Happy Rockin’ Birthday to:

1930: Ray Charles

1938: Ben E. King

1943: Steve Boone (Lovin’ Spoonful)

1947: Jerry Corbetta (Sugarloaf)

1949: Bruce Springsteen

1965: At a little coffee shop, known appropriately enough as The Coffee Gallery, a new rock group makes its debut. The group calls itself The Great Society.

The group’s lead singer is a young woman named Grace Slick.

1984: The compact disc, aka the CD, goes into production in the United States when CBS Records opens a plant in Terre Haute, Indiana. The first disc manufactured was Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

1969: With all due respect to Buddy Holly, for many of us in the Baby Boom, this is the day the music really died.

On this day 45 years ago, John Lennon tells the rest of the Beatles that he will be leaving the group. The announcement takes the other three by surprise. Paul McCartney proposes that the band start playing small clubs anonymously to recapture the feeling of unity they once had. Lennon will have none of it, reportedly telling Paul, "I think you’re daft. I want a divorce."

The band realizes they cannot go on without him, but agrees not to say anything until after the release of the Let It Be soundtrack. McCartney will break that agreement with his own announcement shortly thereafter.

1981: Simon & Garfunkel reunite on stage for the first time since 1970, playing a free concert in New York City’s Central Park.

The reunion concert is released on record and video and leads to a reunion tour. Of course, they will break again. And again. And again.

1970: A sad day for rock music as legendary innovative guitarist/singer/songwriter Jimi Hendrix dies in London of a drug overdose. He was only 27 years old.

He remains one of, if not the greatest guitarist in rock history.

1967: Recording an appearance on the CBS television program The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Keith Moon of the Who wants his bass drum to explode as a finale.

Unfortunately, a stagehand packs in way more explosives than necessary. The resulting explosion injures Moon’s leg and results in permanent hearing damage for Pete Townsend.

To this day, walk up to any Baby Boomer and exclaim, “Say kids, what time is it?” Odds are tremendous that Boomer will reply (and loudly, too): “It’s Howdy Doody time!”

No doubt as a child, you may have had a Howdy Doody coloring book, puzzle, drinking mug, Golden Book or if you were really fortunate, an actual Howdy Doody marionette; but how much do you really know about the backstage history of our generation’s first true superstar?

Let’s explore the life and times of this legend. 

While our parents used to tell us about Milton Berle being the first TV superstar, the truth is Uncle Milty peaked long before we were old enough to remember him. For us, the first superstar to emerge from that glowing tube in our living rooms was the freckle-faced puppet Howdy Doody.

The first network television program specifically designed for children debuted over the fledgling NBC television network on December 27, 1947. At first, the show was called Puppet Playhouse and Howdy was an unseen character, allegedly too shy to appear on camera with the host, Buffalo Bob Smith. Smith had created the character and voice during his time as a singing radio personality. BTW, Bob’s nickname was both a play on Buffalo Bill, the legendary Wild West showman, and a salute to Smith’s hometown of Buffalo, New York.

The show began as an hour-long program on Saturdays at 5 PM (Eastern). As Howdy’s popularity took off, the network added additional hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The show was unbelievably crude by today’s standards. Performed live through most its run (and starting in 1958, videotaped with very few retakes), lines were frequently flubbed and ad-libs were plentiful. The show basically consisted of Buffalo Bob sitting at a piano, singing corny songs, conducting simple games & contests with the kids in the Peanut Gallery, and providing a largely ad-libbed commentary as they showed old time movies featuring silent comedians like Charlie Chase and Ben Turpin. (NBC had paid $50,000 for a package of silent movies and in fact, created Howdy Doody as way to show the movies and get a return on their investment.)

In addition to Bob Smith’s segments, there would be occasional cutaways to a threadbare plot that usually involved Howdy and the gang in some sort of mystery or adventure. These storylines would play out over several days or even weeks.

In between, Buffalo Bob would enthusiastically hawk products directly to the kiddies himself or as the voice of Howdy, who would also shill on camera. Among the show’s most memorable sponsors (who we assume were also reaping the benefits of Howdy’s enormous popularity) were Hostess Cupcakes, Twinkies, and Sno-Balls, Welch’s Grape Juice and Wonder Bread (“with the red, yellow and blue balloons on the package”).

Speaking of crude, unbeknownst to audiences in the 1950’s, the closed set rehearsals for The Howdy Doody Show were notorious to network insiders for ad-libbed dirty jokes, double entendres and general hi-jinx the cast and puppeteers would engage in before opening the studio to the Peanut Gallery.

Chief instigator of these activities appears to have been Dayton Allen, a young comic actor who provided the voices for Flub-a-dub and Mr. Bluster as well as appearing on camera as various recurring characters like the professional wrestler Ugly Sam. Allen would go on to greater fame as part of the ensemble cast Steve Allen employed for the original Tonight Show and other variety programs Boomers should also know that Dayton provided the voices for your favorite cartoon talking magpies, Heckle and Jeckle.

That first Puppet Playhouse telecast in 1947 was an immediate smash, with kids clamoring to see what Howdy Doody looked like. Original puppeteer Frank Paris completed the first Howdy Doody and got him on camera in early 1948. Bob Smith called it “the ugliest puppet imaginable.” Looking at photo of the original Doody-head at left, it’s hard to argue with that assessment.

But despite the fact they had an overnight success and finally had their star on stage, there was trouble brewing in Doodyville. More on that in our next installment.

1964: No longer confined to one-off appearances on shows like Ed Sullivan, rock & roll finally gets a prime-time TV series of its own when Shindig! debuts on ABC-TV.

The first telecast, created and hosted by L.A. deejay Jimmy O’Neill, features performances by Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers, the Righteous Brothers, and their “house singer,” a kid named Bobby Sherman.

Unknown to us at the time, but Glen Campbell & Leon Russell performed as members of the house band, Darlene Love provided backing vocals and an occasional solo and a young Terri Garr was one of the original Shindig Dancers (although her young age meant she only appeared in a few of the shows - having to spend time in school, rather than the studio).