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!
The Laurel & Hardy "Sons of the Desert" founding tent in New York City held a Soupy Sales Appreciation night in November 2007 at The Players Club. Grand Sheik and MC Jack Roth surprises the crowd with a special guest appearance by the one and only 'HEEEEY BOOBIE" POOKIE (built and performed by Puppeteer Craig Marin). Along with other luminaries (listen for the JOE FRANKLIN quip at about 4:10) SOUPY and his wife Trudy were in the front row for the program!!!
