Howdy Doody is a children's television program (with a frontier/western theme, although other themes also colored the show) that was created and produced by E. Roger Muir[1] and broadcast on NBC in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in children's programming and set the pattern for many similar shows. It was also a pioneer in early color production as NBC (at the time owned by TV maker RCA) used the show in part to sell color television sets in the 1950s.
Characters
Howdy Doody himself is a freckle-faced boy marionette (48 freckles, one for each state of the union), and was originally voiced by Buffalo Bob Smith[2]. The Howdy Doody show's various marionettes were created and built by puppeteers Velma Wayne Dawson, Scott Brinker (the show's prop man) and Rufus Rose throughout the show's run.[3] The redheaded Howdy marionette on the original show was operated with 11 strings: two head, one mouth, one eyes, two shoulders, one back, two hands and two knees. Three strings were added when the show returned—two elbows and one nose.
The original Howdy Doody marionette now resides at the Detroit Institute of Arts. There were also duplicate Howdy Doody puppets, designed to be used expressly for off-the-air purposes (lighting rehearsals, personal appearances, etc.), although surviving kinescope recordings clearly show that these duplicate puppets were indeed used on the air occasionally. Double Doody was the Howdy stand-in puppet; now on permanent display at the Smithsonian.[4] Photo Doody, is the near-stringless marionette that was used in personal appearances, photos, parades, and the famed NBC test pattern. He was sold by Leland's Sports Auction House in 1997 for more than $113,000 to a private art collector, TJ Fisher.[5] Other puppet characters included Heidi Doody (Howdy's sister), Mayor Phineas T. Bluster, Dilly Dally, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, and the curious Flub-a-Dub (a combination of eight animals—a duck's bill, a cat's whiskers, a spaniel's ears, a giraffe's neck, a dachshund's body, a seal's flippers, a pig's tail, and an elephant's memory). Howdy Doody dolls were also sold commercially; these also functioned as puppets, though not as marionettes. [6] In addition to these original vintage puppets, in the early 1990s puppetmaker Alan Semok (at the request of Bob Smith) created several exact replicas of Howdy including (thanks to improved materials and new moulding techniques) a more exact marionette replica than had been produced in the past, as well as a new "Photo Doody" which Smith used in personal appearances until the time of his death. One of Semok's marionette duplicates appears on a 2005 cover of TV Guide magazine as part of a series recreating classic covers from the magazine's history. The cover featured Howdy with Conan O'Brien standing in for and dressed as Buffalo Bob Smith.
Bob Smith (November 27, 1917 - July 30, 1998), the show's host, was dubbed "Buffalo Bob" early in the show's run. Smith wore cowboy garb, and the name of the puppet "star" was derived from the western U.S. expression "howdy do", a familiar form of the greeting "How Do You Do?" (The straightforward use of that expression was also in the theme song's lyrics.) Smith, who had gotten his start as a singing radio personality in Buffalo, New York, used music frequently in the program. Cast members Lew Anderson and Robert "Nick" Nicholson were both experienced jazz musicians.
There also were several human characters, most notably the mute Clarabell the Clown, who communicated by honking horns on his belt and squirting seltzer, and Chief Thunderthud, head of the Ooragnak tribe of Native Americans (kangaroo spelled backward, possibly from Bob Keeshan), who originated the cry "Kowabonga!" Princess Summerfall Winterspring, originally a puppet, was later played by the actress Judy Tyler. The characters inhabited the fictional town of "Doodyville." Several characters (including Ugly Sam, the world's worst wrestler, and Pierre the Chef) were also voiced by comedian and voice actor Dayton Allen, who later went on to become a cast regular on NBC's primetime Steve Allen Show. The Howdy show's non-televised rehearsals were renowned for including considerable double-entendre dialogue between the cast members (particularly the witty Dayton Allen) and the puppet characters.
Clarabell was first played by Keeshan, who continued in that role until 1952. Keeshan was fired after a salary dispute and later became Captain Kangaroo at CBS. At the end of the final episode, broadcast on September 24, 1960, Clarabell (then played by jazz musician Lew Anderson) broke his series-long silence to say the final words of the final broadcast: "Goodbye, kids." Lew Anderson followed Nick Nicholson[7], who also played Doodyville's J. Cornelius Cobb.
