T.H.A.T.
(Television History and Trivia)from
www.hologlobepress.com
by
Victor Edward Swanson,
Publisher
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- - - T.H.A.T., Edition No. 128 - - -
We live in "The Pseudo Information Age and the Age of Ignorance." One reason that I say that is at least half of the American public is rotten or ignorant, siding with the Democratic Party, which is a party pushing for an "enslavism" form of government for the United States of America, such as that based on Sharia (or Islamic Law, which is rotten right down to Allah) or communism. Another reason that I say the first sentence of this paragraph is the people in the television news business--right down to many local television newscasters--are rotten people, being supporters communism, as Stephen Clark of WXYZ-HD (Channel 7, Detroit) is, or very stupid people. The television newscasters focus on fluff or lies as a rule, and specifically the local television newscasters in the big cities focus on traffic and weather and traffic accidents and fires. They are useless people, who would never be missed if they were to disappear tomorrow. The television newscasters do not present what I present on a regular basis in editions of Television History and Trivia, such as some text of a statements made by a man who is thought of as the man instrumental in writing up or guiding up the writing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010--Jonathan Gruber. On October 17, 2014, and October 18, 2014, the University of Pennsylvania was the site for the 24th Annual Health Economics Conference, and Jonathan Gruber, who is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (or MIT), was at the event. At one point during a panel discussion, Jonathan Gruber said--"...This bill [the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010] was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. Okay? It was written to do that....". Notice--Jonathan Gruber publicly reported that the bill was made to be convoluted and hard to understand and to, in essence, hide what the bill was. In addition, you should see Jonathan Gruber put together something--the mandate for individuals to buy health-care insurance--that was not to be considered a tax. Well, people tried to get the law thrown out through court action, and the people lost when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law, and it was upheld, for instance, when Chief Justice John Roberts corrupted the English language to called the "penalty" a tax, which was his action of rewriting the law from the bench. During the convention at the University of Pennsylvania, Jonathan Gruber publicly professed the mandate was not to be seen as a tax or the bill would not have been passed in the U.S. Congress and then signed into law. Jonathan Gruber said more during his appearance at the University of Pennsylvania, such as--"...Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage...." Jonathan Gruber, coming off as an arrogant and rotten man during the speech, publicly showed that he is a lair--a big-time liar--to get what he wants, which is "enslavism" for the American people. Jonathan Gruber also said (following what I have already presented from him in this paragraph)--"...And, basically, you know, call it the 'stupidity of the American voter' or whatever, but, basically, that was really, really critical to getting this passed....". Here, you can see that Jonathan Gruber feels the American public is ignorant, which is true as a rule, and a part of the stupid can be blamed on the rottenness of television newscasters, who mostly pass along useless news on a daily basis and hide the work of bad politicians, especially Barack Obama, an enslavist and a rotten, rotten man. In addition, Jonathan Gruber--a supporter of a communistic health-care system--feels lying is right to get what he wants--rotten stuff for the United States of America--and, as I know, lying is considered proper and justified by communists and like people to get to their ends achieved, which is enslavism for others. And Jonathan Gruber said--"...I'd rather have this law than not!...". Jonathan Gruber is considered a smart man, especially since he is at MIT, and I agree Jonathan Gruber is a smart man, and, really, he is a really smart rotten man. He is a killer (being associated with the deaths that will be caused by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010)! By the way, Jonathan Gruber, by saying that words that I have put within quotation marks within this paragraph, showed up the rottenness of Chief Justice John Roberts, yet another killer.
Note: It was not till Monday, November 10, 2014, that I learned about Jonathan Gruber's statements of October 2013. A person can see Jonathan Gruber saying the words that I have presented in this document by seeing a YouTube video entitled "GRUBER: 'Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage'", which was posted on November 7, 2014, by an entity called "AmericanCommitment. The video runs 52 seconds.
While I am thinking about Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court, I remind you to learn about a rotten man on the Supreme Court for the State of Michigan, who won his position on the court in the election of November 4, 2014. The man in Richard Bernstein, and he is a rotten man. Over the weeks before the election would take place, Richard Bernstein was running a television advertisement that showed he was a highly biased man and was unqualified to be on the Supreme Court for the State of Michigan, but a lot of people in Michigan--rotten people or stupid people--voted for him to have his job. Remember--If you ever end up in a court case with Richard Bernstein involved as a Supreme Court judge for Michigan, you have a way in which to show that Richard Bernstein is unqualified to hear your case or have his decision about your case thrown out, being biased and willing to work in a biased manner as a judge, as shown through his own publicly spoken words. [You are urged to see the document entitled Richard Bernstein--A Man Who Hopes You Are Blind to His Rottenness, which can be reached by using this Bernstein link.]
