Obituary - Carl Hansen (aka Hocus Pocus)

    Not only was Carl Hansen the first Santa of Scotts Valley's Santa's Village, but he also became a clown/magician on a widely-watched television program in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas.
    Here is his obituary.
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Carl E. HANSEN
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Saturday 25 April 1998 Santa Cruz Sentinel, Page One
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Hocus Pocus Dies
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Alzheimer's Claims TV Clown
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By Dan White, Sentinel Staff Writer
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Carl E. HANSEN
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Obituary
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Saturday 25 April 1998 Santa Cruz Sentinel, Page One
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Hocus Pocus Dies
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Alzheimer's Claims TV Clown
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By Dan White, Sentinel Staff Writer
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    SCOTTS VALLEY -- Thousands of toddlers from the late '60s and early '70's vividly remember Hocus Pocus, the regional television clown who used to ride out on stage in a midget-sized fire engine.
    Hocus Pocus, whose real name is Carl Hansen, held onto that persona even as Alzheimer's disease started to overtake him. Hansen, a long-time resident of Scotts Valley who died Wednesday in Saratoga, played many roles in his life. But it was the Hocus Pocus character that most post-Baby Boomers remember.
    Hansen, 93, also had the honor of being the first Santa Claus in the now-defunct Santa's Village amusement park in Scotts Valley. He is also the namesake of Hocus Pocus Park, which opened in 1995 in the same city.
    The "Hokey" role still resonates in the minds of children who grew up in this area. Chuck Brzozowski, a Scotts Valley police detective and Hocus Pocus fan, was stunned a few years ago when a San Mateo County lieutenant in his training class referred to a mistake as a "Hokey Pokey no-no."
    "I said, 'Where'd you get that from?'" said Brzozowski, who proposed that a Scotts Valley park be named afer Hocus Pocus. "He told me it was from a show he used to watch when he was a kid."
    In the days before three-second delays, Hocus Pocus wrote and starred in a show that was 100 percent live television. If "Hokey" fluffed a line, or if a child unexpectedly told an off-color joke heard from a careless parent, it went straight on the air, said his daughter, Linda English of Aromas. Hansen was no tightrope walker, but he performed without a net for 11 years, on over 2,000 episodes, with close to 100,000 children.
    The 5-foot-11 Hansen's soft features on a roundish face lent themselves perfectly to clown make-up. Even the smallest child could not possibly find his pot-bellied character scary.
    Children -- most of whom are into their 40s by now -- loved the show, with its mix of gags, interviews with the audience and Hanna Barbera cartoon shorts. Hansen, a former Warner Brothers stunt man, often used physical comedy and facial expressions to get laughs.
    The show was the outgrowth of a characgter the Danish-born Hansen created to entertain young patients at hospitals. English said her father didn't like the fact that only healthy children could get to see Santa in department stores, so he crafted a Santa, and a magician/clown, that would come to them instead.
    The TV show was merely an extension of this philosophy. Suddenly, Hokey was reaching into the living rooms instead of just hospital wards.
    Each episode began with a bang. A Lawrence Welk-type song would play and Hocus Pocus showed up in a mini fire engine. His face was painted white, with a red mouth, red nose and some black on the eyebrows. Often he wore a teardrop on the tip of his nose. His satiny costume, hand-sewn by his wife, Florene, had orange, green and yellow stripes.
    His show cohorts ranged from a puppet dog named Boo Boo to Buckaroo Bob the cowboy and a real live "library lady" who read stories to the children. But each show's centerpiece was a parade, featuring a young "fire marshal" he picked from the crowd.
    Much of it was improvised or from memory. "You could always tell when he was reading a Teleprompter because his Danish accent would suddenly get very thick," English said.
    Hocus Pocus's followers ranged north of San Francisco all the way down to King City. Later, when he tired of the 60-mile round trip to the San Jose Station, he continued the show on local Santa Cruz cable access TV.
    He is also credited with training the first Ronald McDonald, and appeared with the Three Stooges, Hugh O'Brien, Lawrence Welk, and Rocky Marciano, whom he called a "swell guy" in a 1986 Sentinel interview.
    English, director of Natividad Hospital in Salinas, said adults in high positions still have [a] fondness for "Hokey."
    She recently met a local excutive who said he used to fight with his brother over who could watch the show. "One brother would stand and hold the antenna [in] a certain position and the other would watch Hocus Pocus."
    As a man who spent much of his life in a costume, Hocus Pocus grew accustomed to a surreal life, but English said her upbringing in Scotts Valley was loving and normal.
    "My mom and dad were strict," she said. "We got away with nothing. But everyone used to want to spend the night in the house because my dad would short-sheet the beds -- or put tin pans in the pillows so when you put your head on the pillows, it made a noise. He was always doing stuff like that."
    She said her father's life [was] mostly a happy one, although he lived through difficult times. His mother died in childbirth. One of his children was stillborn. A daughter died of leukemia. He and his wife later adopted two daughters, Judy Stone and Linda.
    His experience with having a daughter with leukemia was one factor that helped bring about the Hocus Pocus persona, English said. He said that sick children should still get a chance to see Santa or magicians.
    Hansen's concerns for children extended into Scotts Valley. He disliked trick-or-treating because he considered it unsafe, so he started a tradition in Scotts Valley in which local merchants would arrange a Halloween party.
    He did clown shows well into his 80s. "Clowns can't retire" was his motto. That's why it was wrenching for his family to see this endlessly active man become disoriented, even forgetful at times during shows. He made his last Hocus Pocus performance in the early '90s.
    For a short while he was able to live at home with his daughter's family but had to be moved to the center in Saratoga about four years ago. The dedication of a new park in honor of Hocus Pocus was an honor to the family, but Hansen himself was unable to attend.
    "As Alzheimer's advances, it is harder to talk to or recognize people," said English. "I would talk with my dad and my mom would talk to him and he would try to react."
    "But if you called him Hokey, he would kind of light up. It struck such a chord with him. It was so interesting that this was the one thing, even when he wasn't sure who he was, mom was, or who I was, he knew he was Hocus Pocus and he had a show to do. He knew he was Hocus Pocus. It was in his core."
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(Memorial services [were] May 1 at 3:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 900 High St., Santa Cruz. Donations in Hansen's memory may be made to Natividad Medical Foundation, P.O. Box 10146, Salinas, Calif. 93912. Donations will benefit the hospital's pediatric ward.)
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Links:

• Hocus Pocus Park, Scotts Valley, CA
• History of Santa's Village Theme Park
• Wikipedia article on Scotts Valley, CA

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