After the death of Buffalo Bob Smith, a fierce legal and custody battle for the original Howdy Doody erupted between the heirs of Bob Smith, the Rufus Rose estates, and a museum that the marionette had been bequeathed to. Howdy was once again in the news, with his face and story making headline broadcast, wire, talk show, and print news around the world. For a while, during the tug-of-war fight, Howdy was held hostage in a bank safety deposit box while his saga played out in the federal courts. The Detroit Institute for Arts, which has one of the largest collections of historically significant puppets in North America, prevailed and now has custody of the original Howdy.
Late in life, Bob Smith befriended New York-based voice actor Jack Roth, who was already quite familiar with Smith's gallery of puppet characters. Shortly before his death, Smith passed the mantle to Roth, who (alternating with actor/puppeteer Alan Semok) has provided the voice for Howdy Doody in some TV appearances and live venues since 1998.
Airtime
Originally an hour on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (at 5:00pm), the show moved to Monday through Friday, 5:30-6:00 pm EST in September 1948. During part of its run, it was preceded by the 15-minute program, The Gabby Hayes Show, hosted by George "Gabby" Hayes. In June 1956, it returned to Saturdays, in a morning timeslot (10-10:30), continuing until its final broadcast on September 24, 1960.
Beginning in 1954, the NBC test pattern featured a picture of Howdy Doody.
Live audience participation
A distinctive feature was the peanut gallery, on-stage bleachers seating about 40 kids. Each show began with Buffalo Bob asking, "Say kids, what time is it?" and the kids yelling in unison, "It's Howdy Doody Time!" Then the kids all sang the show's theme song (set to the tune of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay"). It was thus one of the first television shows with audience participation as a major component.
In many of the 1949-54 episodes released on DVD by Mill Creek Entertainment in 2008, the children can even be heard singing jingles for commercial breaks, with Buffalo Bob or Howdy leading them and the lyrics appearing on screen. Colgate toothpaste, Halo Shampoo, 3 Musketeers candy bars and Poll Parrot Shoes are among the products advertised this way.
Smith's absence
In September 1954, Bob Smith suffered a heart attack and was ordered to recover at home. NBC managed to keep the show going with guest hosts, including Gabby Hayes and New York disc jockey Ted Brown as "Bison Bill", explaining that Smith was vacationing at "Pioneer Village."[8] While kids generally were satisfied with the explanation, show sponsors insisted that they wanted Smith himself to hawk their products. In response, NBC set up a special studio at Smith's home so that he could appear live "from Pioneer Village" to do commercials. During Smith's absence from the show, Howdy was voiced by Allen Swift. Swift continued to voice the character for a short time even after Smith's return to the show in September 1955. For a few years following Smith's death in 1998, Howdy did some final promotional appearances and television interviews, with his voice provided by actor Alan Semok.
Show changes in later years
The American program was prerecorded on color videotape in the final years, one of the earliest programs to use that technology. The final episode was broadcast on September 24, 1960, entitled "Clarabell's Big Surprise". The hour-long episode was mostly a fond look back at all the highlights of the show's past. Meanwhile, in the midst of it all, Clarabell has what he calls "a big surprise." The rest of the cast attempts to find out the surprise throughout the entire show, with only Mayor Phineas T. Bluster succeeding, and promising to keep it a secret. ("But", he says upon leaving, "it won't be very easy to keep something like this a secret for long!!") Finally, in the closing moments, the surprise was disclosed through pantomime to Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody. "You mean...you can talk??" said Bob. "Why, golly...I don't believe it!" Howdy Doody exclaimed. "You can talk?!" Bob asked again. Clarabell nodded. "Well, Clarabell", Bob continued, gently shaking the clown's shoulders, "this is your last chance! If you really can talk, prove it...let's hear you say something!" An ominous drum roll began as Clarabell faced the camera as it came in for an extreme closeup. His lips quivered as the drumroll continued. When it stopped, Clarabell simply said softly, "Goodbye, kids." A tear can be seen in Clarabell's right eye as the picture faded to black. The show quietly ended with a roll of credits as "Auld Lang Syne" was played on an celeste and an announcement that The Shari Lewis Show would be on that time next week. The recently discovered and restored color videotape of the final broadcast is now available commercially.
