Always adding more...
Back includes cape, see next photo. Click on link below to view video clips of the original Superman cartoons.
Superman puppet with cape. Faster than a speeding bullet (click below to watch original series)
Zippy the Chimp was discovered by Buffalo Bob Smith while on vacation in Florida. Stole a cherry out of Bob's drink and was "awarded" a five year contract on the Howdy Doody show. Click link to watch him on the Ed Sullivan show!
Although focused on the design and sale of marionettes, their catalog also promoted their hand puppets as well.
Do Send Us Your Pics To Include Here!
Buffalo Bob / Howdy Doody
%20Buffalo%20Bob%20Smith%20with%20Howdy%20Doody%20and%20Flub-A-Dub.jpg)
1949: Buffalo Bob Smith with Howdy Doody and Flub-A-Dub (Read More)
The town of Doodyville provided the setting for the earliest nationally televised children's show. Originally called 'Puppet Playhouse' and renamed 'The Howdy Doody Show' in 1949, the much-adored series featured songs, movie shorts, and the antics of the freckle-faced marionette, his mentor Buffalo Bob Smith and the horn-honking Clarabell the Clown (first played by Bob Keeshan). At the end of the final episode, Clarabell sadly uttered his first and last words, 'Goodbye, kids.' - from TV Guide
Besides Howdy Doody, the other characters in the show included:
1. Phineas T. Bluster: The resident skinflint, mayor of Doodyville and nemesis of Howdy; one of the Bluster triplets.
2. Princess Summerfall Winterspring: Introduced as a puppet, then 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, at the age of 24, the character was portrayed by a marionette. She was one of several native Americans who played in Howdy Doody.
3. Dilly Dally: Howdy's naive boyhood friend.
4. Flub-a-Dub: A combination of eight animals. He had 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.
.
Clarabell, who wore a baggy, striped costume, communicated through mime and by honking a horn for "yes" or "no".