On Monday, November 17, 2014, I woke up, and around 9:13 a.m., I turned on the television set, and I was immediately exposed to a clown--a rotten man. The channel was tuned to the station airing The Queen Latifah Show (the weekday syndicated program), and there was Bill Clinton (the former U.S. president) sitting on a couch and talking. I was not running a recorder. Bill Clinton was saying that most politicians of both political parties are honest and that they do what they say that they are going to do. Such crap his statement was and is, especially when you look what has happened in the last six years or so with, for instance, all the lies about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 from the Democrats and some high-level Republicans. And Queen Latifah just sat there and, in essence, let Bill Clinton rattle on. Queen Latifah is just another rotten woman on television.
So far, I have presented information about rotten things and rotten people. Stay tuned! Later, I will indeed have something good to talk about in relation to television.
On Saturday, November 22, 3014, after a football broadcast was over on WXYZ-TV (Channel 7.1) in Detroit--it was a ABC-TV broadcast--WXYZ-TV put on a newscast, which was anchored by Dave LewAllen, who would show off his dummy brain and uselessness during the news broadcast. Around 7:20 p.m., Dave LewAllen read a story about how Barack Obama's immigration actions--based on "Executive Orders" and which are unconstitutional actions--would create "160,000" new jobs. Where the hell did Dave LewAllen get that figure? Dave LewAllen did not mention where. Plus, if it was from the federal government, and statistic cannot be trusted, since the federal government--the "Executive Branch" of the federal government, which is under the control of Barack Obama--is lying about the unemployment rate (using a false system of calculating), and that is a fact and is well known. In addition, people have been saying that Barack Obama actions (which I know are illegal actions) would help some five-million persons--who are criminals, for having violated U.S. laws related to immigration--stay in the country. So, why is the figure only "160,000"? Plus--also--are not the people in the country illegally already working--if they want to work? Some people might say that some illegals are not working because they do not want to get caught and discovered. Okay! So the issuer of the statistic--probably the federal government--knows for sure that "160,000" want to work but they are not, worried that they might reveal where they are. How does the issuer of the statistic know the figure is "160,000"? Basically, Dave LewAllen--who said nothing about Barack Obama's actions being illegal--passed along crap through the story and showed off his rottenness.
One of the new television series for the 2014-2015 season is State of Affairs, which features Katherine Heigl as a main player, and I say that that series, which airs on NBC-TV (the communism-supporting network), was put on the air to help sell the idea to the American people that they should vote for a woman--either a white woman (such as Hillary Clinton) or a black woman--to be the next U.S. president, and the series is designed to sell the idea that women can do the job well (though communistic women are rotten people). On page 64 of the edition of TV Guide for November 24-December 7, 2014, there is a story about Alfre Woodard, who is also a regular player in State of Affairs. The article shows up the rottenness of Alfre Woodard. For example, a person who supports a rotten man publicly and even with pride is a rotten person. The article notes that Alfre Woodard campaigned for Barack Obama to be U.S. president for the elections of 2008 and 2012. In State of Affairs, Alfre Woodard plays a black female U.S. President. I do not watch State of Affairs, and I urge you to avoid the rotten show, featuring rotten actors and actresses, backed by a rotten television network.
Oh, did your favorite television newscast report on a speech given by Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, December 3, 2014, at Georgetown University? One thing that she said was--"...This is what we call 'smart power,' using every possible tool and partner to advance peace and security, leaving no one on the sideline, showing respect, even for one's enemies, trying to understand and insofar as psychologically possible empathize with their perspective and point of view, helping to define the problems, determine the solutions. That is what we believe in the twenty-first century will change, change the prospects for peace....". For Hillary Clinton to say such words shows that she would be a rotten choice to be a U.S. President. I state--You may note a point being made by the enemy but you do not empathize with the enemy, as a good soldier knows.
