THE HOWDY DOODY SHOW
The Howdy Doody Show was one of the first and easily the most popular children's television show in the 1950s.The idea for Howdy Doody began on the NBC New York radio affiliate WEAF in 1947 with a program called The Triple B Ranch. The three Bs stood for Big Brother Bob Smith, who developed the country bumpkin voice of a ranch hand and greeted the radio audience with, "Oh, ho, ho, howdy doody." Martin Stone, Smith's agent, suggested putting Howdy on television and presented the idea to NBC televi-sion programming head Warren Wade. With Stone and Roger Muir as producers, Smith launched Puppet Playhouse on 17 December 1947. Within a week the name of the program was changed to The Howdy Doody Show.Children loved the Doodyville inhabitants, because they were a skillfully created, diverse collection of American icons.
Smith treated the marionettes as if they were real, and as a result, so did the children of America. Among the many unusual marionettes on the show was Phineas T. Bluster, Doodyville's entrepreneurial mayor. Howdy's grumpy nemesis, Bluster had eyebrows that shot straight up when he was surprised. Bluster's naive, high-school-aged accomplice, was Dilly Dally, who wiggled his ears when he was frustrated. Flub-a-dub was a whimsical character who was a combination of eight animals. In Howdy and Me, Smith notes, "Howdy, Mr. Bluster, Dilly, and the Flub-a-Dub gave the impression that they could cut their strings, saunter off the stage, and do as they pleased."Although the live characters, particularly the native Americans Chief Thunderthud and Princess Summerfall Winterspring, were by modern standards stereotypical and often clownish, each had a rich heritage interwoven into the stories. These were prepared by Eddie Kean, who wrote the scripts and the songs until 1954, and Willie Gilbert and Jack Weinstock, who wrote scripts and song lyrics thereafter. For example, Smith (born in Buffalo, New York) was transformed into Buffalo Bob when he took his place in the story as the great white leader of the Sigafoose tribe. Chief Thunderthud (played by Bill LeCornec) of the mythical Ooragnak tribe ("Kangaroo" spelled backward) introduced the word "Kawabonga," an expression of surprise and frustration, into the English language. One of the few female characters in the cast was the beloved Princess Summerfall Winterspring of the Tinka Tonka tribe, who was first introduced as a puppet, then transformed into a real, live princess, played by Judy Tyler.The Howdy Doody Show was immediately successful and was NBC's first daily show to be extended to five days a week. In 1952 NBC launched a network radio program featuring Howdy, and in 1954 Howdy Doody became an international television hit with a Cuban and a Canadian show, using duplicate puppets and local talent, including Robert Goulet as Canadian host, Timber Tom.
Much of the playfull mayhem on the program was perpetrated by a lovable, mischievous clown named Clarabell Hornblow. Clarabell was played by Bob Keeshan who later become Captain Kangaroo. His pratfalls were generally accidents, and the most lethal weapon on the show was his seltzer bottle. Moreover, educational material was consciously incorporated both into the songs and the stories; for example young viewers received a lesson in government when Howdy ran for President of the kids of America in 1948. The educational features of the program made the Doodyville characters attractive personal promoters both for the show and for the sale of television sets.
Its last airing was on 24 September 1960, after 2,343 programs.
The most famous moment in the history of The Howdy Doody Show came during the closing seconds of the final show when Clarabell, who did not speak but communicated through pantomime and honking his horns, surprised the audience by saying, "Good-bye, kids."The Howdy Doody Show CastBuffalo Bob Smith ...................................Bob Smith Clarabelle Hornblow (Clown) .................Bob Keeshan
.....................................................Henry McLaughlin
........................................................ Bob Nicholson ..........................................................Le
w Anderson Story Princess .....................................Arlene Dalton Chief Thunderthud ................................Bill Lecornec Tim Tremble........................................... Don Knotts Princess Summerfall Winterspring .............Judy Tyler ............................................................
.Linda Marsh Bison Bill (1954) ....................George "Gabby" Hayes Howdy Doody (voice) .................................Bob Smith Howdy Doody (voice, 1954) ........................Allen Swift Phineas T. Bluster (voice)...................... Dayton Allen Double Doody (voice)................................ Bob Smith The Flubadub (voice)............................ Dayton Allen Traveling Lecturer......................... Lowell Thomas, Jr.
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