Film & TV / Comedy
Clare Cummings
1912–1994 · magician, television clown
Detroit-area magician who became Milky the Clown, the Twin Pines Dairy's TV mascot, on Detroit television from 1950 to 1964.
- Born
Chicago, Illinois- Died
Birmingham, Michigan
aged 82- Birth name
- Clarence Royal Cummings Jr.
- Also known as
- Milky the Clown · Milky the Twin Pines Magic Clown
- Detroit years
- 1930s–1994
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Cummings was performing magic professionally while still in high school and billed himself as the 'Delineator of Deceptive Dexterity'. In 1933 he worked on radio with the young Danny Thomas, and during World War II he entertained troops as an Army sergeant. In 1950 a Detroit television producer spotted him and gave him a children's show; that December, sponsored by Twin Pines Farm Dairy, he premiered Milky's Movie Party in a clown suit his wife Margaret modeled on the clown of the opera Pagliacci. The show moved to WXYZ in 1955 and to WWJ-TV in 1958 as Milky's Party Time; tickets for the studio audience had a two-year waiting list, and the dairy's home-delivery routes reportedly tripled. His magic word, 'Twin Pines!', became a local catchphrase. He retired the makeup in 1964 for a job in industry, kept performing magic, founded a round table for local magicians in 1988, and died in Birmingham in 1994.
Highlights
- Created Milky the Clown for Twin Pines Dairy; Milky's Movie Party premiered December 16, 1950
- Moved to WXYZ in 1955 and to WWJ-TV in 1958 as Milky's Party Time
- Studio tickets had a two-year waiting list
- His costume and tricks are in the American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan