Short Stuff: Toronto Clown Riot

Those are three words you probably never thought you’d see together. And the true story is just as interesting as it sounds. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:12Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, Jerry's here too. She's just on mute and she's sitting in for Dave, who's not here. And this is short stuff.

• 1:21Speaker 02

  That's right. About the Toronto clown riot.

• 1:27Josh Clark?

  That was dead on Toronto.

• 1:29Speaker 02

  That was supposed to be a clown horn. It sounded like a sick mule. In my head, it was kind of come out better and I thought about doing a second take, but who cares? Let's leave it in there and it's fun.

• 1:39Josh Clark?

  It was a sick mule doing the disco call.

• 1:42Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 1:43Josh Clark?

  And we also cold a lot of information from the Toronto Star, Spacing Magazine, specifically Adam Bunch on Spacing Magazine and the Circus Diaries.

• 1:54Speaker 02

  That's right. The sexiest mini series.

• 1:57Josh Clark?

  The Red Shoe Circus Diaries.

• 2:00Speaker 02

  But we are talking about one of our towns that we love a lot, Toronto. And we are coming back there to Massey Hall, by the way.

• 2:07Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:07Speaker 02

  As part of our Canadian tour, we always love Massey Hall in particular and playing to our friends there. I think that, I think our very first live show ever was in Toronto, right?

• 2:17Josh Clark?

  I think it was actually, yeah, our bars episode. Good call Chuck, that was our first one.

• 2:22Speaker 02

  That's right. That's what gave us the taste, everybody.

• 2:26Josh Clark?

  The taste of Toronto.

• 2:27Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 2:28Josh Clark?

  And also, I've spoken to Chuck, everybody, he's promised to do like 90% less Gordon Lightfoot jokes this time.

• 2:36Speaker 02

  That's right. But we need to hop in the wayback machine for this one because we're going back to 1855.

• 2:48Speaker 02

  When Toronto was a different place, it's not the, it wasn't the metropolitan kind of refined big city that it is now. It was, it was, it was tough. It had like 352 drinking establishments for the 40,000 people there. It had a lot of brothels and they, they were people that liked to, to mix it up, it seems like, back in the day.

• 3:11Josh Clark?

  For sure. Not just the people at Toronto, but the people who were in circuses too, liked to mix it up. And specifically in July 1855, when our event takes place, the S B Howes Star Troop and Menagerie and Circus was in town. And that circus was from New York State and they showed up in Toronto, they set up their tents and said, hey, everybody come see. And of course, since this is a circus, even in 1855 circus, there were a bunch of clowns there, Chuck. And these clowns, they had a, a long day of performing and they said, let's go to a local brothel. And they did as a group.

• 3:51Speaker 02

  That's right. They said, let's go get drunk and doing other things you can do at brothels. And they went to Mary Ann Armstrong's brothel. It's a corner of King and John Streets. And this happened to be a brothel where it was kind of the main hangout of the Hook and Ladder Fire Brigade. So we need to explain a couple of things about these two groups. The clowns at the time are not the lovable psychopaths that we have now in our circuses. They were, you know, they were kind of the, the road crew as well as clowns. So they had to put up these big tents, break everything down, get all the gear in place. So they were, they were brawny, like big dudes and the firefighters of the day. In Toronto at least, and I bet there were like this in a lot of places.

• 4:36Speaker 02

  It was before the city government had, you know, was in charge of that kind of thing. So you had private fire departments and private companies that, you know, billed for their services. Like, we'll put out your fire for this amount of money. So you have fire, private fire companies like racing to fires to get there first. And there were several instances of them arriving at the same time and like fighting one another to put out the fire while the fire's burning.

• 5:00Josh Clark?

