Editing Howdy Doody (section)

==Story==
[[File:Ugly Howdy Doody 1948.jpg|thumb|left|On the air with the first Howdy Doody puppet. The original Howdy is immediately to Smith's left. The two other puppets are Mr. Huff and Eustis, who appeared only for a short time on a Saturday edition of the ''Puppet Playhouse'' show.]]
[[File:Howdy Doody new face.JPG|thumb|left|175px|Howdy Doody views the results of his "plastic surgery."]]

[[Buffalo Bob Smith]] created Howdy Doody during his days as a radio announcer on [[WNBC (AM)|WNBC]]. At that time, Howdy Doody was only a voice Smith performed on the radio. When Smith made an appearance on NBC's television program ''Puppet Playhouse'' on December 27, 1947, the reception for the character was great enough to begin a demand for a visual character for television. Frank Paris, a puppeteer whose puppets appeared on the program, was asked to create a Howdy Doody puppet.<ref name="puppetry">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VVQd4UD7k40C&q=howdy+doody&pg=PA245|title=American puppetry: collections, history, and performance|editor-last=Dicks|editor-first=Phyllis T.|publisher=McFarland|year=2004|isbn=0-7864-1896-6|pages=326|access-date=March 30, 2012}}</ref>

Bob Smith, the show's host, was dubbed "Buffalo Bob" early in the show's run (a reference to the historical American frontier character [[Buffalo Bill]] as well as to Smith's hometown of [[Buffalo, New York]]). At first the set was supposed to be a circus tent, but it was soon changed to a western town. Smith wore [[cowboy]] garb, as did the puppet. The name of the puppet "star" was derived from the expression "howdy doody"/"howdy do," a commonplace corruption of the phrase "How do you do?" used in the [[Western United States]] and in Britain as well (e.g. "[[The Mikado#Musical numbers|Here's a howdy-do]]" from ''[[The Mikado]]''). (The straightforward use of that expression was also in the theme song's lyrics.) Smith, who had gotten his start as a singing radio personality in Buffalo, frequently used music in the program. Cast members [[Lew Anderson]] and [[Bobby Nicholson|Robert "Nick" Nicholson]] were both experienced [[jazz]] musicians.

As both the character and TV program grew in popularity, demand for Howdy Doody-related merchandise began to surface. By 1948, toymakers and department stores had been approached with requests for Howdy Doody dolls and similar items. [[Macy's]] department store contacted Frank Paris to ask about rights for a Howdy Doody doll. However, while Paris had created the puppet, Bob Smith owned the rights to the character. An argument ensued between the two men, Paris claiming he felt he was being cheated out of any financial benefits. After one such disagreement, Paris took the puppet and angrily left the NBC studios about four hours before the show was to air live - leaving the program with no "star". It was not the first time this had happened.<ref name=puppetry/><ref name=Rose/><ref name="Paris">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OkEEAAAAMBAJ&q=howdy+doody&pg=PA19|title=Letters to the Editors|publisher=Life|page=19|date=May 28, 1971|access-date=October 6, 2012}}</ref>

With Paris's past disappearances, impromptu excuses regarding the whereabouts of Howdy Doody had been hastily concocted. This time, an elaborate explanation was offered—that Howdy was busy with elections on the campaign trail. NBC hurriedly constructed a map of the United States, which allowed viewers, with the help of Smith, to learn where Howdy was on the road. The explanation continued that while on the campaign trail, Howdy decided to improve his appearance with some [[plastic surgery]]. This made it possible for the network to hire Disney animator [[Mel Shaw]] and his business partner Bob Allen to design (refer to U.S. Patent D156687 for a "new, original, and ornamental design" for the puppet) and [[Velma Wayne Dawson]] to build and operate a visual character more handsome and appealing than Paris's original, which Bob Smith had called "the ugliest puppet imaginable".<ref name=Paris/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://deepfriedhoodsiecups.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/1202011/|title=Howdy Doody|date=January 20, 2011|publisher=Wordpress|access-date=March 31, 2012}}</ref> Since Paris did not provide the character's voice, Howdy's voice remained the same after his appearance changed. The puppet remembered as the "original" Howdy Doody replaced Paris's original.<ref name=puppetry/><ref name="Rose">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DABQAAAAIBAJ&pg=1604,1079054&dq=howdy+doody&hl=en|title=Actor's Brain Sometimes Works Plenty Fast|author=Rose, Billy|publisher=The Evening Independent|date=June 7, 1948|access-date=March 30, 2012}}</ref><ref name=Paris/>
[[File:DSC05996 Howdy Doody at DIA by Volkan Yuksel.JPG|thumb| The original Dawson Howdy Doody at [[Detroit Institute of Arts]] ]]

===Howdy Doody===
Howdy Doody himself was a freckle-faced boy [[marionette]] with 48 freckles, one for each state of the union at the time of his creation (up until January 3, 1959, when [[Alaska]] became the 49th state), and originally was voiced by Smith.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Howdy Doody Show|last=Rautiolla-Williams|first=Suzanne |url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/howdydoodys/howdydoodys.htm|access-date=July 15, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310184405/https://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/howdydoodys/howdydoodys.htm|archive-date=March 10, 2007}}</ref> The ''Howdy Doody'' show's various marionettes were created and built by [[puppeteer]]s Dawson, Scott Brinker (the show's prop man), and Rufus Rose throughout the show's run.<ref name="ds">{{cite news|title=Howdy Doody puppet creator dies |url=http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070926/NEWS01/70926003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012215342/http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070926/NEWS01/70926003 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 12, 2007 |work=[[The Desert Sun]] |date=September 26, 2007 |access-date=October 2, 2007 }}</ref> The redheaded Howdy marionette on the original show was operated with 11 strings: two heads, one mouth, one eye, two shoulders, one back, two hands and two knees. Three strings were added when the show returned—two elbows and one nose. The original marionette now resides at the [[Detroit Institute of Arts]]. There were duplicate Howdy Doody puppets, designed to be used expressly for off-the-air purposes (lighting rehearsals, personal appearances, etc.), although surviving [[kinescope]] recordings clearly show that these duplicate puppets were indeed used on the air occasionally. "Double Doody", the Howdy stand-in, is in the entertainment collection at the [[National Museum of American History|Smithsonian National Museum of American History]].<ref name="NMAH">{{cite web|url=http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=117|title=Howdy Doody Puppet|publisher=National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution|access-date=July 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327071809/http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=117|archive-date=March 27, 2009}}</ref>

[[Photo Doody (Howdy)|Photo Doody]] is the near-stringless marionette that was used in personal appearances, photos, parades, and the famed NBC test pattern. He was sold by Leland's Sports Auction House in 1997 for more than $113,000 to a private art collector, [[TJ Fisher]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tjfisher.com/howdy.html|title=TJ Fisher|work=tjfisher.com|access-date=April 14, 2015|archive-date=February 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224215123/http://tjfisher.com/howdy.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Phineas T Bluster Howdy Doody.JPG|thumb|Phineas T. Bluster]]
[[File:Buffalo Bob Howdy Doody Flub a Dub circa 1949.JPG|thumb|Buffalo Bob with Howdy Doody and Flub-a-Dub]]