Google, Gumby & Friends Pay tribute to Art Clokey
In an interactive doodle today, Google pays tribute to the pioneer in the art of stop motion clay animation, Arthur ‘Art’ Clokey.
Today (October 12th, 2011) is Clokey’s 90th birth anniversary. He was born on October 12, 1921 Clokey’s birth name was Arthur C Farrington.
Clokey and his wife, Ruth, invented Gumby in the early 1950s at their Covina home shortly after Art had finished film school at USC.
After a successful debut on “The Howdy Doody Show” Gumby soon became the star of its own hit television show, “The Adventures of Gumby” the first to use clay animation on television.
Today’s Google Doodle features some of Art Clokey’s most famous characters including Gumby (the original clayboy), Pokey (Gumby’s best friend and sidekick), the Blockheads (‘J’ and ‘G’ – the mischievous troublemakers), Tara (Gumby’s girlfriend) and Prickle (Gumby’s good friend).
Here’s a video from the 1960s version of Gumby:
