PEPITO PÉREZ

February 16, 1898

Pepito Pérez was born as José Escobar Pérez in Barcelona, Spain. He was primarily known as “Pepito the Spanish Clown” and was a screen, stage, vaudeville, and television actor. Pepito was the one time court jester to the Spanish Royal Court of King Alfonso. He was also good friends with Desi Arnaz, and Lucille Ball. 

Pepito and Desi Arnaz were fishing buddies, often taking out the boat Desilu. On October 18, 1952, Pepito caught a 149 pound Marlin off San Diego!  

In 1928, Pepito and wife Joanne were hired to perform at Grauman’s Chinese Theater as the live opener for the premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s silent film, The Circus. They continued their act together into the early 1960s.

His screen debut came in 1938 with Tropic Holiday set in Mexico. The film also included future “Lucy” actors Irving Bacon (Will Potter) and Fortunio Bonanova (Lucy’s Mind-Reading Professor).  

Pepito appeared as Poochy the accordion player in the Lucille Ball film Annabel Takes a Tour, also in 1938. Lucille once said that Pepito was the driving force in her development as a top comedienne, helping her with pantomime. He helped Lucy and Desi create their 1950 stage show designed to convince the network and sponsors they were a viable couple to star in a series. 

He appeared in the original 1951 pilot episode for “I Love Lucy” which was thought to be lost until his wife Joanne Pérez revealed that she still owned a copy of the original pilot film, that would be restored and then shown as a CBS-TV special on March 30, 1990.

When much of the material from the stage show and (then) un-aired pilot was incorporated into “The Audition" (ILL S1;E6)

Pepito was not available to recreate his performance so he was replaced by Pat Moran, playing Buffo the Clown.

 Pepito would be invited back to perform in “Lucy’s Show-Biz Swan Song” (ILL S2;E12) to fill time when that episode was running short.

In addition to taming an invisible lion with the help of a lamp chimney, Pepito does his imitation of a baby cry, which will come in helpful when Little Ricky is born, because he will provide the off-screen crying during season two. The entire costume Pepito wore in this episode is now in the Lucy-Desi Museum and Center for Comedy in Jamestown, New York.

Pepito and Joanne married in 1936 but could not have children of their own, so instead, they opened a school to teach children to dance. Pepito created all the  props and sets, performing shows with the children at venues like the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. 

In 1956, when “I Love Lucy” presented “Little Ricky’s School Pageant” (ILL S6;E10), Joanne supplied the child performers while Pepito created the costumes and the sets. In the above cast photo, Joanne and Pepito stand next to Vivian Vance and below an airborne Lucy! 

He died on July 13, 1975 at age 90.