Alan Wendell Livingston was born on October 15, 1917, in McDonald, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest of three children, encouraged by his mother to read books and play musical instruments. Livingston began his career in the entertainment business leading his own college orchestra as a student at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce with a B.S. in Economics, he moved to New York and worked in advertising for three years.
At the start of World War II, Livingston enlisted in the army as a private and served as a second lieutenant in the infantry. After his discharge, he borrowed some money, hitched a ride on an army plane, and headed for Los Angeles, California, where he obtained his first position with Capitol Records, Inc. in Hollywood as a writer/producer.
His initial assignment was to create a children's record library for the four-year-old company, for which he created the legendary "Bozo the Clown" character. He wrote and produced a popular series of storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book sets beginning with the October 1946 release of "Bozo at the Circus."
