Iconic Colorado Clown Performed in Over 10,000 Episodes

While television clowns like Bozo and The Simpsons’s Krusty are known globally, anyone who grew up in Colorado as a child between 1966 and 1998 likely remembers a different clown more fondly, and his name was Blinky.

Colorado’s Most Famous TV Clown Started Under a Different Name

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Blinky the Clown was a character invented and portrayed by a man named Russell Scott. Scott was born in Oklahoma in 1921 and fell in love with the circus at a young age because of his father’s influence, and began performing as Sears-O the Clown in Colorado Springs before changing his name to Blinky.

The Origins of Colorado’s Blinky’s Fun Club

After gaining notoriety on the local level as a clown, Scott was given a television show on Colorado Springs’ KKTV called Blinky’s Fun Club in 1958. However, in 1966, the show would be picked up by Denver’s KWGN, and the entire state of Colorado would soon fall in love with Blinky.

Colorado’s Blinky the Clown Had a Popular Birthday Segment

One of the most memorable aspects of Blinky’s Fun Club was when a child would attend a recording of the show, Blinky would sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to them. This tradition continued for decades, and Blinky the Clown has the legacy of singing birthday wishes to children thousands of times.

Colorado’s Blinky the Clown Set Records

Blinky’s Fun Club, which ceased airing in 1998, set numerous records while it was on the air. Scott performed as Blinky on TV for roughly 41 years, setting the record for being the longest-running TV clown and the longest-running children’s TV host in United States history.

With over 10,000 episodes, Blinky’s Fun Club also gave Scott the distinction of being the second-longest performing children’s TV star in the world.

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Scott passed away in 2012 in Morrison, Colorado, at the age of 91.