Oh, over the last few years, have you seen any of the episodes of the television series entitled Girls on HBO? It featured a hard-line communist feminist and lesbian named Lena Dunham. Recently, Lena Dunham had a book of hers published--Not That Kind of Girl. In the book, Lena Dunham put forth the story that she was raped by a "Republican" when she was in college--at Oberlin College. The story is a lie, as has been shown since I published the last edition of Television History and Trivia. She lied! She hurt people purposely! The people hurt were, for instance, fraternity young men at Oberlin College, who were stigmatized (such as, I say, for being men), though they had done nothing. The story goes beyond what I have presented here. The main fact of the event is a communist-supporting feminist lied and hurt people! That is a sign of a sick mind, and yet that sick mind gets to be on television. [Nolte, John. "'Barry One' Launches Legal Fund: Considers Suit Against Lena Dunham." Breitbart.com, 6 December 2014; Nolte, John. "Investigation: Lena Dunham 'Raped by a Republican' Story in Bestseller Collapses Under Scrutiny." Breitbart.com, 4 December 2004.]
By the way, I talked a little bit about Lena Dunham--who some time ago became a big story one day by saying that she would never get married till her lesbian sister could get married to a woman--in Television History and Trivia #130, which can be reached by using this link--T.H.A.T. #103.
For decades, there has been a theme in jokes and such that football players are stupid, and I say that many football players are indeed stupid, as can be seen, for example, in the recent event in which many former NFL players (around 1,000) sued the NFL about injuries (saying or hinting, for example, they did not know how playing football could result in injuries and the NFL is to blame). [By the way, I say that football players are stupid as a rule, though NFL players go to college or university--listen to them, and you will see.] Some football players are shit-heads and rotten, and on Sunday, November 20, 2014, five players under contract with the St. Louis Rams showed off their rottenness and screwed-up minds on television. While coming out on the football field, the players--Steadman Baily, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Chris Givens, and Kenny Britt--raised their arms and pushed out the idea "Hands up. Don't shoot" cry, which is the chant of the communists and thugs and black radicals protesting on behalf of Michael Brown, the rotten man and screw-up who had been killed on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, by a police officer who had been under siege from and under attack by Michael Brown (a grand jury examining the shooting incident had found no reason to take the police officer to trial). Steadman Baily, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Chris Givens, and Kenny Britt--these are some more of the rotten people seen on television in "The Pseudo Information Age and the Age of Ignorance." [Howard, Adam. "St. Louis Rams players show solidarity with Ferguson protesters." MSNBC, 30 November 2014, 03:49 p.m. (updated 1 December 2014, 10:43 a.m.).]
On Thursday, November 27, 2014, WDIV-TV (Channel 4.1), Detroit, aired and syndicated America's Thanksgiving Parade, which was a broadcast of the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit, and the program began at 9:00 a.m., and before the parade was started, the program broadcast some interview segments and musical numbers. One performer was Olivia Millerschin, who came off as a sheepish and moody and introverted "liberal," and her performance came off as a little depressing [I wonder--Is that the image that a person would have to put up with when going to see her perform in person?]. A group of three guys (Stevie Soul, Rick Beamon, and Ben Sharkey) did a performance with no musical instruments--two of the guys made sounds to pretend to be instruments--and the performance was lackluster and "C" grade. A young blonde gal sang "Tell Me I'm Not Dreamin'" while a group of cheerleader-like gals moved about on the street in front of her, and the blonde gal's singing was "C" grade if that. A group of three gals called Love Dollhouse performed, and the gals--young gals--came off a phony and stagy. Basically, the entertainment portion of the program was forgettable. By the way, all the performers mentioned so far were promoted in press-release material as being on the program. Late in the entertainment segment was a singer named Malaya Watson (I did not see her promoted in press-release material). She sang--looking a little shy. She sang, and she did not have to scream out notes or force out notes, which is a commonplace format for singers on, for instance, America's Got Talent or The Voice--they are always yelling, thinking that is excitement and great singing. By far, Malaya Watson was the winning singer on the program, and she seems to me to be a gal who would have been a nice attraction at clubs in and around the Detroit area in, for instance, the 1940s and 1950s (and she probably would have been seen regularly on local television shows of the 1940s and 1950s). America's Thanksgiving Parade was hosted by Devin Scillian and Carmen Harlan (staffers at WDIV-TV), and other people doing hosting-like duties or reporting duties were Rhonda Walker, Ben Bailey, and Chuck Gaidica, and some of the people who appeared on the broadcast were Vanilla Ice, Big Sean, and KT Maviglia (Miss Michigan). Overall, the broadcast was "B" grade or maybe "C" grade (the parade came off as a little cheap or a little like a small-town parade on the screen).
