Bobby Clark was elected to The Lambs in 1923. Clark was called the last of the knockabout comedians and “the funniest clown in the world” who for 36 years was partners with Paul McCullough. He appeared in circuses, Vaudeville, Broadway, film and TV.
He was onstage for 60 of his 71 years. His trademarks were frantic movement, leering glances, always present cigar, baggy trousers, and “ridiculous” painted-on eyeglasses. He jumped, ran, skidded, fell, and sang.
“Clark’s makeup box consists of a money-till–the change compartments. He kept his grease paint in one, white powder in another and in the third compartment black powder which he used for his chin. He could quote from any Shakespeare play you mentioned and his big ambition in life was to play Cyrano De Bergerac in a musical comedy version of the play.”
He was born in 1888 in the First Episcopal Church in Springfield, Ohio; his grandfather was the sexton. Young Bobby met Paul McCullough, four years his senior, and they formed a kid act with music and tumbling at the local YMCA. In 1902 he went onstage, soon after the pair went on tour and were stranded as young teens in Florida with 18 cents. They entered Vaudeville and were booked as circus performers; in 1906 they joined Ringling Brothers. By 1912 they were starring on the Keith Vaudeville circuit, and were highly paid into the 1920s until they landed on Broadway. This led to radio and movies. The partnership ended with McCullough’s suicide in 1936.
Clark was a solo act in the Follies and in films such as Streets of Paris and Mexican Hayride. Two years before his death he appeared in a road company of Damn Yankees.
He was also a member of the Players, Friars, EAG, trustee of the Actors Fund. As a Lamb he was corresponding secretary.
He died age 71 in Hell’s Kitchen. He is buried with his wife, actors Lucette Gaignat, who he met in a burlesque show, in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.