Connie Clausen

Connie Clausen
Born (1923-06-11)June 11, 1923
Menasha, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died September 7, 1997(1997-09-07) (aged 74)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actress, spokesperson, author

Connie Clausen (born Constance Clausen on June 11, 1923, in Menasha, Wisconsin,[1] and died September 7, 1997, in New York City) was an actress, author, and literary agent.[2]

Connie Clausen's career began in 1942 at the age of 19 when she was approached by John Ringling North on Main Street in Sarasota, Florida (then the winter quarters for Ringling Brothers Circus), who told her that her long hair would make her a perfect "Alice in Wonderland" in the following season's "fairy tale" themed grand finale. She joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and performed as an acrobat in an elephant act.[3] Her experiences in the circus later provided material for her memoir I Love You Honey, but the Season's Over (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961),[1] in which she discussed, among other issues, the "significant gap" between what women did within the circus ring and their treatment outside of it.[4]

After leaving the circus, she worked as a magazine and television writer and started with MGM studios in Hollywood as Director of Special Promotions.[5] Encouraged by an MGM studio photographer, she moved to New York City to begin a career as a Conover Model and as a successful Broadway and television actress. She appeared on Broadway in "The Gambler" with Alfred Drake and appeared in hundreds of television shows and commercials in the 1950s and 1960s. She was a television spokeswoman for Beech-nut Baby Foods and Westinghouse, and was a regular featured guest on "The Doctor Spock Show" with her twin sons.

In 1971 Connie Clausen began a new career in publishing. As an assistant Vice President of Macmillan, she helped launch two of the company's best sellers, "Watership Down" and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull".[5] In 1978 she started her own literary agency, Connie Clausen & Associates, which had a series of best sellers, including the beauty books by the photographer Francesco Scavullo,[6] the Pulitzer Prize-winning Jackson Pollock: An American Saga by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith,[2] "Eat to Win", "The Rules" and many others. She was also the long-time American agent for the British author Quentin Crisp.

The role of Connie Clausen in the ITV film production of "An Englishman in New York (film)" (a sequel to "The Naked Civil Servant") is played by the actress Swoosie Kurtz.

References

  1. 1 2 "Author Will Visit Menasha Hometown". Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. May 10, 1961. p. 15. Retrieved January 27, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 "Connie Clausen, Literary Agent And Actress, 74". The New York Times. September 14, 1997.
  3. ↑ Taper, Bernard (1996). Balanchine: A Biography. University of California Press. pp. 181–182. ISBN 0-520-20639-8.
  4. ↑ Tait, Peta (2005). Circus Bodies: Cultural Identity in Aerial Performance. Routledge. p. 104. ISBN 0-415-32938-8.
  5. 1 2 "Obituaries". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 244 no. 38. 1997. p. 17.
  6. ↑ O'Boyle, Jane (2001). Cool Dead People. Penguin USA. ISBN 0-452-28229-2.
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