WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT?

What's new? Lotsa great stuff, I'll tell ya what.
And in the interim, here's a swing past Schemer's Arcade @ Shining Time Station, where the Juke Box Band has been replaced by the RAT'S NEST . . .

RANKIN, BASS AND RICK

If you guys love the ANIMAGIC specials like

RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER

&

THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS

Then there is only one spot on the web that gives them their due, and that's

Created by artist, historian, writer, musician and all around good-guy mensch and my pal RICK GOLDSCHMIDT, this is a vertitable treasure trove for all things Rankin/Bass.

http://www.enchantedworldofrankinbass.blogspot.com/
Get thee hence and smile!

HOWDY DOODY CONVENTION of AUGHT-FOUR

Our good friend (and excellent-but-occasional puppeteer) JACK ROTH threw a convention for the HOWDY DOODY CLUB in White Plains. NY. The dates were Friday October 1--Sunday October 3, 2004. He (they) put together a fun event with a chance for fans to get celebrity autographs (SOUPY SALES was there!) as well as purchase memorabila. But mostly they assembled from far-and-wide to collude with like-minded denizens of DoodyVille.

The event culminated with a once-in-a-lifetime performance featuring a Buffalo Bob impersonator yes, but the pulse-racing stars of the evening were spot-on replicas of the ORIGINAL HOWDY DOODY MARIONETTES, built to perfection by puppet craftsman RIC LILJEBLAD (Ric has worked with Flexitoon on and off for several years as well.)

(from left: Graphic Artist Dan Tremblay, Olga Felgemacher, Pady Blackwood, puppet-maker Ric Liljeblad, light and sound technician Alex Bartosh, and me directing sans riders crop, though Ric would probably disagree.)

Jack wrote a broadcast-worthy script and brought in the one-and-only-and-legendary marionette-manipulator PADY BLACKWOOD to spring Howdy to life once again (Pady has been Howdy's main puppenspieler since the early 1970's. See OLDER POSTS for more of Pady's storied career.) Jack also asked OLGA FELGEMACHER to puppeteer. Pady and Olga hadn't worked together since his days at the BIL BAIRD THEATER in Manhattan, so it was a wonderful reunion to witness, both off-stage and on.

Olga & Pady

When Jack called and asked me to direct, Mike Campbell and I were in the middle of editing the Flexitoon series THE HAMPTOONS . . .

. . . but I couldn't say no to Jack.

The performance was a real crowd-pleaser and went off amazingly smoothly. However, I offered the assembled a curtain-raiser caveat just in case it didn't - -

"If something goes wrong, we meant to do it."

This trip down MemoryLane also signaled the very last performance ever by the magical Lew Anderson.

Lew who?

How about CLARABELLE himself!

We re-costumed our Didi The Drummer marionette (from Shining Time Station) as PRINCESS SUMMERFALL WINTERSPRING.


Above are four of the actual original marionettes built for the Howdy Doody Show by RUFUS ROSE: MAMBO THE ELEPHANT, TOMMY TURTLE, and HIDE AND ZEKE.

JOHN J. FADOOZLE is brought to life once again by Olga!

Even BUFFALO BEE and the FLUB-A-DUB were there!

Jackson Roth? You done DOODY good!

OUR BRUNCH WITH CHUCK

CHUCK McCANN and his wife BETTY were in New York town yesterday and invited us to the Waldorf for brunch. It was so great to see him again. . .

Do you think he looks like Captain Dumparoo?

HAPPY GO FORTH THIS JULY!

SANDY BECKER TIME!

Let's time-trip back to 1958.

8:00 AM

WABD-Channel 5

Fast forward to fall of 1965, and take a walk on SANDY'S STREET. Here's a rare BEHIND-THE-SCENES snap of GEEBA GEEBA, TIM MORIARTY, MOLLY and the one-and-only SANDY BECKER!

IT'S JULY!

(i found this online)