Joseph Grimaldi
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Joseph Grimaldi or Iron Legs (December 18, 1778 - May 31, 1837), the most celebrated of English clowns, was born in London, the son of an Italian actor.
When less than two years old he was brought upon the stage at Drury Lane; at the age of three he began to appear at Sadler's Wells; and he did not finally retire until 1828. As the clown of pantomime he was considered without an equal, his greatest success being in Mother Goose, at Covent Garden (1806 and often revived).
His father was Italian and his performance was reminiscent of Commedia dell’ Arte. He is widely hailed as the founding father of modern clowns, the pantomime. He performed often at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Some people have claimed that Grimaldi himself was the inspiration for Frankenstein’s monster.
His Memoirs in two volumes (1838) were edited by Charles Dickens.
The famous 'sad clown' anecdote was first told of Grimaldi (later also told of Grock): A young man goes to see his doctor. He is overcome by a terrible sadness and doesn't think anything will make him feel better. The doctor says "Why not do something happy, like going to see Grimaldi the clown?". The young man answers "Ah, but doctor," with a knowing look "I am Grimaldi."
To this day every year on the first Sunday in February a memorial service is held for Grimaldi at All Saints' Church, Haggerston, Hackney, North-East London - the home of the Clowns' Gallery. For this service hundreds of clowns flock from all over the world in full 'garb' and the service is followed by a show for the children.
The original editions of the book of Grimaldi's memoirs are very hard to find, either in antiquarian bookshops or even Online. But there are two digital / P.O.D. versions now available. Self-publisher John Haines ( Josh Rogan ) has made available a scanned copy of an 1846 edition, and a full-text version of the 1853 Routledge 'Cheap New Series' edition. The former has its own charm as it is entirely made up of scanned pages and the stained, darkened pages of such an old book evoke the era, but this takes up to an hour to download, whereas the latter is a full-text EBook, which downloads quickly. Both have the illustrations and revisions.
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