  Yeah, several instances. One is recent, is just a couple of weeks before that hook and ladder company who called Mary Ann Armstrong's House of Ill Repute their hangout. They showed up to one and there was already another company there and they got into a fight and a riot broke out, right? So there was a firefighter riot at a burning house. The firefighters all decided instead of putting the house out, they let it burn and looted the houses around it. It was that kind of riot. These are the firefighters in Toronto at the time, right? So by the time this Toronto clown riot happens, the hook and ladder company has already been in one riot within the last few weeks. And I guess they were itching for another one or something.

• 5:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, so they were there and they were hanging out and they were drinking and the clowns show up and they're ready to do their thing. And pretty much everyone's account is the same, is that the clowns started it. I didn't see anything that said that the firefighters did. So it was either like clowns cutting in line or there was a clown that knocked, this is all, it sounds very funny by the way, even as it's coming out of my mouth, or a clown knocked firefighters hat off and went, "Argh, argh." And all of a sudden, a big brawl breaks out and maybe we should take a break there and tell everybody who won right after this.

• 6:18Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 6:32Speaker 03

  First thought is like, wow, how are we gonna do all this?

• 6:34Josh Clark?

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• 7:37Josh Clark?

  Sure.

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• 7:48Josh Clark?

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• 8:06Josh Clark?

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• 8:45Josh Clark?

  I'll tell you who won Chuck, the clowns won.

• 8:48Speaker 02

  You know it.

• 8:49Josh Clark?

  Uh, I don't think anybody disputes that because the one firefighter was seriously injured. And so he was kind of removed from the, the brothel. And as his fellow firefighters were dragging him off, they all retreated as well. So the clowns were like, okay, great. Well, we're, we're here now. So they just enjoyed the rest of the, the night there, right?

• 9:09Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 9:09Josh Clark?

  The problem was is that the city of Toronto at the time was run and was for like a hundred plus years by an Irish Protestant group called the Orange Order. It was kind of like a fraternal order. And if you wanted to be an elected official, a cop, a firefighter, if you wanted a government job, you basically had to be an orange man, a member of the order. And the hook and ladder company were all orange men, which meant they were deeply connected to a lot of other people they called brothers in town. And the clowns had just stepped in it big time.

• 9:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, uh, this has got to be from Syracuse University's orange men. It's got to be related, right?

• 9:50Josh Clark?

  I don't know.

• 9:52Speaker 02

  I meant to look that up, but, um, as soon as I saw orange men, I was like, wait a minute, Syracuse? So I, I imagine that came from the same Irish Protestant order. That would be a weird coincidence. How many orange men are there after all?

• 10:03Josh Clark?

  Well, they grow a lot of oranges in Syracuse, so maybe that's it.

• 10:06Speaker 02

  Okay, that's probably it. Uh, gentle winters there. Good for the fruit. Uh, so word spreads about, uh, what happens at the fight. And the next day, um, a bunch of mad orange men show up and they're like, we're gonna, we're gonna kick the, kick the fun out of these clowns. They started attacking the circus, basically, and it got really out of hand.

• 10:30Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it did get out of hand. They were throwing rocks, they were beating up the clowns and the crowd just kept growing and growing. And so this, not just the clowns, but the entire circus was overwhelmed. Then the hook and ladder company who had been in the fight the day before with the clowns, they showed up. And rather than put out any fires, they actually started fires. They started burning down the tents. They had fire axes, which they used to break up the property of the circus.

• 10:59Josh Clark?

  They like, everybody kind of dragged the circus performers' wagons down to this lakeside and tipped them over.

• 11:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:07Josh Clark?

  It was a bad jam, for sure.

• 11:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, so the circus is in big trouble at this point. So they're like, you know, thank God the police. The police show up, but they were also corrupt because they were also orange men, orange people, or at least the chief was, and I bet a lot of the cops were.

• 11:24Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  Mayor Quimby finally steps in and calms everything down. He arrives on the scene, and this is, I love this, because this is totally made up lore, but I've got to read it anyway. He said to have grabbed the axe out of the hand of a rioter mid-swing as he was about to bring it down upon a clown.

