As boaters, we have all seen our fair share of funny, surprising and sometimes downright dangerous stunts, but a clown atop a 38-foot Matthews sport cruiser may be a first for most. People of a certain age may recognize the clown Pepito from his roles in I Love Lucy, Charlie Chaplin’s film The Circus, and The Divine Woman with Greta Garbo. But few knew that Jose Escobar, the man who played Pepito, was a zealous boater.
In 1931, during a tour in the Midwest, Escobar stopped at the Matthews Company plant in Port Clinton, Ohio, to check on the yacht he’d ordered. His Matthews craft, named Phantom, measured 38 feet long and was powered by a 175-horsepower Kermath Sea Hawk marine engine that gave it a cruising speed of 17 knots. Phantom featured a deep forward cockpit with bright red, leather cushions. At the time, Escobar’s fully equipped yacht cost him $7,950. When he received the completed boat in Los Angeles, California, he assumed his Pepito persona and posed atop the wheelhouse for a photographer.
On the West Coast, it was widely known that Escobar was an experienced yachtsman and passionate deep-sea fisherman. His good friend Desi Arnaz, who played Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy, was one of his angling pals.
A 1931 magazine article from Pacific Motor Boat noted that Escobar had a one-piece fishing rod “made of whalebone which [was] his constant companion on his fishing trips along the coast.” But Escobar didn’t just use the boat for fishing. He also used Phantom to transport his miniature, specialty-built Packard car to Catalina Island.
This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue.
