ABlairican Pie
07-24-2012, 06:07 PM
For anyone growing up in the Seattle area in the '60's and through the '70's,
you're already familiar with this sad story:
J.P. Patches, legendary Seattle entertainer, dies at age 84
Posted by Jonathan Martin
.
The familiar, friendly face of J.P. Patches waves into his ICU2-TV at the History House of Greater Seattle during a September 2011 visit to the rebuilt J.P. Patches set there. (Photo by MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES)
Chris Wedes, better known as TV clown J. P. Patches, died Sunday morning after a long battle with cancer. He was 84.
On television from 1958 to 1981, and in countless personal appearances since, Mr. Wedes delighted generations of Puget Sound area children and adults with his zany antics and a style that was irreverent yet gentle.
Mr. Wedes’ death was confirmed by Robert L. Newman, who played Mr. Wedes’ sidekick, “Gertrude.”
“Everyone remembers him,” Newman said. “He left such a mark. He will never be forgotten.”
In his tattered hat, red nose and colorful patchwork coat, the character Mr. Wedes created, Julius Pierpont Patches, could cause all sorts of mayhem, tumbling off his tricycle, blasting himself into space and playing pranks on his TV guests.
He opened his last major public appearance, in September 2011, by leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. His unrehearsed Emmy-winning show, which ran weekday mornings and afternoons on KIRO-TV, had an audience of more than 100,000 people at is peak.
you're already familiar with this sad story:
J.P. Patches, legendary Seattle entertainer, dies at age 84
Posted by Jonathan Martin
.
The familiar, friendly face of J.P. Patches waves into his ICU2-TV at the History House of Greater Seattle during a September 2011 visit to the rebuilt J.P. Patches set there. (Photo by MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES)
Chris Wedes, better known as TV clown J. P. Patches, died Sunday morning after a long battle with cancer. He was 84.
On television from 1958 to 1981, and in countless personal appearances since, Mr. Wedes delighted generations of Puget Sound area children and adults with his zany antics and a style that was irreverent yet gentle.
Mr. Wedes’ death was confirmed by Robert L. Newman, who played Mr. Wedes’ sidekick, “Gertrude.”
“Everyone remembers him,” Newman said. “He left such a mark. He will never be forgotten.”
In his tattered hat, red nose and colorful patchwork coat, the character Mr. Wedes created, Julius Pierpont Patches, could cause all sorts of mayhem, tumbling off his tricycle, blasting himself into space and playing pranks on his TV guests.
He opened his last major public appearance, in September 2011, by leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. His unrehearsed Emmy-winning show, which ran weekday mornings and afternoons on KIRO-TV, had an audience of more than 100,000 people at is peak.