We’ve covered Clown Museums before here at This Belongs In A Museum. Not a surprise the Guinness World Record for “Largest Clown Collection” belongs to Ortys Clownmuseum in Germany. Then there’s the Klown Doll Museum in Nebraska of all places. And let’s not forget John Wayne Gacy’s clown paintings at the Museum of Bad Art. But the most random clown-related collection of all belongs to Grampa Jerry’s Clown Museum in Arriba, 100 miles east of Denver, Colorado. It first opened in the early 1990s in Sterling, a town located about two hours away from Arriba. Jerry Eder, who I’m not sure is actually a grandfather, has accumulated over 3,000 clown items from clown dolls and clown music boxes to clown paintings and clown ceramics.
There is an old bank featuring a clown who will eat your nickels, a glow-in-the-dark clown stick-on tattoo, a clown made from a man’s necktie and of course Jerry’s first clown…a picture that was displayed on his childhood chalkboard. And if you’re coulrophobic as well as claustrophobic, then I suggest you skip visiting Jerry’s museum. Why? Because this gigantic clown collection is displayed in his tiny, cramped pink shed. Jerry left the world in 2010, so the museum is now run by his wife, Dale Ann, who of course also collects clowns.
