nPostednon December 27, 2014
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nWhatndo you get when you mix puppetry, Western frontier themes, creativenimagination, and a fight over rights to “intellectual property”?
nWhatndo you get when you mix puppetry, Western frontier themes, creativenimagination, and a fight over rights to “intellectual property”?
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nApparently,nyou get a popular kids’ TV show called Howdy Doody! Starring ancharacter known as (you guessed it!) Howdy Doody.
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nThencreator of Howdy Doody was radio and TV personality Bob Smith. Hencreated the voice-only character on his radio show, and when therenwas demand for a visual character, a puppeteer named Frank Paris wasnasked to make a Howdy Doody puppet.
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| This is the original Howdy Doody puppet. Recognize him? No, neither did I! |
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nBobnSmith first dressed up in Western garb to match his puppet, donnednthe name Buffalo Bob, and took center stage on this date in 1947. ThenTV show was a big hit, and the show lasted for 13 years!
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nSo…wherendid the fight over rights come in?
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nThenshow became known and popular quickly, and within the year toymakersnand department stores were getting requests from customers for HowdynDoody dolls, puppets, and other merchandise. Macy’s department storencontacted the puppeteer, Frank Paris, asking about the rights for anHowdy Doody doll. But Paris didn’t hold the rights to the characternor name – remember, it was all the creation of Bob Smith. Paris gotnangry and felt that he was being cheated out of his own rights as thenpuppet’s maker.
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nSonParis made an immature flounce – just four hours before the shownwas to air live, he left the TV studios in anger. And he took thenpuppet with him!
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nActually,nit was not the first time that Paris had taken his puppet and leftnthe show with no star. But it was the last.
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Someonencreated a quickie prop – a map of the U.S. – and everyone elsendecided how to explain the puppet’s absence. Soon, Buffalo Bob was onnthe air, explaining that Howdy Doody was gone because he was on thencampaign trail, touring the nation with the candidates. n
Someonencreated a quickie prop – a map of the U.S. – and everyone elsendecided how to explain the puppet’s absence. Soon, Buffalo Bob was onnthe air, explaining that Howdy Doody was gone because he was on thencampaign trail, touring the nation with the candidates. nn
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nBuffalonBob even added that, while Howdy Doody was on the road, he wasngetting some plastic surgery.
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nInnthe real world, the studio hired another puppeteer to make a better,nhandsomer version of the Howdy Doody puppet. It is Velma Dawson’snversion of Howdy Doody that was used and seen and loved all thosenyears – and it is her version that old folks remember fondly –nand it is her version that most people think is “the original.”nThe actual original, Paris’s uglier puppet, has been mostlynforgotten.
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nInthink that this should teach us all NOT to take our ball (real ornmetaphorical) and flounce home!
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nHowdynDoody by the numbers
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- HowdynDoody had 48 freckles: one for every state in the nation. (Shortlynbefore the show ended, Alaska became the 49th state, andnthe freckles count became outdated.)
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- Thenoriginal Paris-version Howdy Doody was controlled by 11 strings. Thennew Dawson-version Howdy Doody had 14 strings.
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- Actually,nthere were three of the new Dawson-version Howdy Doody puppets: HowdynDoody (for close-ups), Double Doody (for long shots), and Photo Doodyn(the near-stringless marionette that was used in personalnappearances, photo shoots, and parades).
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- PhotonDoody was sold in 1997 for more than $113,000.
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nAlsonon this date:
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nTa Chiu in Hong Kongn
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nAnniversarynof the opening of Radio City Music Hall
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nAnniversarynof the debut of Peter Pan
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Kwanzaa (fromn12/26/11 to 1/1/12)
Kwanzaa (fromn12/26/11 to 1/1/12)n
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nAstronomernJohannes Kepler’s birthday
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nMicrobiologistnLouis Pasteur’s birthday
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest pages on:
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- Historicaln anniversaries in December
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJanuaryn birthdays
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