“Worth Repeating for the Holidays” brings you holiday posts that we think are still timely, interesting, or just plain fun! From 12/26/12:
The Howdy Doody Show premiered on 12/27/47 and was on the air from 1947 through 1960. “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 television 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.” Read more about the show here.
Mel Shaw, a designer of the original Howdy Doody, worked for many years as a visual development and design artist for Disney Studios. He help set the style for the animated classic, “Bambi” (1942), and many others from the studio, including what became “Fantasia” (1940), “The Fox and the Hound” (1982) and his final Disney project, 1994’s “The Lion King.” Mr. Shaw passed away recently at the age of 97 in Reseda, CA. Read more about his long and fascinating career here.
