Ed Birchall

Infobox Person
name = Edward P. Birchall


image_size = 160px
caption = playing HO-HO
birth_date = July 16, 1923
birth_place = Colchester, Connecticut
death_date = July 3, 1988
death_place = Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
education =
occupation = Clown
spouse = Beebe Birchall
parents =
children = Bill, Mike, Sam, Regina, and Dan Birchall; Charmagne Foster

Edward Patrick Birchall (1923 - 1988), was known to generations of Oklahomans as HO-HO the Clown.

Biography

Mr. Birchall was born on July 16, 1923 of Irish heritage in Colchester, Connecticut and served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. A lover of the circus, he performed as a freelance clown before being hired as an entertainer who by KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. There, he starred in a local children's television show named after him, which typically featured an array of firefighters, police officers, zoo animals, visiting circus clowns, and other guests, as well as Pokey the Puppet, played by Bill Howard, the station's long-time stage manager wearing a sock-puppet on his arm. HoHo was all over the TV schedule, for much of the 1960s he was on six days a week. Various titles were "HoHo's Showboat", "Lunch With HoHo", "Good Morning HoHo", and "HoHo's Showplace". The show survived for 29 years, long after the station was acquired by Gannett, airing in its last years without commercials to fulfill the station's public service requirements. He was a frequent visitor to children's wards at local hospitals, providing a kind of medicine the doctors could not. He also appeared at restaurants, charity events, parades, and children's parties, from which he derived most of his income. Mr. Birchall was a diminutive and slightly round man of cheerful spirit and hippie inclinations. Friends remember him as behaving much the same in real life as on his show. He lived in Bethany, Oklahoma for most of his life, and suffered declining health leading to his death in the hospital at age 64 from a heart attack while undergoing treatment for cancer. His popularity was so great that it took three funeral services to accommodate all of his well-wishers, the first of which was attended by an honor guard of professional clown friends and carried live by KOCO-TV. [cite web | url=http://tulsatvmemories.com/gb072002.html#patricia | author= Patricia Birchall | title = recollections | date = 2002-07-13]

References

External links

* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=wa8BdKe7PHc Ho Ho's Showplace on YouTube (clip one of three)]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=KPi3HNvuEVk Ho Ho's Showplace on YouTube (clip two of three)]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=PRTcD1sX6eg Ho Ho's Showplace on YouTube (clip three of three)]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=birchall&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=38&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=15723426& Ed Birchall's grave at Findagrave.com]