Howdy Doody is an American children's television program with circus and Western frontier themes, that was created and produced by Victor F. Campbell"Victor F Campbell", The New York Times, Dec 1 1973. Retrieved August 21, 2021 and E. Roger Muir.Hevesi, Dennis. "E. Roger Muir, 89, Dies; Backed Howdy Doody", The New York Times, October 28, 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2008. It was broadcast on the NBC television network in the United States from December 27, 1947, until September 24, 1960. It was a pioneer of children's programming and set the pattern for many similar shows. One of the first television series produced at NBC in Rockefeller Center, in Studio 3A, it pioneered color production in 1956 and NBC (then owned by RCA Television) used the show to promote color television sets in the late 1950s.
Story
Buffalo Bob Smith created Howdy Doody during his days as a radio announcer on WNBC. At that time, Howdy Doody was only a voice Smith performed on the radio. When Smith made an appearance on NBC's television program Puppet Playhouse on December 27, 1947, the reception for the character was great enough to begin a demand for a visual character for television. Frank Paris, a puppeteer whose puppets appeared on the program, was asked to create a Howdy Doody puppet.
Smith, the show's host, was dubbed "Buffalo Bob" early in the show's run (a reference to the historical American frontier character Buffalo Bill as well as to Smith's hometown of Buffalo, New York). At first the set was supposed to be a circus tent, but it soon was changed to a western town. Smith wore cowboy garb, as did the puppet. The name of the puppet star was derived from the expression "howdy doody"/"howdy do", a commonplace corruption of the phrase "How do you do?" used in the western United States and in Britain as well (for example, "Here's a howdy-do" from The Mikado). (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, frequently used music in the program. Cast members Lew Anderson and Robert "Nick" Nicholson both were experienced jazz musicians.
As both the character and TV program grew in popularity, demand for Howdy Doody related merchandise began to surface. By 1948, toymakers and department stores had been approached with requests for Howdy Doody dolls and similar items. The Macy's department store chain contacted Frank Paris to ask about rights for a Howdy Doody doll. However, while Paris had created the puppet, Smith owned the rights to the character. An argument ensued between the two men, Paris claiming he felt he was being cheated out of any financial benefits. After one such disagreement, Paris took the puppet and angrily left the NBC studios about four hours before the show was to air liveleaving the program with no "star". It was not the first time this had happened.
With Paris's past disappearances, impromptu excuses regarding the whereabouts of Howdy Doody had hastily been concocted. This time, an elaborate explanation was offeredthat Howdy was busy with elections on the campaign trail. NBC hurriedly constructed a map of the United States that allowed viewers, with the help of Smith, learn where Howdy was on the road. The explanation continued that, while on the campaign trail, Howdy decided to improve his appearance with some plastic surgery. This made it possible for the network to hire Disney animator Mel Shaw and his business partner Bob Allen to design (refer to U.S. Patent D156687 for a "new, original, and ornamental design" for the puppet) and Velma Wayne Dawson to build and operate a visual character more handsome and appealing than Paris's original, which Smith had called "the ugliest puppet imaginable." Because Paris did not provide the character's voice, Howdy's remained the same after his appearance changed. The puppet remembered as the "original" Howdy Doody replaced Paris's original.
Howdy Doody Howdy Doody himself was a freckle-faced boy marionette with 48 freckles, one for each state of the union as it was at the time of his creation (until January 3, 1959, when Alaska became the 49th state), and originally was voiced by Smith. The Howdy Doody show's various marionettes were designed and built by puppeteers Dawson, Scott Brinker (the show's prop man), and Rufus Rose throughout the show's run.
The redheaded Howdy marionette on the original show was operated with 11 strings: two heads, one mouth, one eye, two shoulders, one back, two hands and two knees. Three strings were added when the show returnedtwo elbows and one nose. The original marionette now resides at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Replicas of Howdy
There were 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 occasionally were used on the air. "Double Doody", the Howdy stand-in, is now in the entertainment collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Photo Doody is the near-stringless marionette used in personal appearances, photos, parades, and in the famed NBC test pattern. He was sold by Lelands Auction in 1997 for more than $113,000 to a private art collector, TJ Fisher.
In addition to the original vintage puppets, puppet maker Alan Semok (at the request of Bob Smith in the early 1990s) created several precise replicas of Howdy, including—thanks to improved materials and new molding techniques—a more exact marionette replica than had ever been produced, as well as a new Photo Doody which Smith used in personal appearances until his death from cancer on July 30, 1998, at the age of 80. 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 TV host Conan O'Brien dressed as Buffalo Bob Smith. Another of the Semok duplicates resides in the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, the private museum owned by illusionist David Copperfield.
