Coco the Clown

Coco the Clown (or Nicolai Polakovs) was a clown character who is very famous in Britain and his birthplace of Latvia. His son Michael Polakovs became famous in America for helping to found the Ringling brothers, barnum and bailey Circus Clown College and inventing and being the very first Ronald McDonald. Coco was not a whiteface clown but an auguste.This type of clown is the one which causes all the mayhem, is mischievous and gets the laughs,  Coco always gets buckets of water thrown at him or custard pies in his face. 

Nicolai Polakovs (1900–74) made the character of Coco the Clown famous.  

After retiring from the circus, Nicolai Poliakoff [his name was spelled in many ways] toured schools in the UK as Coco promoting road safety, he was sponsored by Esso and J Lyons & Co. He had a walking stick in the shape of a Belisha Beacon. For this work he was awarded the OBE by the Queen.

Category:Clowns