This recognizable set decoration from Twin Peaks‘ second season has been rather elusive in my hunt for a replica, but I’ve finally narrowed it down enough to share.
BEISTLE CLOWN
The die-cut clown face displayed above the stove in the Johnson house was made by The Beistle Company.
Martin Luther Beistle established his brand in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1900. Beistle first produced appealing paper plants that would not need to be watered and they quickly branched out into other decorative paper products.
The Beistle Company would join with Paper Novelty Company in the 1920s to create a line of affordable holiday decorations. These became wildly popular during the Great Depression due to their low cost. Some even attribute widespread Halloween celebration in the United States to Beistle’s paper decor.
The company is still in business, and some of their popular retro designs have been licensed out to modern brands like Creepy Co.
FINDING A MATCH
I had trouble finding a match for the Beistle clown seen in Twin Peaks. My first lead was the “Pin the Nose” Clown Game. It didn’t appear to be an exact match, but I bought one on Etsy to investigate further.
The game consists of a large folded paper featuring a clown face with numbered noses and a reflective cardboard blindfold.
The clown differs from the one featured in the Johnson house in that the image is mirrored and the flower extends further from the hat.
Frustrating, but this at least informed me that the design dates back to 1967.
Months later, I found a die-cut cardboard print of the same character, this time with the flower pulled in closer to his hat. Still, you can see from the bow and the tilt of the hat that the image is reversed compared to the one seen onscreen. The copyright on this one does not list a date.
Lastly, I came across a listing for a more realistic set of die-cut Beistle clowns from 1985. The designs aren’t similar, but these were double-sided.
This led me to believe that sometime between 1967 and 1985, Beistle produced a double-sided cut of the “Pin the Nose” clown character, thus allowing the mirror image of that design to be displayed in the Johnson house.
Phew! Now let’s take a look at the space above the Johnsons’ stove throughout the series.
APPEARANCES IN TWIN PEAKS
Through the entire first season, this space is occupied by a ceramic dachshund platter made by Lane & Company (you can read more about that HERE).
It isn’t until episode 2006 that we see this platter has been removed. Early in the episode, Bobby wheels Leo past the stove and neither the platter nor the clown appear to be present.
Later in this episode, Shelly and Bobby throw Leo a “welcome home” party and the clown decoration is shown from several angles.
Perhaps this was meant to be a party decoration and it just stuck around.
In episode 2008, the clown is visible in the background as Bobby and Shelly lament their disappointing cash cow.
Episode 2013 shows the clown as Leo rises from his chair to attack Shelly (mysteriously covered in cake again, even though his nosedive was several days earlier).
Its final appearance in episode 2014 shows the decoration from a few different angles as Leo continues to pursue Shelly and Bobby intervenes.
Looking closely at the lingering shot of Bobby holding Shelly in front of the clown, you can see that the image has been flipped! The bow is now torn, but using the hat and white reflection on the nose for reference, it is clear that this is a mirrored version of what we have previously seen onscreen. This confirms that the decoration was indeed double-sided.
One day I hope to track down an exact replica of the Beistle clown used onscreen, but for now, I’ll call this “almost” replica close enough.
