Quote Origin: The Essence of True Horror — the Clown, at Midnight
Robert Bloch? Lon Chaney? Stephen King? Ray Bradbury? Carlos Clarens? Eleanor Ringel? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: A clown is usually a figure of humor or pathos, but a clown can also be frightening. If one appeared on your doorstep late at night it would be deeply unsettling. The following saying has been attributed to horror writer Robert Bloch, horror actor Lon Chaney, and horror author Stephen King. Here are five versions:
(1) The essence of true horror — the clown, at midnight.
(2) There is nothing laughable about a clown in the moonlight.
(3) There’s nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight.
(4) No one loves a clown at midnight.
(5) A clown isn’t funny in the moonlight.
I have not seen any solid citations for this saying. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Robert Bloch was best known as the author of the 1959 book “Psycho” which was made into a chilling 1960 film by Alfred Hitchcock. In May 1962 the magazine “Famous Monsters of Filmland” published “The Clown At Midnight” by Robert Bloch. This was the second part of a two part article. Bloch wrote about the desire to visit the cinema “for shocks & shudders and the wholesome release of fears as old as all mankind”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹
Where our search will lead, I don’t know. It may be that we’ll discover the ultimate cinematic horror in a clown. Years ago, Lon Chaney said:
“A clown is funny in the circus ring, but what would be the normal reaction to opening a door at midnight and finding the same clown standing there in the moonlight?”
That, to me, is the essence of true horror — the clown, at midnight.
A note at the beginning of this 1962 article stated that the essay was reprinted from a 1960 issue of “Rogue”. QI has not directly examined this earlier article. The cover of the March 1960 issue of “Rogue” does list an article titled “The Clown at Midnight”.
QI has not yet found additional evidence supporting the attribution of the quotation to Lon Chaney. Chaney died in 1930. The final sentence with the word “essence” is a quotation directly from Bloch and not Chaney.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The 1968 book “An Illustrated History of the Horror Films” by Carlos Clarens contains the following passage about Lon Chaney:²
As a boy, Lon Chaney used to watch the clowns on the stage of a theater in Colorado Springs and years later, at the peak of his career, he gave them credit not only for teaching him the basic rules of makeup but also for the inspiration of his more sinister roles.
Chaney contended that clowns are only funny when seen in context and that their painted faces and perennial smiles could project the same eerie quality of such characters as the Phantom of the Opera, for instance. There is nothing laughable about a clown in the moonlight, he used to say.
In 1977 a movie review in the “Leicester Chronicle” of Leicester, England attributed to Chaney a remark about clowns:³
One menacing personage is a reminder of a role played by the make-up wizard, Lon Chaney.
Chaney once made the chillingly true observation that meeting a clown in moonlight would be terrifying. He also knew how to put terror into a smile.
In 1981 the “Boston Sunday Globe” published a review by Don Lessem of James Howard Kunstler’s book “A Clown in the Moonlight”. Lessem suggested that the title of the book was inspired by a remark attributed to Lon Chaney:⁴
“There’s nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight,” goes the title-inspiring quote from Lon Chaney.
In 1989 Eleanor Ringel of Cox News Service credited Chaney with the same quotation about clowns given in the 1962 citation:⁵
Years ago, Lon Chaney, our Man of a Thousand Faces and the original Phantom of the Opera, described horror this way: “A clown is funny in the circus ring, but what would be the normal reaction to opening a door at midnight and finding the same clown standing there in the moonlight?”
The ’90s are almost here. Send in the clowns.
In 1991 the “Southern Illinoisan” of Carbondale, Illinois printed a letter from a reader which credited Chaney with a variant comment:⁶
I once read an article about Lon Chaney where he said, “The scariest character on earth was a clown after midnight.”
In 1993 the “San Francisco Examiner” published an interview with prominent fantasy writer Ray Bradbury. The interviewer, Bob Stephens, attributed a remark about clowns to Chaney:⁷
Bradbury’s hero Lon Chaney once said, “There’s nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight”; Bradbury finds clowns disquieting even under the spotlights. “I think when we’re children we don’t like clowns.”
In 2006 popular horror writer Stephen King published “Lisey’s Story: A Novel” which included a pertinent line depicting the thoughts of the main character:⁸
No one loves a clown at midnight, she thinks, and wonders where that came from.
Stephen King attributed the statement to Chaney in a note within a section titled “Author’s Statement” at the end of the book:⁹
No one loves a clown at midnight: Lon Chaney.
In 2012 “The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said” compiled by Robert Byrne included the following entry:¹⁰
A clown isn’t funny in the moonlight.
— Lon Chaney (1883–1930)
In conclusion, Robert Bloch wrote “the essence of true horror — the clown, at midnight” in the magazine “Famous Monsters of Filmland” in 1962. Bloch was presenting his summary reaction to a quotation he attributed to Lon Chaney about the frightening nature of clowns when seen late at night on one’s doorstep. In subsequent decades compressed versions of Chaney’s lengthy remark were directly ascribed to Chaney. Stephen King credited a concise instance to Chaney in his 2006 work “Lisey’s Story: A Novel”.
Image Notes: Partially illuminated tree shown late at night from Aditya Chinchure at Unsplash. The image has been cropped.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to author Will Ludwigsen whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
[1] 1962 May, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Volume 4, Number 2, The Clown at Midnight (Conclusion) by Robert Bloch, Note: First published in Rogue magazine in 1960, Start Page 8, Quote Page 32, Central Publications, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Verified with scans)
[2] 1968 (Copyright 1967), An Illustrated History of the Horror Films by Carlos Clarens, Chapter 4: Children of the Night: Hollywood: 1928–1947, Quote Page 69, Capricorn Books, New York. (Verified with hardcopy)
[3] 1977 June 24, Leicester Chronicle, This house is a killer!, Quote Page 16, Column 4, Leicester, Leicestershire, England. (Newspapers_com)
[4] 1981 June 14, Boston Sunday Globe, Madcap adventures of an endearing prof by Don Lessem (Book review of “A Clown in the Moonlight” by James Howard Kunstler), Quote Page 54, Column 3, Boston, Massachusetts. (Newspapers_com)
[5] 1989 October 28, Times-Advocate, 13 scenes scarier than blood, guts and gore by Eleanor Ringel (Cox News Service), Quote Page C3, Column 4, Escondido, California. (Newspapers_com)
[6] 1991 September 30, Southern Illinoisan, Section: Voice of the Reader: Letter title: Garnati wasted tax dollars on trial, Letter from: Jim Mitchell (Johnson City), Quote Page 4A, Column 4, Carbondale, Illinois. (Newspapers_com)
[7] 1993 October 31, San Francisco Examiner, Section: Image: The Magazine of the San Francisco Examiner, Dark Dreamer: A Conversation with Ray Bradbury by Bob Stephens, Start Page 16, Quote Page 20, Column 2 and 3, San Francisco, California. (Newspapers_com)
[8] 2006, Lisey’s Story: A Novel by Stephen King, Section: Author’s Statement, Quote Page 48, Scribner, New York. (Verified with scans)
[9] 2006, Lisey’s Story: A Novel by Stephen King, Section: Author’s Statement, Quote Page 511, Scribner, New York. (Verified with scans)
[10] 2012, The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said, Compiled by Robert Byrne, Quote Number 2447, Touchstone: A Division of Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified on paper)
