Clown and children’s entertainer who kept the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on the road
PIERRE PICTON, who has died aged 82, was a one-time circus clown, road safety and children’s health campaigner, inventor of a revolving traffic cone, sometime stunt double, author of A Gourmet’s Guide to Fish and Chips and, not least, owner of the original Chitty, the “fantasmagorical machine” featured in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
During his time as a clown with the Bertram Mills Circus, Picton had created an act based around a 1924 Model T Ford with collapsing sides and an ejector seat, which was said to have been a stunt car used in the vintage Keystone Cops comedies.
As “Pierre the Clown” he became a fixture on children’s television in the 1960s and 1970s. He toured schools talking about dental health, featuring on a poster: “Pierre the Clown says end your meal with an apple. It’s nature’s toothbrush.”
He worked for the Rolling Stones on their circus tour, and when the Beatles opened their Apple boutique was photographed handing John Lennon an apple. In 1967 he released a pair of singles, Pierre the Clown in Nursery Rhyme Town Pierre the Clown in Space Rhyme Town.
His comedy car act brought him to the attention of the film producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, who invited him to work on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the magical flying car which captured the imagination of film-goers when the eponymous musical was released in 1968.
The filmmakers decided not to use Picton’s car in the end but asked him to take charge of Chitty, built by the James Bond set designer Ken Adam, including doubling for Dick Van Dyke as the madcap inventor Caractacus Potts in some driving sequences, making sure she was always shiny for each take and taking her to promotional events.
From the film’s London premiere (“We presented Corgi model cars of Chitty for her children, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew”), Picton took it all over Europe.
In fact the model was one of seven Chittys built for the film, though the others were mostly incomplete and used for stunts. Van Dyke recalled that the car was difficult to manoeuvre and had the “turning radius of a battleship” but Picton saw the potential of Chitty as a crowdpuller and bought the car from the Pinewood studios in 1972.
For nearly 40 years, clad in tweed jacket, matching hat and driving goggles, Picton kept the car on the road, exhibiting at shows and charity events around the country. Michael Jackson offered to buy her for £750,000 in 1990 for his Neverland ranch, but Picton refused to sell.
The car was converted to run on lead-free fuel and fitted with seatbelts because, as Picton explained, it was used a lot in children’s road safety programmes, so had to be “completely legal and roadworthy”. “It’s a green machine,” he said, “and we’ve got a Blue Peter badge.”
When in 2011 the car was sold for $807,755 at auction, Picton explained: “I’m getting old and I love the car dearly, but I think it’s time. I’ll miss it terribly. It really is a magical car. You feel like a king with something that everyone wants to see.”
He was born Peter Picton on June 26 1934 and attended stage school, but was drawn to the circus as apprentice to Coco, the head clown at Bertram Mills circus, then as part of the Cavallini family clown act.
From 1947 to 1952 the Cavallinis had become noted for their comedy car act and after touring Budapest with the family in the winter of 1957-8, Picton bought the vehicle.
Under the name Pierre the Clown, he developed his own act which involved the car whizzing round in circles, while the doors fell off in sequence, the back collapsed and fountains of water gushed from the radiator. The finale featured Picton being flung into the air by a Bond-style ejector seat.
Picton appeared in the final Bertram Mills Circus at Olympia in 1966-67 and worked at other circuses, including Billy Smart’s and Gerry Cottle’s. He was also active within the actors’ trade union, Equity, negotiating the clowns’ pay rates with the major circuses.
Picton’s A Gourmet’s Guide to Fish and Chips, first published in 1967, arose out of a life on the road with Bertram Mills Circus. “After performances there were only two alternatives,” he recalled, “fish and chips or the landlady’s cooking.” The book (later co-authored with Rod Harrod) ran to several updated editions.
Pierre Picton is survived by his wife Susie, whom he married in 1988, and by a son from an earlier marriage.