• 11:41Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  The mayor's office put that out the next day.

• 11:45Josh Clark?

  For sure. He was shirtless, too, and he did it.

• 11:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:49Josh Clark?

  The police chief, who, like you said, was an orange man and was very corrupt, he is supposedly credited with saving the animals or keeping the rioters from harming the animals, which

• 12:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, not the elephants.

• 12:02Josh Clark?

  It's a big mark in his favor, frankly.

• 12:04Speaker 02

  No, for sure.

• 12:05Josh Clark?

  Aside from that, though, the police just sat on their hands. They purposely did not intervene, right? Eventually, this riot, what became known as the Toronto Clown Riot, or the Toronto Circus Riot, I prefer Clown Riot. What about you?

• 12:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, that sounds, that's the better band name, so that's what I'll go with.

• 12:21Josh Clark?

  Sure. It eventually settled down. The mob dispersed, and the circus people came back and grabbed their things and they high-tailed it out of town. They were like, we're going to Ottawa. This place is way too hot for us.

• 12:33Speaker 02

  You know what? Now that I'm thinking, though, you can't use Toronto Clown Riot as a band name, because once Insane Clown Posse did that, that you just can't even come close to touching that word.

• 12:44Josh Clark?

  Could you?

• 12:45Speaker 02

  In a band name, I don't think.

• 12:46Josh Clark?

  Could you use it as like an album name?

• 12:50Speaker 02

  Maybe, but I don't know. Who wants to be associated with the Juggalos, you know?

• 12:55Josh Clark?

  Oh, I know some Juggalos, or former Juggalos. They're good people.

• 12:59Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah? All right.

• 13:01Josh Clark?

  I'm gonna stand up for him, sure.

• 13:03Speaker 02

  Look at you going to bat for the Juggalos.

• 13:04Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 13:06Speaker 02

  I feel like Aaron Cooper has done, we talked about juggalos before and I believe there are pictures of us as juggalos, if I'm not mistaken.

• 13:12Josh Clark?

  Yeah, for sure. I think from our magnets episode, maybe?

• 13:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, that sounds right.

• 13:18Josh Clark?

  So Chuck, okay, obviously, the whole thing settles down. Everybody gets level headed again and justice prevails.

• 13:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, we'll see. We'll let the audience decide. Seventeen people were charged with rioting. It was basically because of the corruption, that there wasn't a big widespread dragnet over this whole thing. But the one, you know, it took a while, but the one good thing that came out of this was it was kind of the last straw for the people of Toronto with like these corrupt orange men kind of running everything. It was kind of like the, you know, New York City's Tammany, right?

• 13:54Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 13:55Speaker 02

  And they were like, we're not, we're not going to handle this anymore. We can't be like New York. And so the Reform Party comes into power and the idea of reform is top of mind. It took about 100 years to kind of get the orange men completely out of the picture. That's kind of the weird part.

• 14:14Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Adam Bunch in that Spacing Magazine article, he says though, that he points to the clown riot as like the turning point that eventually became the foundation for the modern, less corrupt and less orange, I guess, police force in turn.

• 14:31Speaker 02

  I'm going to look and see when I'm there, when I'm walking around, which is, I love to do that when I'm there. I'm going to see if I see any like orange men stuff anywhere.

• 14:40Josh Clark?

  Well, you know how you find out if somebody's an orange man? You should walk up to a cop and what you do is you hold out your hand, like you're going to shake it. And then the orange man handshake is when the cop goes to grab your hand to shake it, you take it away and smooth the side of your hair. And he or she will do the same thing. Just watch.

• 14:58Speaker 02

  Okay. I thought you would go up to them and squeeze their skin like you were popping a zit to see if any orange essential oil comes out.

• 15:05Josh Clark?

  That works too.

• 15:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, all right.

• 15:07Josh Clark?

  Okay. I think short stuff is out.

• 15:13Speaker 06

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