The Life & Times of Howdy Doody – Part 3

We all remember that we spent our afternoons, and later, our Saturday mornings in the 50’s with Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody, but how much do you really remember about the show itself and the strange cast of characters who kept us entertained throughout a good portion of our childhoods?

C’mon backstage because once again, it’s Howdy Doody time!

Most of us remember that the show took place in the fictional town of Doodyville with the set at first resembling a circus, then a Wild West Show, and finally, just various locations within Doodyville. There was a full cast of puppets including Howdy Doody, his best friend Dilly Dally, and perennial villain, Mayor Phineas T. Bluster. Even as a kid, we all wondered how that old swindler kept getting re-elected by the otherwise genteel and benign citizens of Doodyville. (In addition, we wondered why Howdy wasn’t the mayor of a town obviously named after him.)

How many of these other “denizens of Doodyville” do you recognize?

• Don José Bluster (Phineas’ brother)
• John J. Fadoozle (America’s # 1 – BOING! - Private Eye)
• Heidi Doody (Howdy’s sister)
• Hyde & Zeke (twin bears)
• Windy Scuttlebutt
• Sandra the Witch
• Mambo the Elephant
• Paddle the Gnu

And of course, the Flub-a-Dub, who combined the parts of eight animals: a duck’s bill, spaniel’s ears, cat’s whiskers, giraffe’s neck, dachshund’s body, seal’s feet, a pig’s tail, and an elephant’s memory.

The show also provided a sturdy launch pad for two other non-human stars. Zippy the Chimp joined the cast in 1952 and eventually became a media star in his own right, complete with an abundance of authorized merchandise. For some reason, the talented chimpanzee hated the Mr. Bluster puppet and would attack him on sight. Apparently, the little simian was an excellent judge of character.

Almost forgotten now is the fact that another huge superstar got his start with Buffalo Bob and the gang. Gumby (dammit) made his network debut on The Howdy Doody Show in 1956. The little guy proved so popular that NBC was able to spin him off into his own series a year later. The rest, as they say, is show biz history.

Along with Zippy, Gumby and the stringed performers, Doodyville boasted a full cast of human actors as well. It was these human actors that caused the most trouble behind the scenes. Next time, we’ll pull back the curtain on the notorious “Christmas Eve Massacre” that almost derailed The Howdy Doody Show in 1953.

Some of the classic rock songs recorded on this day:

1958: “Problems” (Everly Brothers)

1965: “Drive My Car” (The Beatles)

1965: “My Generation” (The Who)

1957: After surviving a scary plane ride to Sydney, Australia, where one of the engines caught fire, Little Richard vows he is giving up rock ‘n’ roll, telling the audience at his concert that night, “If you want to live for the Lord, you can't take rock 'n' roll, too.”

1962: On this same day five years later, Little Richard, rocking and rolling again, meets the Beatles who are one of his opening acts. He dislikes John and George, finding them “rude.” But he’s quite smitten with young Paul, allegedly to the point of trying to seduce him.

1975: NBC’s Saturday Night debuts. (It won’t add the word “Live” to its title until after Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell over on ABC is cancelled.)

The first musical guests: Billy Preston (“Nothing from Nothing”) and Janis Ian (“At Seventeen”).

1978: When a fan tosses a cherry bomb on stage during their concert, Aerosmith responds by performing their live shows behind a chain link fence for a time.

When we were young, “joint” probably had a different meaning than it does for many of us today. If you are one of the 52.5 million adult Americans who have some form of arthritis, joint is where the pain can be, and the National Arthritis Foundation has multiple ways you can ease your pain by “being good to your joints.”

Keep reading to discover some of them:

Compute comfortably. Your monitor should be about 20 to 26 inches from your body, with the top of the monitor on an even line with the top of your head.

Sit and stand. That’s not a contradiction. It simply means that you should alternate between sitting and standing as you go through the day. If your job requires you to sit at a desk, take a break and stand up every 30 minutes or so

Build strong bones. Boost your calcium intake, because a diet rich in this important mineral helps to keep your bones sturdy and can lower your risk of osteoporosis (the brittle bone disease). There are plenty of sources besides milk, including yogurt, broccoli, kale, figs, and salmon. You can also check the pharmacy for additional calcium supplements.

Lotsa Rock ‘n’ Roll Birthdays today: John Lennon (1940), John Entwistle (1944), Jackson Browne (1948) and Peter Tosh (1944)

Recording studios on both sides of the Atlantic were burning up on this day as two classic records were being recorded:

1957: “Great Balls of Fire” (Jerry Lee Lewis)

1964: “She’s a Woman” (The Beatles)

1975: After a lengthy battle with immigration, John Lennon is finally allowed to remain in the United States as the U.S. Court of Appeals strikes down his deportation order.