Custody battle
After Bob Smith's death in 1998, a legal dispute arose over ownership of the original Howdy Doody puppet. The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) claimed that puppeteer Rufus Rose had agreed decades earlier to donate the marionette to the museum, while Rose’s heirs disputed the claim and questioned whether the puppet was the original used on the television show. During the litigation, the puppet was kept in a bank vault while the parties contested its ownership.
During one day of deposition, puppet maker Semok (who had performed various maintenance and repainting of the original Howdy marionette beginning in 1989) was called upon to unseal a trap door on the back of the puppet's head; Velma Dawson, the puppet's original builder, who was 88 at the time of the deposition, was present and given the opportunity to examine the inside of the head in an effort to verify that the puppet in question was the original she created. Despite 50 years of numerous repairs, repaints, and replaced body parts, Dawson eventually declared the head of the puppet to be the one she originally made in 1948.
After letters between Rose and NBC appeared, showing that he intended for the museum to have the puppet, the Detroit Institute of Arts ultimately prevailed and has custody of the original Howdy since 2001. After Detroit's declaration of bankruptcy in 2013, there were rumors about the possibility of selling the puppet, along with the museum's assets, to help pay off the city's $18–20 billion debt. However, it was determined that doing so would be illegal. The puppet was featured in two exhibitions at the DIA, one in 2015 and one in early 2020.
Characters Puppet characters
Besides Howdy Doody, other major characters in the show include:
Heidi Doody – Introduced as a stranger who saved Buffalo Bob's life in Africa, she was adopted as Howdy's sister. Phineas T. Bluster – Resident skinflint, mayor of Doodyville, and nemesis of Howdy; one of the Bluster triplets. Petey Bluster – Phineas's nephew. Don José Bluster – The South American Bluster brother. Thaddeus Bluster – Another Bluster brother. Hector Hamhock Bluster – The British Bluster brother. Princess Summerfall Winterspring – Originally played by actress Judy Tyler, who afterwards appeared opposite Elvis Presley in the 1957 film Jailhouse Rock. After she was killed in a car accident on July 3, 1957, the character was portrayed by a marionette. Dilly Dally – Howdy's naive boyhood friend. Inspector John J. Fadoozle – "America's No. 1 private eye" was revealed as the mysterious "Mr. X" who used the pseudonym to run against Howdy for the office of President of All the Boys and Girls of America. Children could vote by using ballots attached to the wrappers of loaves of Wonder Bread, a major sponsor of the show. Chief Thunderthud and Chief Featherman – Two of several Native American characters used to emphasize the show's western theme. J. Cornelius Cobb – The shopkeeper (played by Robert "Nick" Nicholson), who has a strong dislike for clowns. Sandra the Witch Captain Windy Scuttlebut Flub-a-Dub – A hybrid of eight animals. He has 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.
Animal puppets The show also features animal puppets such as:
Hyde and Zeke – Twin bears. Mambo – An African elephant. Tizzy – A dinosaur. Paddle – A gnu. Tommy Turtle – A slow-talking turtle who is not very bright.
Human characters
There are also several human characters, most notably:
Clarabell – The mute clown who communicates in a variety of waysby mime, by honking horns on his belt, and by squirting seltzer. Originally played by Bob Keeshan, who went on to create the children's TV character Captain Kangaroo, he was later played by Robert "Nick" Nicholson and finally by Lew Anderson. Clarabell does not talk because the actor would have had to be paid scale, and it was a low-budget show. J. Cornelius Cobb – (played by Nicholson concurrently with his role as Clarabell, then exclusively when Lew Anderson took over the Clarabell role) Sir Archibald played by Dayton Allen (see below), a comic actor – An explorer. Chief Thunderthud (portrayed by Bill Le Cornec) – Head of the Ooragnak (kangaroo spelled backward) tribe of American Indians. Edward Kean originated Thunderthud's greeting "Kowabonga!"a nonsense word that eventually became part of the California surfer culture lexicon. Oil Well Willie (portrayed by Bill Le Cornec) – A bearded oil exploration driller who always comes up dry. Princess Summerfall Winterspring (portrayed by Judy Tyler) – As a teenager, Tyler began her career with this supporting role, which she played from 1950 to 1956. The opportunity led to Tyler breaking out to starring roles on Broadway and eventually Hollywood, where she notably co-starred with Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock before her death in an auto accident. Gus Gasbags (played by Ed Alberian) – A man who makes animal balloons. The characters inhabit the fictional town of Doodyville. Several characters (including Ugly Sam, the world's worst wrestler, and Pierre the Chef) were played by comedian Dayton Allen, who would become a cast regular on NBC's prime time The 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 Allen) and the puppet characters. Corny Cobb was played by "Nick" Nicholson in 1952, by puppeteer Rufus Rose in 1953 and 1954 while Nicholson assumed the role of Clarabell, and again by Nicholson from early 1955 until the end of the show.