Muffler Man Clown (In Transition)

Dallas, Georgia

Type: Hard to say...

Arm position: Palms up

Accessories: Clown uniform

Nickname: Clown

This startling Grindhouse horror of a statue spent over 30 years in Magic Forest, a children's theme park in New York State. It is a Muffler Man, yes, but pushing the limits of what can be done with body modification and fiberglass surgery. The balloon pantaloons and propeller-size bowtie make it a one-of-a-kind Muffler Man, with no clown peer.

We first stumbled upon this clown in the middle of the Magic Forest, shaded by towering trees near the ice cream stand. Joel Baker told us the Clown began life as a pirate in Ocean City, Maryland. In images from the 1970s, the statue is visible above the parking lot entrance to Playland Amusement Park. According to Earl Shores (author of the book Playland: Greetings From Ocean City, Maryland), the original figure held an ax, which was replaced in the early 1970s by a set of juggling balls as part of the nightmarish clown reconfiguration. Playland closed in 1980, and the statue remained onsite for several more years and was purchased around 1987 by Magic Forest. It stood there in the woods, charming children near the ice cream stand, for thirty years.

In 2018 the Clown was purchased by Mike Whitman in Dallas, Georgia, who plans to stand him next to his plumbing business -- although back from the road, he said, because he knows the Clown is "pretty freakin' weird."