Toto Breaks Silence to Say His Stage Smiles Really Mean He's Happy--Famous Clow n Finds Boston Hard to Please

"The Boston audience is the hardest to make laugh of any I have met in years," said Toto, the world's most famous and most popular clown, in an interview with a CRIMSON reporter yesterday. "In most places, people laugh at me when I first enter the stage and continue doing so until I leave. However, in Boston, I really have to work to make them even smile."

Toto, who talks in broken English, is of German parentage, and as he said, was "born into the stage." "I have been on the stage all my life," said Toto, "and I like it very much. I know that some actors and actresses think the stage life a pressing and trying business, but I am quite contented in it.

"I received my clown name," replied Toto upon request, "from a childhood nickname. I have always been known as just 'Toto'."

Toto, who weighs 118 pounds and can enclose himself in a two foot cube, is generally thought to be double-jointed. Disparaging this rumor, Toto said, "There is no such thing as being double-jointed. Every trick I perform is made possible through practice. Houdini was not a contortionist; he was a trickster. Each of his acts were done by subtility, and not by muscular coordination. Anyone can double himself into a small space if he will only practice."

Toto's popularity is due, in part, to the fact that during his entire stage career, he has never been known to utter a word on the stage. "I can entertain an audience for one hour without speaking a word," said Toto, "and keep them interested and laughing all of the time. If I should speak on the stage now, 1 would soon lose my audience. My pantomime is my success."

Asked if, when he smiled in front of each audience, he really felt happy, or simply made others think so, Toto replied. "Yes, I'm always happy, and the response of the audience doesn't affect me in the least. Sometimes, I don't even hear their applause, and it is very seldom that I see them. You see, when I'm on stage, I alwas squint," (and here he demonstrated for his interviewer.) "That closes my eyes.

"For what reason, I don't know, but my last show in the evening is always the most successful," concluded Toto, "then it is that I receive the heartiest applause and the largest audiences."