Of all the singing clown acts to grace the stages of Europe and Asia in the first half of the 20th century, none have had the impact that Bingo and Floggie did on the collective unconscious.
It’s a well-known fact that the Russo-Japanese War broke out shortly after their run of Happy Fun Time Jingle Madness show in Port Arthur.
Eventually, they found themselves in Sarajevo in 1914, where an impressionable and coulrophobic Gavrilo Princip saw their blockbuster show, “Shooting the Duke”. (A printing error, it had meant to be “duck.”)
After the horrors of the Great War, they managed to find a regular gig in Munich, where a certain young artist was intrigued by their amusing little ditty “Final Solution.”