Connie Clausen

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

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.[2] Her experiences in the circus later provided material for her memoir "I Love You Honey, but the Season's Over" (Holt, Reinhart & Winston, 1961), in which she discussed, amongst other issues, the "significant gap" between what women did within the circus ring and their treatment outside of it.[3]

After leaving the circus, she worked as a magazine and television writer and started with MGM studios in Hollywood as Director of Special Promotions.[4] Encouraged by an MGM studio photographer, she moved to New York 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 1950's and 1960's. 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 "Jonathon Livingston Seagull".[4] 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,[5] the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Jackson Pollock: An American Saga" by Steven Naifeh and Gregory Smith,[1] "Eat to Win", "The Rules" and many others. She was also the long-time American agent for the British author Quentin Crisp.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Connie Clausen, Literary Agent And Actress, 74", The New York Times, September 14, 1997. 
  2. ^ Taper, Bernard (1996). Balanchine: A Biography. University of California Press, pp. 181-182. ISBN 0520206398. 
  3. ^ Tait, Peta (2005). Circus Bodies: Cultural Identity in Aerial Performance. Routledge, p. 104. ISBN 0415329388. 
  4. ^ a b "Obituaries" (1997). Publishers Weekly 244 (38): p. 17. 
  5. ^ O'Boyle, Jane (2001). Cool Dead People. Penguin USA. ISBN 0452282292. 

[edit] External links