SEATTLE — He was Seattle's favorite clown.
J.P. Patches was a fixture on KIRO-TV from 1958 to 1981. And the man behind the makeup, Chris Wedes, continued to make public appearances for decades after that.
"I literally saw grown men drop to their knees, crying, going, 'Oh, my God! J.P. Patches!'" said John Bennett.
Wedes passed away in 2012, but his legacy lives on in Bennett's West Seattle basement. A bunch of J.P.'s wardrobe pieces and props have ended up here. Bennett is a collector of all things vintage, and happy to store stuff for friends. So, when a local J.P. exhibit closed down a few years ago, everything from J.P.'s tricycle, which he famously crashed into the trash cans to start many of the shows, to a replica of Sturdley the Bookworm, ended up here.
Graphic designer Curt Hanks runs the official jppatches.com website.
"He affected a whole generation of kids with his sense of humor," Hanks said.
Hanks has been a Patches Pal since childhood.
"We watched the clock on Grandpa Tick Tock to know when to leave to go catch the bus," he said. "It was just part of our morning routine."
Hanks can tell you about everything here, like J.P.'s jacket, which shed buttons with every redesign.
"The sound guys on the show would get irritated because every time he moved all the buttons would rattle," Hanks explained.
There are wigs here, fashioned from mops, which belonged to Bob Newman, who played J.P.'s wannabe girlfriend, Gertrude, and dozens of other characters over the years.
"Sometimes you'd see his hairy legs under the dress," Hanks said. "Although a lot of times he wore long johns as well."
Bennett, himself, owns the Pal-A-Vac, a fantastical machine J.P. used to determine if kids were on Santa's nice or naughty list.
These relics pay tribute to a talented team that brought laughter to thousands of kids. A basement filled with memories of a simpler time.
"They didn't talk down to kids," Hanks said. "It just struck a chord with us."
You can see all of these items and more on display June 8 from noon until 10:00 p.m. as part of the Georgetown Carnival's "Clown Town."