Jimmy Scott

Clown

By Dominique Jando

Clown

A talented and versatile performer and a celebrated British reprise(French) Short piece performed by clowns between acts during prop changes or equipment rigging. (See also: Carpet Clown) (or "carpet," or "run-in") augusteIn a classic European clown team, the comic, red-nosed character, as opposed to the elegant, whiteface Clown., James Benjamin Scott, better known as Jimmy Scott (1915-1995), was born on December 6, 1915, in Walsall, in the West Midlands, England, in his parents’ caravan. He came from circus stock: His father was a bareback rider, and the family was allied to the Freemans and the Hannefords. One of Jimmy’s uncles was Jimmy Freeman, better known as the clown Pimpo, second of the name—a famous clown who had been a staple of Lord George Sanger’s Circus. (The original Pimpo, whom Jimmy Freeman replaced, was Herbert Sanger.)

Like all circus kids of his generation, Jimmy Scott was trained in tumbling acrobatics and a variety of circus disciplines, with an emphasis on his father’s specialty, bareback riding. He became an excellent tumbler. In the 1930s, Jimmy, who had until then performed in various circuses in Britain, including the Royal Italian Circus (which was a stage show), eventually landed in the Chapman Circus of George Bruce Chapman (1885-1935)—one of Britain's foremost animal dealers and a pioneer of the circus-menagerie in the United Kingdom.

There, he joined the brothers Bobby and Tommy Robert’s horizontal bar act, in which he provided the comedy element; titled The Three Roberts, they performed in both circus and variety. Jimmy remained several years with the Roberts and held a similar comedy part in their bareback riding act. In 1937, he appeared as a carpet clown(English) An Auguste performing short pieces between the acts during prop changes or equipment rigging. See also: Reprise Auguste. with Sir Robert Fossett's Circus, and at the outbreak of WWII, he was performing in the same part at Blackpool's Tower Circus; he was twenty-four then: Soon, he joined the British Army.

The war over, Jimmy Scott returned to clowning, appearing for several seasons at the Tower Circus during the summer, even giving a comedy touch to The Dorchesters riding act of his cousins Scott-Stebbings—his last appearance as a bareback rider. Now known as a tumbling clownGeneric term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team.—which had increasingly become a rarity in the 20th century—he became a summer fixture of the Clarence Pier Amusement Park in Southsea, Portsmouth, and in 1954, he joined for the first time the house-clown team of Bertram Mills Circus for its traditional winter season at Olympia, in London.

Clowning at Home and Abroad

Although he never toured with Mills during the summer, he remained with that crown jewel of the British circuses until its very last season at Olympia, in the winter of 1966-1967. Jimmy Scott, who had by then long given up touring, was obviously attracted by sedentary engagements; nonetheless, he went back on the road during the 1968 and 1969 seasons with Circus Knie in Switzerland—a circus known for its excellence, comfort and perfect organization, which was what probably attracted him. There, he partnered with Circus Knie's long-serving and iconic reprise(French) Short piece performed by clowns between acts during prop changes or equipment rigging. (See also: Carpet Clown) augusteIn a classic European clown team, the comic, red-nosed character, as opposed to the elegant, whiteface Clown. Knieli (Arthur Nock, 1910-1979).

Then he returned to Britain and, in the early 1970s, he toured with his old partners Bobby and Tommy Robert’s Robert Bros. Circus and appeared during a few Christmas seasons at the famous Belle Vue International Circus in Manchester—more fitted to his sedentary tastes! He was in his sixties then, but he continued working with such traveling circuses as Gerry Cottle’s, Sally Chipperfield’s, Mary Chipperfield’s, and others.

He had lost an eye in an accident at the Clarence Amusement Park of Southsea while running a rifle range booth in the 1950s, but this did not affect his work as an acrobat or a clownGeneric term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team.: He was otherwise in excellent health and had an outgoing, cheerful personality. He continued to work well into the 1980s. In those years, he also went on to teach physical clowning; one of his students was his grandson, Jamie Scott, who carried on in his grandfather footsteps and was his last partner.

Jimmy Scott was seventy-three when he finally retired in Boston, Lincolnshire in 1988; he passed away on December 17, 1995. His funeral, at St. Nicholas Parish Church in Boston, was attended by many British circus personalities, including Bobby Robert, his surviving old partner.