Joseph Gitnig

Joseph Leslie Gitnig (January 26, 1930 – February 23, 2025), also known as Pegasus, was an American street entertainer and poet.^[1][2] He was best known for his free performances for children in Central Park in New York City in the 1970s.^[1]

Early life and education

Gitnig was born in Philadelphia in 1930.^[1] After high school, he studied at the Philadelphia Museum of School of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.^[1]

In 1953, Gitnig moved to New York and took evening classes at the Jefferson School of Social Science.^[1] His poems were published in the Brooklyn Heights Press and San Francisco Progress.^[1]

Career

Gitnig began street performances in 1962, assuming various costumes.^[1] In 1969, Gitnig sought unsuccessfully to see Mayor John V. Lindsay about getting paid for his work as a clown.^[3]

By 1971, he was known as Pegasus, and became a familiar sight at Central Park Zoo in his court jester costume and mismatched shoes.^[1] For a period in 1976, he complained about competition from newcomers Rosie and Herbert, whose bells and whistles distracted his audience from his relatively quiet pantomime act.^[4] His main income was from performing at private parties for children, as well as tips from street performances, from which he earned $3,000 a year.^[5][1]

In March 1977, Pegasus made national headlines after he returned to the seal pool at Central Park Zoo to perform, despite being arrested and issued with a police summons.^[6][7] He was charged with violating a New York Parks Department regulation, which had been interpreted as requiring licenses for performers in the city's parks, although no other performer had ever been similarly charged.^[5] He was arrested a second time in May 1977.^[5] Gitnig was represented by Arthur Eisenberg of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who argued that the First Amendment protected the rights of performers in the park as free speech.^[5][1] Later that year, the Parks Department reversed its position and agreed to drop all charges against Pegasus.^[5]

Personal life and death

In 1982, Gitnig married Martine "Tineke" Bertrums, a flight attendant with KLM, and moved to the Netherlands two years later.^[8][2] His book with Roeline van Berchum, Unicorns in the Afternoon. Poetry of promise, was published in 2024.^[2] He died of kidney failure in Tilburg, on February 23, 2025, at the age of 95.^[1]