward more than half a century, and the Elgin native has multiple Super-Flex by Lakeside toys, along with more than enough Bozo knowledge and memorabilia to open a museum. The Bozeum, to be exact.

“I don’t know how it happened. I really don’t,” Holbrook said. “I can’t explain it. It’s just been piece by piece, day by day. And it’s been fun.”

The self-proclaimed Bozologist — he’s written the book on Bozo — has taken his massive collection of toys, merchandise, research, and historical ephemera and put it in one place in downtown Elgin above — and in collaboration with — the WRMN 1410 radio station.

The 800-square-foot space on Douglas Avenue, still a work in progress, will celebrate Bozo’s history through Holbrook’s extensive research and collection.

“Once it’s all set up, I think it’s gonna be pretty freaking cool,” he said. “I want people to remember the fun.”

The collection features original costumes, photographs, books, records, scripts, documents, and merchandise. Lots and lots of Bozo merchandise.

“Pulling this all together, finding things that were so old, it was just always interesting to me,” Holbrook said.

His collection has been seen on MeTV’s “Collector’s Call,” and he’s taken portions of it on the road for talks at libraries, events and more. One of the Bozo fans who has seen it is actor David Arquette, who now owns the rights to the character.

Beyond the merchandising materials, of which there is a lot, Holbrook loves to find Bozo mementos not intended for sale.

“The best is finding the different photographs, the candid pieces,” he said, holding up a picture of Willard Scott as Bozo with a young child. “That’s a Polaroid a mom took when they got to meet Bozo. How great is that?”

Years of searching for items and researching his favorite clown resulted in a book, “The Bozo Chronicles: The Origin and History of ‘The Capitol Clown’ 1946 to 1956,” that he published in 2010. He also co-wrote the 2020 book “Being Bozo: The World’s Most Famous TV Clown” with David Eaton, who played Bozo in the late 1960s at a station in Ohio.

Holbrook even donned the wig and wore the makeup himself in official capacities from 2002 to about 2006. He was tapped by Larry Harmon, who held the rights at the time, to appear at licensing and variety shows, fairs, festivals, and other appearances locally and as far away as New York City and Las Vegas.

Though intended to be a museum, Holbrook admits The Bozeum will likely never operate like a traditional one. Once it’s completed, he plans an opening event and will do some by-appointment tours and visits. But the real goal is to create a virtual tour available online to benefit various charities.

“That way, people all over the world can visit The Bozeum long after all this has been let go of,” he said.

And he says he will let it go.

“I’m getting older, and I can’t hold on to everything forever,” the 61-year-old said. “The ownership of all this is quite a task.”

He says he’d like one person to own the collection that’s taken a lifetime to amass.

“It would be nice if it stays together. But if it gets broken up, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’ll find its own place.”

Holbrook won’t claim to have the biggest collection. But he says he’s one of a handful of people in the world in the conversation.

“I have stuff that they don’t have, and they have stuff that I don’t have,” he said. “Nobody can have it all.”

Either way, it doesn’t really matter.

“The goal isn’t to outdo anybody, but to tell the story, to archive it, to celebrate the history of Bozo and pay tribute to those that wore the makeup,” Holbrook said. “The people that did personal appearances under hot lights, visited children in the hospital, and worked with charities. That gives me the goose bumps.”