“You think you know me? You don’t know Jack!”
Name: Jack Schmidt
Aliases: Ringmaster, Chaos, Clown Prince of Blood, Clown Prince of Pain
Related: Eddie Schmidt
Events as ICON: Halloween Horror Nights 10, 11, 16, 17, 25 and 30
For the first time since 1995, Universal finally brought back a palpable mascot. But this time, with a twist. It was no movie icon, but something original, created by the minds of Horror Nights themselves.
Jack Schmidt was an evil clown with a great story backing him up. Because of the success of the character, Universal had original mascots for the following several years.
A little-known fact about Jack the Clown is that in the original concept artwork, the character was modeled after Universal’s Show Concepts and Script Manager at the time, James Michael Roddy. Jack’s complexion resembles that of Roddy’s almost identically.
Jack Schmidt was a circus performer. He loved to entertain children with his practical pranks and prat-falls during his stint with Dr. Oddfellow’s Carnival of Thrills. But underneath the greasepaint and clown nose, he held a hideously dark and sinister secret. Jack was a twisted murderer. He was wanted for the abduction and disappearance of several small children throughout the Southern states. Police officials soon caught on that the missing children followed a pattern that led them closer and closer to the traveling freakshow.
On Halloween 1920 the police were closing in on the Clown killer. Fearing capture, Jack revealed his sinister secret to Dr. Oddfellow in the hopes of possible concealment. The Good Doctor was himself wanted by the police for the accidental death of several patrons in a freak circus accident years earlier under a different name. The Doctor was not sympathetic to Jack’s cause; in contrast, he quickly admonished him for potentially bringing the police down upon the entire band of miscreants. He asked Jack to show him what he had done with the bodies of the children. Jack revealed the bodies of thirteen children hidden in the confines of three small trunks that were kept in his traveling coach.
Fearing the worst, Dr. Oddfellow had Jack murdered and his body hidden within the traveling carnivals House of Horrors as an exhibit, along with the bodies of the children.
Years later the Carnival was sold by Dr. Oddfellow, and the various dark rides and exhibits were split and sent to various owners around the states, including the House of Horrors and its grisly secret.
Sixty years later, in the Fall of 1980, a television crew from the BBC was documenting the great Dark Rides of America. They journeyed throughout the eastern seaboard looking for forgotten carnival rides and attractions. They stumbled upon the House of Horrors as it sat abandoned in a Louisiana Junkyard. The crew asked permission to film the interior. Twenty dollars later, the film crew pried open the doors of the forgotten relic and stepped inside. The smell of decay was overpowering as the bright camera light illuminated the darkened corridors.
Moving past the faded walls and hanging fabric, the smell began to increase. The cameraman retched as he panned his camera towards a series of trunks. Behind the trunks was a large wooden box stenciled like a children’s toy. One letter filled each side of the box. J – A -C – K.
The Cameraman steadied his camera as the Host of the show investigated the box. He found a large crank on the side of the box. He turned the crank with some resistance, but after a few twists, it freely moved in a clockwise rotation. A clanky musical melody played out as the Host smiled into the camera.
“It still works!” said the Host. Suddenly the Music stopped. The Host’s smile turned to an embarrassed clench of teeth. He rotated the crank once more with no result. Suddenly the Light from the camera died. He turned to see the Cameraman move away. He heard the sound of something wet. He grabbed his flashlight and clicked it on. The Cameraman was standing a few feet farther away. “Sorry – My light died.” he grinned. Then, without warning the crank rotated a few spins. The top of the box flew open and a form sprung out. Affixed to a giant spring was the decomposing body of Jack Schmidt.
After a thorough police investigation, the bodies of the thirteen children, as well as the body of Jack, were shipped to the local Louisiana Coroner’s office for further examination. The bodies of the children arrived later in the evening. At approximately Midnight on October 31st, the van carrying the body and box of Jack disappeared into the Louisiana swamp. A freak accident. Later that week the bodies of the BBC cameraman and Host were found the result of a grisly and unsolved murder.
Throughout the following years, there have been urban legend retellings of this tale, with a corresponding story about the decomposing body of Jack killing again. The legend states that Jack is searching for Dr. Oddfellow, in a thirst for vengeance. The legend also states that Jack will reward anyone who releases him from his toy tomb by turning the crank with a very special reward. No one to this day has lived to tell exactly what the reward is.
In October 2000, Universal Studios brought some of the original pieces of Dr. Oddfellow’s Carnival of Thrills to highlight the popular Halloween Horror Nights event. The Publicity and Marketing Department has also decided to play on the urban legend of Jack. Designers of the event have been able to acquire what has been sold as the original box in which Jack was trapped.
In 2006 the now mortal Jack was caught by the authorities and committed to the Shady Brook Asylum for The Criminally Insane, an institution that had suffered an inmate escape a few years earlier. Though often isolated in the Maximum-Security Ward, Jack’s mere presence seemed to have an adverse effect on the unstable population, who started emulating the crazed clown, much to the staff’s dismay. Eventually, the inmates started a mass riot, gruesomely tortured the hospital staff, and put Jack in charge of the facility. During the chaos, Jack found records that his former boss and murderer, Dr. Oddfellow, who was still alive. Presumably now a very old man, now running a small traveling Carnival.
Jack left Shady Brook, traveling to the depravity of Dr. Oddfellow’s Dark Carnival and Emporium. In the dark of night, Jack stalked into the tents and took his long-overdue vengeance. When he emerged, he was changed.
During incarceration, Jack got a taste of what it was like to run the show, and he desired to be the ringmaster of his own carnival. He dressed himself in the bright red coat and boots of a proper Ringmaster. He also adorned himself with a crude top hat and terrible trinkets of his liking. He completed the transformation with Dr. Oddfellow’s prized possession, a silver-headed cane of souls.
Putting the Carnival on hiatus, Jack spent the next few months traveling the world to find the right sideshow acts for his deadly Carnival of Carnage. He gathered a plethora of monsters, mutants, madmen and maniacs, many with egos nearly as large as his own, luring them with promises of fame, fortune, show business, and plenty of fresh victims. After nearly a year of preparation, in 2007, Ringmaster Jack opened his dark Carnival of Carnage in Orlando, FL.
In 2015, Jack has finally escaped the shadow of Oddfellow completely. He has shed his old coat for something of his own design. His face is more weathered, more lived in. Jack has come into his own, and he is eager to preside over the spectacle of it all, especially if that spectacle is filled with screams, blood, and gore. Jack presented 25 years of terror to unsuspecting victims. Chaos reigned, as he brought with him new faces, and old, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Halloween Horror Nights.
Seemingly drunk with power after his transformation into a Herald, Jack decided he wanted his spotlight back from his former master, Fear, and successfully created a sort of cult around himself, which he called “Jack’s Maniacs”. With his ego in full swing, he committed himself to proving he was better than Fear, believing himself to be Horror Nights incarnate. He decided to prove his supremacy to everyone by expanding and improving on his Carnival of Carnage, making it more terrifying than ever. At the conclusion of the event, it was revealed Jack and his partner Chance were detained by authorities, with Jack sealed back inside his box and Chance being committed to Shady Brook Asylum.