And now I come to the subject of illness in a mind. NBC-TV is a communistic network--a network that pushes "enslavism" for people--and the news department pushes out false information and misinformation regularly and avoids passing along truth about the federal government, especially Barack Hussein Obama, and the face of NBC news on television is Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC Nightly News. Brian Williams has a daughter named Allison Williams. I saw a publicity photograph of Allison Williams as Peter Pan for the television special called Peter Pan Live! for NBC-TV (December 4, 2014) on the cover of Select TV (for November 20-December 5, 2014), which is one weekly television-program-listing magazine available in Michigan. I looked the photograph over (it was probably put out on television-program-listing magazines all over the country). I say--Allision Williams looks ill. Her arms are really, really skinny, as if they has never lifted up anything in her life (such as a muffin), and she looks as if she has a eating disorder, and she gives Peter Pan a lesbian image since she looks lesbian, and she is certainly not a pretty female. By the way, I say in jest--"No, Allison Williams did not get the part because of nepotism!" Since Allison Williams' father is a pusher of "enslavism" and the causes of "enslavism," such as socialism and communism, it seems very likely Allison Williams' mind is just as rotten as Brian Williams' mind is. And now I come to the performance. Allison Williams should go down in history as the most unpleasant looking person to play Peter Pan on film or television--there was no real pleasantness in the face and in the eyes of Allison Williams as a rule during the performance. In addition, Allison Williams looked stiff. Yes, at times, there was a hint of a smile on her face, but, overall, her appearance was unpleasant and even angry. Her adequate singing could not cover up the face of unpleasantness. Where was the fun and happiness? [Note: That is all I will say about the production, deciding to go on to other matters beyond, for instance, the really hooky and highly, highly amateurish sword fighting in Peter Pan Live!.]
Incidentally, the mind of Barack Obama is highly rotten, and that makes me believe the minds of his daughters Sasha and Malia Obama (ugly girls) have to be rotten too. More evidence of Barack Obama's sick mind came to light in an event and speech on Monday, December 1, 2014, after he had had a meeting with people about Ferguson (Missouri), that expressed his thoughts about Ferguson (Missouri) and the country. You are urged to see the entry for Monday, December 1, 2014, in my document entitled Nonsense Statements and Quotations of Barack Obama (Part Two), which can be reached by using this Quotes2 link. The theme of the entry is stuff that your favorite television newscast probably did not cover, being rotten (made up of rotten producers, writers, et cetera), especially if they are tied to NBC News.
Special commentary: On Tuesday, December 2, 2014, the Detroit Free Press (which is a socialistic/communistic newspaper and where one of the biggest socialistic/communistic writers is Mitch Albom) published a story entitled "Republican aide resigns after comments" ("Republican aide resigns after comments." Detroit Free Press, 2 December 2014, p. 2A.). The article reported that Elizabeth Lauten (the communications director for U.S. Representative Stephen Fincher, a "Republican" associated with Tennessee) talked about Malia and Sasha Obama, saying that they should be more respectable in the parts that they play in public events, and she said--"...Then again your mother and father don't respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter, so I'm guessing you're coming up a little short in the 'good role model' department....". I report and state--Barack Obama has hurt and is hurting millions of children through political actions, and his work is purposeful and designed to hurt! I state and announce--Barack Hussein Obama's rotten children are not off limits from ridicule. Yet, Elizabeth Lauten resigned from her job in relation to what she had said about the two rotten girls--probably forced to resign. And in relation to Elizabeth Lauren's comments, Sean Spicer of the Republican National Committee showed off his rottenness by saying (which was quoted in the newspaper story, as were Elizabeth Lauren's words)--"...Children, especially the first daughters, are off limits." Bullshit! I say that they--Sasha and Malia Obama--can be targets of criticism since they are shit people, being raised by a highly rotten man and evil man and a highly rotten and ugly minded woman (Barack and Michelle Obama). Sasha and Malia Obama are not off limits! Barack Obama's rotten mind is resulting in incalculable pain for millions of Americans, even children, and Barack Obama's daughters are not off limits. How do you like that you shit-ass Democrats and shit-ass Republicans (such John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Sean Spicer, all of whom are at least socialists, if not communists). Remember--The Republican Party in the United States of America is now headed by at least socialists, if not communists, and the Democratic Party is controlled by communists and other highly rotten people. Okay, shit-heads, try to fire me! I am waiting.
