Coco

Coco (1900-74), clown, b. Russia. Nicolai Poliakoff, better known as Coco, was born in a theater.

At the age of five he earned money by singing and dancing in a club for soldiers and two years later he appeared on the stage in a play.

He ran away from home to join a circus when he was ten, but soon went back home. Later his father sent him to be an apprentice with one of the biggest circuses in Russia.

At the age of fifteen Coco was fighting with the Russian army in the First World War (1914-18) and he was a soldier again during the Russian Revolution. Then he appeared in circuses in many parts of Russia and later Germany, and, in 1930, he joined Bertram Mills's Circus in England.

Coco settled in England and, with his big red nose, red hair standing on end, enormous boots and clothes far too large, became the most famous clown of his time.

In 1947 he began giving talks to children on Road Safety and in the years that followed he spoke to thousands of children in many parts of Britain.