Clowns aren’t just for kids, Gumby said.

“The older people seem to make my heart go good when I get them smiling and talking about the old days,” said Gumby, also known as Jim Parker of Astoria.

With bright- colored, curly hair, stark-white faces and atrociously tacky clothes, the Astoria Clowns take pride in bringing smiles to the faces of the youngest and oldest festival goers.

The clowns have been a staple in the Northwest since their inception 50 years ago. This year they’re remembered by this week’s Astoria Regatta with the theme, “Clowning On The River,” and their history is being documented by filmmakers Jeff and Cindy Daly, who split their time between California and Seaside.

The clowns began almost accidentally, said Robert Lovell, long-time clown and Grand Marshal for this year’s Astoria Regatta.

A group of merchants decided to join the Astoria Regatta with a float in 1955, but lack of organization kept the idea from coming to life. Charles Defoe, who worked with the Astoria Chamber of Commerce, recommended participating merchants simply walk the parade wearing costumes that he acquired.

Afterward, the group’s members decided that they should stick together another year, Lovell said, but they needed a goal. Coincidentally, Astoria was considering putting in a bridge across the Columbia River to Washington, replacing the ferry system already in place. Many outside the area called it “the bridge to nowhere,” Lovell said, so the clowns took on the task of showing people just where Astoria was.

With balloons, white makeup and curly wigs, the Astoria Clowns set off across the Northwest in an old, repainted ambulance bearing the message, “Let’s Build the Bridge!”

After a decade of promoting the bridge to completion, the clowns were the first to cross the bridge in 1966, and the first to cross after the toll was removed in 1993, when the last bonds that funded the bridge were paid off. Coincidentally, said Motormouth, often known as Larry Berg of Bergerson Construction, the clowns ran out of gas during both trips, (though he has no idea how such a thing could have happened).

Filmmaker Jeff Daly remembers the clowns, because his father was one years ago. The mystery was the real allure, he said. Even though Daly saw his father and friends go into a room to change into their costumes, he could not tell most of them apart by the time they came out. “You would see the clowns, but you never knew who they were,” Daly said.

After the bridge was built, the clowns didn’t want to give up their fun-focused alter-egos. So they’ve been appearing at festivals and parades since.

“We’re still having a good time,” Lovell said. “We’ll keep going to the parades.”

The clowns come from diverse backgrounds: lawyers, doctors, construction workers and business owners put aside their day-to-day seriousness.

Looking at Mark Ward, tan from his work on a tug boat with Bergerson Construction, it would be hard to guess that he smears on face paint in his spare time. He goes from his worn work clothes into a cowboy sheriff get-up, becoming a slapstick persona out to tease young and old.

“It’s not you,” Ward said. “It’s the face; it’s the gag you’re doing.”

For these men, their work goes to various causes and scholarships in the area, but they’re in it mostly for the fun.

“I enjoy putting the makeup on,” Bill Landwehr admitted with a smile. Landwehr looks a far cry from his clown self sitting in khaki pants and a plaid shirt at his desk in Englund Marine Supply.

The 30-clown organization gets by on fundraisers and volunteer contributions, but the clowns receive one special “payment.”

“How many people say, ‘Here comes the marching band,’ or ‘Here comes the float?” Landwehr asked, his clown smile never leaving his face even when the makeup is gone. “No, everybody says, ‘Here come the clowns!'”

The goals have remained the same, having fun, bringing smiles onto the faces of kids, and promoting Astoria to the rest of the Northwest – bridge or otherwise.

“We would get behind anything that would be of great importance to the North Coast,” Motormouth said, in a rare moment of seriousness. “That’s why we go from town to town – to promote Astoria.”