Career
Connie Clausen"s career began in 1942 at the age of 19 when she was approached by John Ringling North on Main Street in Sarasota, Florida (then the winter quarters for Ringling Brothers Circus), who told her that her long hair would make her a perfect "Alice in Wonderland" in the following season"s "fairy tale" themed grand finale. She joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and performed as an acrobat in an elephant acting Her experiences in the circus later provided material for her memoir I Love You Honey, but the Season"s Over (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961), in which she discussed, among other issues, the "significant gap" between what women did within the circus ring and their treatment outside of lieutenant
After leaving the circus, she worked as a magazine and television writer and started with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Hollywood as Director of Special Promotions.
Encouraged by an Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio photographer, she moved to New York to begin a career as a Conover Model and as a successful Broadway and television actress. She appeared on Broadway in "The Gambler" with Alfred Drake and appeared in hundreds of television shows and commercials in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1971 Connie Clausen began a new career in publishing. As an assistant Vice President of Macmillan, she helped launch two of the company"s best sellers, "Watership Down" and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull".
She was also the long-time American agent for the British author Quentin Crisp.
The role of Connie Clausen in the Independent Television film production of "An Englishman in New York (film)" (a sequel to "The Naked Civil Servant") is played by the actress Swoosie Kurtz.
