The Thin White Duke alleged to be a Nazi salute. Bowie denied this, saying that he was simply waving and the photographer captured his image mid-wave. As early as 1976, Bowie began disavowing his allegedly pro-Fascist comments and said that he was misunderstood. In an interview that year in the "Daily Express", he explained that while performing in his various characters, "I'm Pierrot. I'm Everyman. What I'm doing is theatre, and only theatre... What you see on stage isn't sinister. It's pure clown. I'm using myself as a canvas and trying to paint the truth of our time on it. The white face, the
Bobèche (clown) creations of Volanges at Brunet. His face was distinguished, his manner shy, but this sardonic shyness reveals what is called a vacuous person from Sologne, which is to say a cunning chap, wily and meek. I can still picture his half-closed eye, his caustic smile, his lower lip raised to give his appearance an astonished, candid appearance. He was a comedian in this great red coat, and under that grey, horned hat, decked out with a butterfly!"". Bobèche (clown) Antoine Mandelot, better known as Bobèche, was a French theatre clown, similar to a Merry Andrew, under the First Empire and