August 19, 2012
Sandra “Pocha” Pena blogged on her “Pocharte” WordPress blog about her 2004 personal interviews with Joanne Perez.
“Joanne was a dancer who fell in love with a Spanish clown her mother was dating. This was way back in the 1920’s so the clown, Pepito, called upon his pal Charlie Chaplin to have Joanne perform in his film premier ‘Ballyhoo‘ at the [Grauman’s] Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The invite was such an honor, Joanne’s mother didn’t protest.
“I’ve heaps of stories of these two,
Pocha Pena
some terribly romantic,
others a bit sordid.”
“The dancer played a wind-up doll alongside Pepito, and fell madly in love with him. The two began a torrid love-affair that very day.
“Needing some distance from her jilted mom, the teenage ballerina and her clown beau settled in Orange County, a charming town an hour south of LA.
“I interviewed Joanne about a year before she died, and still vividly remember all the stories she told of old Hollywood in Santa Ana, their hangout at the Santora Arts Building and the intoxicating scent of orange blossoms.”
Source:
Read Pocha’s blog entry at http://pocharte.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/pepito-the-clown-joanne-the-dancer/
Pepito & Joanne 