Oh, did you catch the first episode of the new scripted series for Bravo entitled Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce on December 2, 2014 (in prime time). It featured such actresses as Linda Edelstein and Janeane Garofalo, both of whom are big-time supporters of communists and the like, such as Barack Obama. I missed it--purposely. I do not need to see rotten on the screen.
On Sunday, December 7, 2014, in the morning, I was spinning through the television channels. For a moment, I watched Meet the Press (NBC-TV), and there was a round-table discussion going on, and I could hear that one theme was that white police officers are racist against blacks and that the country is a racist country, and given I know Meet the Press is a communistic program, I turned the program off. Lies were being pushed! Next, I was on This Week (of ABC-TV), and a round-table discussion was going, and pushing the idea that America is a racist country was an underlying theme from most of the people, and besides the host, the round-table discussion involved three communists--Representative Loretta Sanchez, Matthew Todd, and Van Jones. Basically, the discussion was set up as a four-against-one moment (four communists against one other person). And the worst and most rotten person was the black (and bald)--Van Jones. He is a black race baiter and communist! And that is what This Week is about today, and it is also what Meet the Press is all about today. [Remember: Van Jones had to resign from the Barack Obama administration some years ago for showing off his rottenness, and I report--especially for the naive and uninformed--that Van Jones is a really piece of shit of a man!]
Announcement for the novice again: To get useful television-delivered news or Internet-delivered news, go to Fox News Channel, WorldNetDaily.com, "The Drudge Report," and CNS News (which is on the Internet and which was launched on June 16, 1998), since the entities do not blindly support Barack Obama, as do CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV (to learn about bad journalism, you might tune in to CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV from time to time to see how they differ from the Fox News Channel and those mentioned with it in presenting political stories and events, and you should discover CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV avoid covering things that make Barack Obama look bad or show his true nature, which could harm you). If you are unclear of my intentions, I say in different words that you should boycott CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV and hope they lose more ratings and advertising revenues, since they are expendable, and it is time for you to find the guts to be mean and heartless and cancel them--since they are hurting you.
I have shown off a lot of rottenness to you in this edition of Television History and Trivia, and now it is time for something good about television, and I have to go back in time. On Sunday, November 16, 2014, in the afternoon, I turned on the television set, and on the screen was an episode of a television series entitled The New Howdy Doody Show--already in progress--on Cozi TV (Channel 20.1 in Detroit, by the way). In the episode, a phantom was loose in a place called Doodyville, and the phantom was fixing things. The New Howdy Doody Show was started up in syndication in the fall of 1976 and featured such persons or marionettes as Buffalo Bob Smith, Howdy Doody (a marionette), Clarabell (the clown), Happy Harmony (a young woman), and Phineas T. Bluster (a marionette). The show made me think back in time, such as to sometime in the 1950s when my father and mother had dressed me up in a Howdy Doody costume for a Halloween holiday. Between roughly December 1947 and September 1960, Howdy Doody was a fun television series on NBC-TV (when NBC-TV was not a hard-line communist network). Howdy Doody focused on Buffalo Bob Smith and Howdy Doody (a character which had been created for radio by Buffalo Bob Smith), and the show had a lot of regulars, and the show was aimed a very young children, having stories and comedy and songs, such as from Judy Tyler (a cute gal who sang well and played Princess Summerfall Winterspring* (the human version) in the early 1950s and who died in 1957). Late on November 16, 2014, I went looking for old clips of Howdy Doody on YouTube, just to remember the tone of the show again. Also I found that It's Howdy Doody Show: A 40-Year Celebration, which was made in 1987 and was a two-hour-long syndicated special, is available on YouTube. That special featured Buffalo Bob Smith, Lew Anderson as Clarabell, Bill LeCornec as Chief Thunderthud (of the Ooragnak tribe), and Louise Vallance as "The Princess," and the marionettes were Howdy Doody, Phineas T. Bluster, and Dilly Dally (who were operated by Pady Blackwood), and the guest stars were Gary Coleman, Monty Hall, Mary Ann Mobley, Gary Collins, Milton Berle (in a cameo), Johnny Carson (in a cameo), Dick Clark (in a cameo), Pee Wee Herman (in a cameo), Meredith MacRae (in a cameo), and John Ritter (in a cameo). Also, Gumby and his horse Pokey