I was visiting my friend Jack Metzger at his shop, Outback Jack’s, on Main Street, and I froze. Isn’t that Lou Jacobs?, I asked as soon as I saw the thick cardboard poster way at the back of the store, amidst a cloud of folders, antiques, old albums and signs. I almost missed him, but it was like running into an old friend.
I recognized the tiny hat, the nose, the lips and the eyebrows. There was no clown like him, he was The Clown. All that was missing was his famous Chihuahua Knucklehead, who stole the show every time, and his famous mini-car, which he stuffed his long frame into and raced around the ring
I saw Lou Jacobs, one of the world’s most famous clowns, at a Ringling Brothers circus in Providence, then again in New York City, and once, I think, in Boston. He was considered one of the three best clowns in the history of the circus. I loved the circus dearly and it breaks my heart a bit to know it is shutting down.
“That is a poster of Lou Jacobs,” said Jack, and he took a look at me – Jack is a shrewd salesperson and he saw my face and he said if I really wanted it, I could just take it and pay me when I feel like it. I don’t like to do that, so I waited the requisite few minutes to see if the price came down. It did, but not by much. Jack knows a winner when he has one.
He wants $225 for it, and it is cheap at that price. Jacobs died in 1992, I am glad he didn’t live to see the circus die as well.
Jack is important to me, every book I have written in the country, every blog post was written on one of his wonderful old farm desks, he has my number. In Hebron, when I first met Maria, Jack showed up every week with some old fiber tool he knew would make a great gift for her.
I love haggling with Jack, he tells the story of every piece he has, and his prices are always fair. He always comes down a bit, but not much. He has been doing this for 27 years, and he knows what his fascinating things are worth.
Jack was always right about the gifts for Maria. And also, the stuff for me – old desk lamps and odd signs – that he carred around in the trunk of his car. Jack is an artist now, as well as a dealer in antiques and collectibles, his store is part of the soul of our town.
On The Paved Road to Hell, the people who say they love animals have killed off the circus, and many of the elephants they so righteously thought they were saving with it. Ringling Brothers will shut down in May. Jacobs died more than a decade ago, I am very sorry that the children of the future will only know him and the circus and the elephants on YouTube, if they know them at all. I think all the magic in the world will only be seen on screens, there will be no more Lou Jacobs to inspire and mesmerize.
For decades, Jacobs’s whiteface makeup and his enormous, goofy smile, outlandish eyebrows and apple-sized nose was the emblem for the Ringling Bros. circus. I believe he was the world’s most famous living clown, I never knew of another to match him. They even made a stamp with his face. I am sure this poster was a promotional poster used by Ringling Bros. when it came to town.
The clown is a magical symbol to me, I vividly remember all the wide-eyed children laughing and pointing to him. What, I wonder, will open those eyes so wide now?
Jacobs won my heart and fired up my imagination, I think the circus is where I first saw the relationships people had with animals and the things they could do together. It was such a rich way of life, I ran off once and tried to join the circus when it came to Providence, but I was way too young and they called my parents to come and get me.
Why on earth, asked my father, would you want to join a circus?
Jacobs wrote about the circus as a life he loved very much. It was a calling, not a job, and there are lots of jobs but few callings. I admit it saddens me that such a rich and meaningful way of life was also killed off, and in the name of loving animals. Jacobs loved the elephants he worked with, he often was photographed with them.
Jacobs often said there was nothing else in the world he ever wanted to do. I think I have to buy this poster and put it on my study wall. It seemed a luxury, but writing about it, I think it is just a necessity.
Lou Jacobs is important to me, and he would serve well as an inspiration and a muse when I write. I doubt he will be remembered for long, if at all, but he will always have a place on my wall. Another wonderful thing from Jack.