The Soviet Union story is big and long. Much too long to tell here.
But the clown story is this: In about 1975, McDonald's Corporation wanted to experiment with "McDonald's Family Night At The Circus." The idea was to promote McDonald's on every opening night of Ringling Brothers Circus. So they signed a deal with the circus to give it a try in conjunction with the company's 20th anniversary.
I was hired by McDonald's to be the "ring master" (ring announcer) for the first event. I welcomed everybody ( 6 or 8 thousand people) to McDonald' Family night at the circus, then introduced
"EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE CLOWN.....................RONALD McDONALD." At that point, Ronald ran out to center ring with a birthday cake with 20 sparklers on it.
The sparklers were suppose to be lit, but they weren't. So, I said to Ronald, "why aren't the candles lit." He said something, I don't remember what it was, but it was only a couple of words.
That's when the **** hit the fan. It seems that Ringling Brothers Clowns are "Non Speaking Clowns" and they have (or had) a union to that effect. The union had agreed to allow Ronald to appear at the circus under the condition that he "DID NOT SPEAK."
Well, good old Jan fixed that in a hurry. I thought nothing of my conversation with Ronald until the next Monday when I got a call from McDonald's main office with instructions to appear before the top brass.
When I got into the meeting, I think it was somewhere in Illinois, I sat down in front of a bunch of ****ed off people. The first thing they said to me was, "Where in your script did it say you were suppose to ask Ronald about ******** sparklers.?"
The only thing I said was, "Ahhhhhh" before they told me to "shut up."
That's when they told me about the grievance and that the circus has decided to "NOT" work with them on "McDonald's Family Night at The Circus."
It was explained to me, in a rather forthright manner, that when one works for McDonald's, one does exactly what one is told and nothing more.
I was then allowed to slink out of the conference room.
I sure am glad I had a day job.