Colorado’s Blinky the Clown Dies at 91

Good Ride, Blinky.  After close to 10,000 shows and 32 years of Blinky's Fun Club, a childhood icon has died at age 91.  Russell Scott, known to thousands of Colorado children as the source of valuable info on how to cross the street safely, not to mention countless reels of Looney Tunes and Popeye cartoons, has left behind a legacy which will last generations.

Every weekday morning, Blinky would celebrate the birthdays of children in the studio audience by singing, "Happy birthday, dear child-a-dren."  Somehow, he always managed to turn "children" into a three-syllable word.

In the early 1970's, my mom drove my brother Hap all the way from Grand Junction to Denver so that he could have Blinky sing Happy Birthday to him on KWGN-TV.  Unfortunately, in the grand tradition of the Jordan family, they arrived too late to hear Blinky sing Happy Birthday, or birf-day, as pronounced by Blinky, but they did make it for the last few moments of the show.  So much for Hap's 15-minutes of fame.

Personally, I have a tremendous "thank you" to share with Blinky.  While watching his show circa, I would guess, 1976, Blinky shared one of his famous safety lectures.  This particular lesson emphasized motorcycle safety and the benefits of wearing a helmet.  I actually paid attention to this one.  Ten years later, at the age of 16 and with a driver's license, I successfully executed my first catastrophic motorcycle crash.  If what happened to my helmet had happened to my head, chances are I would never have lived to write this article.  To you, Blinky, my sincere, heartfelt thanks.