the stories: Snake Charmer • Arthur Borella, Clown • The Flying Wards • Reporter in Tights • Elephant Trainer • Tight Wire • Dress Rehearsal
Borella escorted me back thru the long rows of trunks and hat trees... A lady clown, stripped to the waist, was trying to get into his corset. A human frog removed his head and wiped the perspiration from his forehead. Dress suits, ball gowns, tights, riding habits hung from the hat trees. Other costumes of all the colors of the rainbow were piled in confusion on chairs. The clowns, peering into tiny looking-glasses, were smearing their faces with makeup.
Borella burrowed into his trunk—it seemed to contain a little of everything—and fished out a ridiculous checked suit.
"Hang your coat on that chair," he said, "and put these on." Then he pulled off his wig, shed his Scotch highland uniform, and stepped into a pair of baggy pantaloons.
"Fine!" he continued, as I fastened my own costume with a safety pin...(read the whole article)
photo: A "greasy old clown" and a greasy new one. Arthur Borella, the famous "here's me" funmaker of the Sells-Floto circus on the left, and Paul T. Gilbert of the Post staff as he appeared yesterday in the sawdust arena. Borella, who is a college graduate and a musician, receives $600 a week as a producing clown. Paul gave his services free of charge.