appeared in a cameo segment, which noted that Gumby and Pokey first appeared on television in 1955--on Howdy Doody. Basically, It's Howdy Doody Time: A 40-Year Celebration was a look back at fun television, though not highly produced television of years past, when children got to have fun as children and be children, learning about being, for example, good and nice. A few episodes of Howdy Doody are available on YouTube for persons who wish to see some simple and fun television of the past. By the way, recently, I ended up with a puzzle--a real puzzle--in my hands, which was a puzzle that was made up of old cereal-boxes fronts from roughly the 1950s (which I will have to open up and work on for fun). I remember seeing the cereal boxes in television commercials in the 1950s or early 1960s or so, and some had characters on the front, and I note now how the characters were pleasant and cute. Some of the characters are still on cereal boxes today. Generally speaking, the characters of cereal boxes today, though they may be the same as those of the 1960s, such as Capt'n Crunch, are not as pleasant or cute or likable as the characters were in the 1950s or 1960s. Today, the characters on cereal boxes, though they may have smiles, are rather hard or unlikable. Let me get back to Howdy Doody and such. The marionette called Howdy Doody in The New Howdy Doody Show was a new Howdy Doody (it had to be a new marionette, since the most-famous Howdy Doody marionette of Howdy Doody was rather worn (Buffalo Bob Smith had this old marionette in his position at the time The New Howdy Doody Show was on the air, having gotten it from the owner and puppeteer Rufus Rose in August 1975)), and, by the way, this new Howdy Doody had hair (a wig of some type) instead of painted-on hair. Bob Smith created Howdy Doody (the character), and the history of Howdy Doody goes back to 1947 (Bob Smith's entertainment career began in 1925 when he began to take piano lessons). In March 1947, Bob Smith was working at a radio station (WEAF-AM) in New York City, New York), and then he began a new show called The Triple B Ranch, and, for that radio show, Bob Smith created a character called "Elmer," who would be known for saying regularly--"Well, howdy doody!" There was no puppet--the show, which was a western-like-themed quiz show, had a studio audience--and kids who came to the show wanted to see "Elmer" or really what they were calling "Howdy Doody." Bob Smith and associates took up calling the character "Howdy Doody," and, in late 1947, they thought about selling NBC-TV on the idea of having "Howdy Doody" on television, and NBC-TV managers saw the radio show over two weeks, and they they decided to put on a television show (though the format was not clear); the order for the television show was given to Bob Smith and his associates on Tuesday, December 23, 1948, and the show went on the air on Saturday, December 27, 1948, but there was no Howdy Doody marionette yet. For about three weeks, Bob Smith pretended Howdy Doody was bashful and was hiding in a drawer of a desk (till a Howdy Doody puppet could be made), and then finally, the puppet was available, and it appeared on television. When Howdy Doody did appear, Howdy Doody was [as I say today] rather ugly. It was a man named Frank Paris who made "Howdy Doody" the marionette for $500 (he did not own the puppet), which would disappear as a prop around late May 1948. Around mid-1948, Macy's (the department store) was pitching to Bob Smith and associates the idea of selling a toy like Howdy Doody to people, and Frank Paris learned of that and wanted royalty money for making the Howdy Doody image or marionette, but NBC-TV said no, given NBC-TV had bought the puppet (and NBC-TV owned the puppet, and Bob Smith owned the name of the puppet). The maker of that "Howdy Doody" took the puppet from the NBC-TV studio one day in a tiff (a Thursday)--a little before the Thursday show was set to air-- and a new puppet had to be made and was soon made as a replacement, and the new marionette was better looking than the first was, and I can argue well that Howdy Doody probably would not have become a big success if the first "Howdy Doody" had not be taken away by Frank Paris. Really, what happened in late May 1948 is Frank Paris, who was the puppeteer for the first Howdy Doody wanted more money, and when more money was refused, Frank Paris took away his Howdy Doody marionette (it was a Thursday), and, by the way, around this time, Howdy Doody was running for U.S. President on the television show, so for that Thursday show, the storyline--which had to be quickly devised--had Howdy Doody flying in an airplane to Portland, Oregon, to take part in election primaries [the real Oregon preferential primary was on Friday, May 21, 1948], and Howdy Doody was reporting the progress of his trip through the radio set on the airplane, and when there in Portland, Howdy Doody met his competition--"Mr. X", who was handsome--and that prompted Howdy Doody to get plastic surgery, and Howdy Doody did get plastic surgery and he was required wear bandages (on the orders of doctors) for a few weeks, and on the