Novello was born in
Geneva, Switzerland, according to most sources though he sometimes claimed that his birthplace was
Hamburg. His first name is sometimes given in error as "Alfonso" or "Arnold". His father was an Italian horse trainer, and his mother was a German
lion tamer. He began
circus work as a child
contortionist, and in his teens trained as a
jockey before returning to circus and theatre work in Europe. He developed a clown act in which he would come on stage wearing oversized multicolored clothes and shoes, in a toy car that was far too small for him, together with a large suitcase and his small dog, Whiskey. He toured the U.S. in 1911, and performed before the royal families of Germany and Russia before being stranded in
Petrograd at the outbreak of the
First World War. Sponsored by theatre manager and producer
Charles Dillingham, he came to the U.S. in 1915 and appeared in the revue
Hip! Hip! Hooray!. He made his vaudeville debut in 1918 in
San Francisco, and worked in
silent movies under the direction of
Hal Roach. His films included
Fire the Cook,
An Enemy of Soap, and
The Movie Dummy, all in 1918. In the 1920s he was a headline act at the
New York Hippodrome and the
Palace Theatre, toured widely in the U.S. and Canada, and appeared in New York in shows such as the
Grand Street Follies of 1924. He largely retired from the stage in the 1930s, after a final command performance before
King George V and
Queen Mary in 1931. He later ran an inn at
Mamaroneck, New York, and each year toured local hospitals as a clown. His final film performance was in
Al Christie's circus film
Pink Lemonade in 1936. == Illness and Death ==