A company built, quietly, one clown at a time.

The Pennywhistle story

In the autumn of 1948, Cornelius Pennywhistle Sr. accepted delivery of a single porcelain kiln, purchased at auction from a shuttered Pittsburgh doll works, and installed it in a converted dairy barn on the outskirts of Millbrook, Ohio. Within six months he had produced the first Terror Clown™. Within two years, the company bearing his middle name was supplying bedside companions to department stores from Cleveland to Cincinnati.

Today, nearly eight decades later, we remain in the same workshop. The same kiln. In several cases, the same tools. Three generations of Whistlethwaites have guided the company; the fourth is not yet announced. We continue to produce every Terror Clown™, every Haunted Headboard Bed, and every Experience in a single building in Millbrook, and we do not anticipate changing that arrangement.

Our craft is quiet. Our methods are patient. Our products are built to last three generations, and in many cases considerably longer. Every piece that leaves our workshop carries a hand-signed certificate of authenticity. Every piece is warrantied, without expiration, against defects in porcelain, enamel, stitching, and mounting hardware.

We are not a large company. We manufacture approximately 14,000 Terror Clown™ companions per year. We believe this is the correct number.