'Weary Willie' is very real to me. He is a man who has given up. The boat has gone and left him. The cards are stacked against him. He's content to make out with what he's got. He knows he'll go no further.

Kelly is depicted in a famous photograph still in full clown make-up and costume trying to extinguish the flames of the devastating Hartford Circus Fire that struck the Circus on July 6 1944 and killed 167 people during the afternoon performance in Hartford Connecticut. By 1923 Emmett Kelly was working his trapeze act with John Robinson's circus when he met and married Eva Moore another circus trapeze artist. He also appeared in the Bertram Mills Circus.

Emmett Leo Kelly (December 9 1898 - March 28 1979) was an American circus performer who created the memorable clown figure "Weary Willie" based on the hobos of the Depression era.