Nicholson-Muir Productions (owned by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir) acquired from NBC the rights to produce the New Howdy Doody Show, an attempt by Buffalo Bob and most of the old cast to recreate their past fame. It was broadcast from August 1976 to January 1977 in syndication. For this incarnation, which lasted for 130 episodes, the Howdy Doody marionette had actual hair in a contemporary 1970s style, and was operated by puppeteer Pady Blackwood. Cast members included Bill LeCornec as fictional producer Nicholson Muir (named for the production company); Nicholson himself as Corny Cobb (now working as a "prop man" rather than a shopkeeper), bandleader Jackie Davis, and Marilyn Patch as Happy Harmony (filling in for the Princess Summerfall Winterspring role). Lew Anderson returned as Clarabell. It was staged before a larger "Peanut Gallery" of children and their parents, originating from and taped in Florida.
A decade later, the show celebrated its 40th anniversary with a two-hour syndicated TV special, It's Howdy Doody Time: A 40-Year Celebration, featuring Smith, Anderson, Nicholson and LeCornec, who reprised his former role of Chief Thunderthud for the special.
Howdy Doody goes international
Like the later Sesame Street, in 1954 Canadian and Cuban spin-off shows were licensed using local casts and duplicate puppets.
William Shatner (who would later play Captain Kirk in Star Trek) appeared occasionally as a fill-in host on the Canadian show as "Ranger Bob". The Canadian show starred James Doohan and later Peter Mews as forest ranger Timber Tom (who corresponded to Buffalo Bob in the U.S. version). That Robert Goulet played this part is an error that sometimes appears (it is listed among his credits on the official Robert Goulet website in his TV-Ography- #31-1957, and was also mentioned by Buffalo Bob Smith at one of his concerts). However, Goulet may also have been an occasional fill-in host.
The Canadian show appeared more low-budget than the U.S. counterpart and seemed watered-down, with less raucous plots and less villainous villains as well as a more educational orientation. Yet some of the stories were evocative nonetheless, almost stepping into high fantasy, often with Dilly Dally as an everyman hero who muddled through and did the right thing, and early on there was a short-lived puppet character called Mr. X who traveled through time and space in his "Whatsis Box" teaching children about history; however, Mr. X was removed from the show due to parental complaints that he was too scary.[9]
Moon Rising
According to film maker Jose Escamilla in his film Moon Rising, the presence of the words "Howdy Doody" carved in huge letters on the moon's surface, visible in the NASA photographs, shows that the photographs were fakes, shot using a plaster moon in a warehouse in the USA.
References
- ^ Hevesi, Dennis. "E. Roger Muir, 89, Dies; Backed Howdy Doody", The New York Times, October 28, 2008. Accessed October 28, 2008.
- ^ Rautiolla-Williams, Suzanne. "The Howdy Doody Show". http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/howdydoodys/howdydoodys.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
- ^ "Howdy Doody puppet creator dies". The Desert Sun. 2007-09-26. Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20071012215342/http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070926/NEWS01/70926003. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
- ^ "Howdy Doody Puppet". National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=117. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
- ^ http://www.tjfisher.com/howdy.html
- ^ http://www.rubylane.com/shops/dollsofchestersprings/item/1566A
- ^ "Remembering HOWDY DOODY's Cast of Characters"
- ^ http://www.howdydoodytime.com/hdshow.htm
- ^ Kentor, Peter TV North, pg. 78. Whitecap Books, Vancouver/Toronto, 2001 ISBN 1-55285-146-X
External links
Bibliography
- Davis, Stephen (1987). Say Kids! What Time is It? Notes From the Peanut Gallery. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316176-62-1.