following Tuesday, Howdy Doody returned (his face bandaged up), crashing down through the studio ceiling on a parachute. That bandaged Howdy Doody was a marionette, dressed like the new real Howdy Doody would be dressed, and the bandaged marionette was not the real next version of Howdy Doody, but it could be said that this bandaged Howdy Doody was the real second Howdy Doody, but let us forget about it--pretend it was not second. Basically, in March 1948, NBC-TV (particularly Norm Blackburn) knew a woman named Velma Dawson (who was working for Walt Disney in Hollywood, California), and she was commissioned to make the new Howdy Doody, and it took about three weeks to get the new Howdy Doody to the studio in New York City. On June 18, 1948, the cute Howdy Doody (who became the famous Howdy Doody for all time) was revealed, and I call him the second Howdy Doody. During the run of Howdy Doody, there would be several cute "Howdy Doody" marionettes (variations of the second version of Howdy Doody (if you forget about the bandaged Howdy Doody marionette), which were based on the design of the "second" by Velma Dawson). When the new Howdy Doody appeared, NBC-TV commissioned a duplicate (of sorts), but NBC-TV wanted some changes made to the face, which Velma Dawson was not eager to make. When the duplicate was made, it was, in essence, a failed project, and it was later reworked to become a character called "Inspector Fadoozle" (it was also used in other ways, such as as a "Mr. X"). A good quality duplicate Howdy Doody was later made, and it would be called "Double Doody," and in 1952, another "Howdy Doody," which could stand-up and be posed, was made, and it was called "Photo Doody." Incidentally, around 1953, Frank Paris was suing NBC-TV--at first for $200,000 and then for $575,000 in damages--for unauthorized use of Howdy Doody and two others characters that had been seen on the television series--"Mr. Huff" and "Eustace." In 1955, NBC-TV and Frank Paris settled their fight, and as part of the agreement, the original "Howdy Doody" (that ugly one) was destroyed. On November 18, 2014, I went to my fabulous television files, and I found It's Howdy Doody Time: A 40-Year Celebration never aired on a Detroit-area-based television station, but it did run on WUPW-TV (Channel 36), Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday, November 26, 1987, at 9:00 p.m., and it ran for two hours. Several episodes of Howdy Doody (the usual name of the old series) are available on YouTube. Some of the marionette characters shown during the run of Howdy Doody were Howdy Doody, Phineas T. Bluster (the mayor of Doodyville), Flub-A-Dub, Don Jose, Inspector Fadoozle, Dilly Dally, and Heidi Doody. And Howdy Doody had singing and comedy, and Buffalo Bob Smith would sometimes do narration of clips from an old silent movies (such as movies featuring Mickey McGuire (which was used for a name by Mickey Rooney in his early years of movie acting)); sometimes, people subbed as hosts for Bob Smith, and one big time was between September 1954 and September 1955 while Bob Smith was recovering from a heart attack, and some of the substitute hosts were Gabby Hayes and Ted Brown (Bob Smith's brother) as Bison Bill. After Bob Smith had his heart attack, he was, in essence, bedridden for several months, but early in 1955, he was able to make appearances on the show again, coming from a studio that was in the basement of his residence, which NBC-TV had built for him around 1950 (during a time when Bob Smith had had pneumonia), and Bob Smith appeared on the show from the remote location till September 1955, when he finally showed up at the NBC-TV studio for the first time in a year. Some time after Howdy Doody was off the air, all three cute Howdy Doody marionettes ended up in the hands of Rufus Rose, and none could be used in any new television show (as stipulated by NBC-TV, which had gained the rights to the "Howdy Doody" entity around 1950). E. Roger Muir (or Roger Muir), who was the producer of Howdy Doody, would end up with "Photo Duty" for a while; on Wednesday, May 6, 1983, vandals entered the office of Nicholson-Muir Productions (Larchmont, New York), which was owned by E. Roger Muir, and damaged "Photo Doody," taking off the head and an right arm, but none of the pieces were stolen, and in late October 1997, E. Roger Muir donated the marionette to an auction and at the end of the auction on Saturday, October 25, 1997, someone was the new owner of this Howdy Doody, having paid $113,431 for the marionette. In 1980, the Smithsonian Institution ended up with "Double Doody"; by the way, on Saturday, June 7, 1980, Charlie McCarthy (a famous marionette) and "Double Doody" (Howdy Doody) were two items of a new exhibit that opened up at the Smithsonian Institution. Information is a little suspect about the original cute Howdy Doody (second television-star version)--It seems Bob Smith borrowed it for touring purposes from Rufus Rose in 1970, and it seems it was been returned to Rufus Rose at some point, and then around 1975, when Rufus Rose died, Bob Smith got the marionette again, and he had it till 1998 (when Bob Smith died). This is fact--Between 1999 and January 23, 2001, there was a battle in the court system between the Rufus Rose family (holding the doll on behalf of the estate of Rufus Rose) and the Detroit Institute of Arts about who was supposed to have possession of the marionette, and on January 23, 2001, a judge awarded the Detroit Institute of Arts the original cute version of Howdy Doody, and the first time that the marionette was on display for people to see at the Detroit Institute of Arts was on May 13, 2001. By the way, during the court battle for the custody of Howdy Doody (that television-star second version), newspapers reported it was stored away safely in a deposit box in Connecticut (in 1999) and in a Rhode Island bank vault (in 2001). At the moment, I have no information about where the Howdy Doody marionette used with The New Howdy Doody Show (of the 1970s) is. By the way, from early January 1956, to February 17, 1956, the Rensselaer County Junior Museum (on Second Street in Troy, New York) had a "Puppetry" exhibit, and one thing on display was a large clown that had been made by Frank Paris, had been used in a traveling show called "Toby of the Circus" (1947-1948), and had been used on Howdy Doody. So far, I have only called Howdy Doody of the 1940s-1950s--Howdy Doody. The series originally showed up as The Puppet Playhouse in December 1947. I found a fairly new newspaper story through the Internet that noted that the title was changed within a week to Howdy Doody. That is not true. I found television listings of television programs in early 1950s (in newspapers of the New York area) that note that the show was Puppet Playhouse between December 1947 and about April 1948, and I have even seen Bob Smith in an interview say that the title was changed after several months. I make clear--The title was originally The Puppet Playhouse, and for most of the period of time that the series was on the air it was Howdy Doody (as noted on the opening of the program), but in the very late 1950s, The Howdy Doody Show named showed up in the ending credits, and, today, many people call Howdy Doody this--The Howdy Doody Show. By the way, in the late 1940s, each episode opened with "NBC Television presents" and "Puppet Playhouse presents" and Howdy Doody (the actual title). On the November 17, 2014, I found a video short made in 1951 entitled Howdy Doody's Christmas (a filmed presentation), in which Howdy Doody, Clarabell, and Bob Smith go to the North Pole to see Santa Claus, and the production was not a part of the television series (Howdy Doody). The production is tied to Castle Films and United World Films. After doing a bit of research in old newspapers, I found the production was made for home use and sold through stores (such as photography stores in New York) around December 1951 in 8mm-film versions and 16mm-film versions, the most expensive of which (which was a 16mm-film version with sound) cost about $19.75 through A.M. & A. Camera Exchange (Buffalo, New York). Today, you can see the short-running video on YouTube. That covers my look at Howdy Doody for now, and maybe it has inspired you to look for video of Howdy Doody on YouTube, maybe to show children an old-time fun television series.
[* Note = Over the years, Judy Tyler's character has been listed as, for example, "Princess Summerfall Winterspring" and "Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring" in newspaper articles, so take your pick.]Let me add this about the colorful Howdy Doody. In 1953, the Federal Communications Commission (of the federal government) announced the winner in the color-standards race, and the compatible-color standard (an electronic-color system) won, beating, for instance, a mechanical color-wheel system. In 1954, especially early in the year, NBC-TV broadcast some programs to viewers in special color-broadcast events (such as one-time special events). Howdy Doody was first shown in color during the week on Monday, February 1, 1954--that is, it was broadcast in color during the five weekdays of that week. It was not till Labor Day 1955 (September 5, 1955) that Howdy Doody began to be broadcast regularly in color.
Oh, Bob Smith did the voice of Howdy Doody live at first, till, in essence, children in the studio audience were put aback by the way in which Bob Smith and Howdy Doody talked with each other in the studio (Bob Smith was not a ventriloquist)--the production team soon ended up using the format of making an audio recording for all the puppet voices of an upcoming episode (in sequence for the episode) during the rehearsal time before the episode was broadcast (Bob Smith was still doing the voice of Howdy Doody).
Remember: The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan was a television show that was produced across the pond and shown on CBS-TV in the late 1960s, and I urge you to find The Prisoner on DVD, maybe from a library, and watch it, and you should show it--all the episodes--to teenagers, or buy it as a present for teenagers.
Stay well!
Vic
copyright c. 2014
Date published: December 10, 2014The Hologlobe Press
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