Emmett Kelly and Wife in Rice Shower

(Original Caption) King of Clowns Weds. Edgewater, New Jersey: Emmett Kelly, 56, sad-faced clown of the circus stepped out of charcter today for his marriage to Elveira Gephardt, 22-year old blonde German acrobat. Kelly was all smiles throughout the ceremony performed by Mayor Francis J. Murphy of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, at the home of a friend, Joseph Skelly of Edgewater. Here the newlyweds leave Skelly's home under a shower of rice provided by neighborhood folk and their children. The honeymoon will have to wait, however. Kelly and his bride had to rush back to New York City where both are appearing in Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It was Kelly's third marriage and the first for the young acrobat who came from Leipzig, Germany, to perform with the big American circus. April 21, 1955. (Photo by © Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive)