FLEXITUBE IN THE PUPPETRY JOURNAL

JINGLE DINGLE: PART DEUX

The first puppet I ever remember seeing was JINGLE DINGLE on "SANDY BECKER'S FUNHOUSE."
I wrote about that encounter here:
http://flexitoon.blogspot.com/2009/10/jingle-dingle.html
Leon Jason (Jingle's creator) gave me the films of Jingle Dingle on the roof singing about the weather (which is nothing like humming the scenery.) The vocals were by folk singer OSCAR BRAND. These were used to transition from Sandy the on-camera host to the puppet stage.
Here is a SUNNY DAY!

HAMBONE HAMBONE HAVE YOU HEARD?

Our marionette version of Sandy Becker's HAMBONE.

(you can see his carved arms & hands, legs & feet in post below)

SANDY BECKERS CHRISTMAS CAROL PROMO

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffpickens/flexitoon-presents-sandy-beckers-christmas-carol?pos=1

SANDY BECKER'S CHRISTMAS CAROL

The HOLY GRAIL of our puppet video collection would be SANDY BECKER'S CHRISTMAS CAROL. In this one-hour special originally broadcast on Saturday night, December 22, 1961, the characters were brought to vivid life by the complete cast of Sandy's hand puppets. Starring GEEBA GEEBA as Scrooge and Sir Clyve Clyde as Bob Cratchit, it introduced many of us to this classic tale.
Sometimes, when you watch something beloved from your childhood, it can kinda suck. Makes you wonder "what the hell was I thinking?" I'm sure that wouldn't be the case with this. If any of you collectomaniacstm reading this have any clues as to it's whereabouts, please let me know.
Here is a rarer-than-rare item, tucked away in one of the scrapbooks we inherited from Sandy.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE.

SANDY BECKER'S PUPPETS

love 'em

miss him

RIDICULOUS DIVER DAN

I enjoyed this show when I was a kid - - screening as it did daily on the Sandy Becker Show (read COMMENT section for exact dates and times.) I even made all the fish marionettes out of cardboard. One time when my dad was coming home from work on the subway, I stood over the entrance and when I saw him coming up the stairs I lowered the marionettes over the top to greet him. The ascending applauded.

My younger bro had a major crush on Minerva the Mermaid.

Voices by Allen Swift. . .

WONDERAMA (Part I)

Back in the day, WONDERAMA was the go-to show in the New York Tri-State area for fun & games & comedy & guests. It was on for fours on Sunday hosted by SONNY FOX, though it began as a 6 hour(!) program starring SANDY BECKER.I, of course, preferred LET'S HAVE FUN which was on opposite Wonderama but starred CHUCK McCANN with the PAUL ASHLEY PUPPETS as all of the above.
Here's how my trek to appearing on Wonderama began. . .

I get dragged to a CAR SHOW at the Coliseum on 59th & Columbus Circle here in NYC by a new friend I had just met in school. Never had much interest in cars (still don't) but oh well what de hell I went. Fenders, bumpers, engines = meh.
Then suddenly my eyes fell upon an oasis in a desert of tin. There was a poster bellowing:

VENTRILOQUIST JIMMY NELSON PERFORMING LIVE!

Right there! So I was right there. Like clockwork Jimmy appeared on the stage and from beneath a lecturn he produced his partners DANNY O'DAY & FARFEL THE DOG.
For those of you who don't know who he is, Jimmy Nelson was in the Top Tier of Classy Vents in the 50's and 60's.

There was EDGAR BERGEN

. . . PAUL WINCHELL. . .
. . . and JIMMY NELSON.

He will forever (how long is "forever" in a culture that goes POP?) be remembered for his classic NESTLES QUIK COMMERCIALS.

Well, his act was GREAT and afterwards I wended my way backstage and met his eyes and told him "I can talk without moving my mouth" which I said without moving my mouth. He told me "Hey, you're good. Do you want to see my dummies?" It wasn't an etching but I couldn't say no. In fact I FLIPPED!!! So we go on the stage and - - I still think this memory is beyond cool - - he unlocks a door on the back of the lecturn and there sat Danny & Farfel. And he let me manipulate them! That was the first time I ever worked a professional dummy with a hole in the back and it's head on a stick.

After a while he said to me "why don't you call my friend Norman Berger . . . (Norman! If you're reading this? THANX!) . . . he's the producer of WONDERAMA. I'll tell him to expect your call, then you can set-up a time to audition." That was heaven. Yes it was (except it meant if I got on I'd have to miss LET'S HAVE FUN. What a choice!)

It's telling that all these people I admired that I met as a child:

JIMMY NELSON

CHUCK McCANN

PAUL ASHLEY

SANDY BECKER

. . . they all gave me a real-life boost in this make-believe art. THANKS GUYS!!!

A few weeks later, I was on WONDERAMA.

COMING: PART II

JINGLE DINGLE

The first puppet I ever remember seeing on television was JINGLE DINGLE. He was a weather elf, created by Leon Jason, built by MAURY BUNIN ("Pinhead & Foodini")and performed by SANDY BECKER.

He stood on the roof and sang a song about the days weather, so we kids'd know to dress accordingly.

Though a duplicate puppet was licensed to another kid show in the Washington DC market, for a mainly local tri-state character, Ol' JD generated quite a handful of cool merch. . .

(I always knew girls went for guys who played with puppets.)

My friend PAUL RUBIN recently gave us this JINGLE DINGLE RECORD in it's original sleeve! I can't express how much of an influence this puppet had on me. When I was in California working with the MARKO PUPPET THEATRE I even made my own version.

JD with CM

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!

THE DJ KAT SHOW

This was kind've a dream-come-true project. My own show from the same studio my heroes did their own shows from - - WNEW Channel 5 (though now it was WNYW-5 - a FOX O&O.)

We were on Sunday mornings from 9:00 - 10:00, and won awards and our time slot. In fact the station noticed that when our stuff was on the ratings did very well, but when we cut to a cartoon the kids cut out. So after about 7 weeks, we abandonded the cartoons and went to a straight comedy/fantasy format. DJ KAT starred along side his young girl companion Jennifer Davis (Carmen De La Paz.) Judging by the viewer mail, many in the audience would have liked to be along side his young girl companion too..

Like Sandy Becker portrayed HAMBONE. . .
. . .and Chuck McCann played LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE (definately more on this in the future!). . . . . . I also played several on-camera characters. One audience favorite was BRACKISH SWAMPWATER the villainous ventriloquist, aided and abetted by his wa-a-ay smarter cohort LUCKY STIFF. It was great to do ventriloquism on a kid show; didn't seem to be anyone one else doing it at that time.

(My make-up artists were CARMEN GEBBIA and JIM COLA, the same guys who did Sandy & Soupy & Chuck. Lots of great make-up chair stories!)

The series was an MGM production: that stands for MIDAS GELT MERKLE. Mr. Merkle was the station owner who was always trying to get rid of the Kat. One of the reasons the show came from a "basement" is because he was allergic to kids - - er - - kats.

Mister Merkle calls for help in dumping the Kat.

After winning the New York State Broadcasters Award for Outstanding Children's Series, FOX decided to cancel the Sunday show, and they asked Carmen to leave (which I wasn't too happy about!) and wanted me to create the first FOX KID'S CLUB. So now we were on daily from 3:00 - 6:00 hosting cartoons. It was a softer show, but fun, too.
I really enjoyed working at Channel 5 - - fulfilling that part of my destiny, and having an impact on children's television.

Watching playback.

WNEW + WNYC = Channel 5 New York

The Sandy Becker Show (Sandy's Street) was on WNEW Channel 5. (So was Soupy Sales and Chuck McCann.) When I was a kid I used to visit and watch them do their shows - - it was so exciting! One show would end, the cameras would then sweep around to another part of the studio and BOOM, next show was on. SUCH a turn on. I'd go home and make-believe my bedroom was Channel 5 and do my own shows (to my cardboard-box cameras.) Even painted a big 5 on my door. Well, fast-forward to 1989, WNEW is now WNYC FOX-5 and I'm doing my own series from the same studio. It was called the DJ KAT SHOW. I wrote and performed puppets and characters opposite a talented, charming and exuberant actress named Carmen DeLaPaz.
Here's the point of this post:
We inherited many of Sandy's puppets and memorabilia when he passed away, and the other day I laid my hands upon an ultra-rare contact sheet. One of the pictures in the group was taken in the exact same place at almost the exact same angle that my show came from. Below is a backstage shot of Sandy Becker puppeteering GeebaGeeba (wearing a tyroleon hat) and Wydeen the Witch, with Timmy Moriarty fronting out front. . .
And here from the same vantage point is Carmen (as Jennifer Davis) and me puppeteering DJ Kat backstage in a viewer's mail segment.

Crazy, huh? Like, remembering the future.

More DJ Kat foto's to follow. . .

TOTEM TIME #1

There have been a lot of great puppets since the dawn of television, like Chuck McCann/Paul Ashley's MR.McNASTY, HOWDY DOODY (lineage undetermined), and Captain Kevin's SCHWINEHUNTZ the PIG. However certain puppets have a MOJO that's indescribable. Their image and personality burrows deep into the recesses of our collective recall, and they live there to either haunt our dreams or dance in our reverie. So, in keeping with our Sandy Becker binge, today's totem is GEEBA GEEBA.
More to come!