GUMBY
Story by H.W. Moss
Photos by M.Fo
LEFTHEAD GOES HOLLYWOOD
[ED's Note: More than a few skaters have
been tagged with the nickname "Gumby."
This rubber man's name has also been used
to describe many a contorted skate move.
"Whoa, he was fully gumby on that layback."
Gumby fans will be happy to hear the little
green guy's starring in his own feature length
film next year. We sent photog Emmeff and
writer H.W. to Sausalito to interview Gumby's
creator, Art Clokey.]
I always like working with Emmeff. He's
about as refreshing as a bronx cheer and
maybe as reverent as a cow in church. I
never thought he'd be impressed with an
assignment like shooting the sound stage
at Premavision Production Company where
the Gumby movie, "Robot Gumby", is being
made, but I was wrong.
We were crossing the Golden Gate Bridge
and Emm was taking an attitude adjustment
with a silver can of Sapporo when it hit me
that he was deep in thought. I nudged him
and asked what was digging into his brain.
"Well, Aitch," he said politely, "I sort of
grew up with Gumby. Know what I mean?
I feel like I'm going to visit a holy shrine.
Source of the Nile. Ju-ju heaven. That sort
of thing."
We were already a half hour late because.
Emm had been on a buying spree at
Jeffrey's, cleaning out their supply of Gumby
and Pokey toys which he hoped Art would
autograph for him. He said his brother was
real big on Pokey when they were kids.
"One day the wire popped out of one of
Pokey's legs," he said with a grim smile.
"That was a baaad day for the family, believe
me. He took it real poor. And we didn't have
the money to buy a new one."
I felt sympathetic but didn't want him to
get weepy on me, so I just kept driving.
Today Premavision is a real family affair.
Gloria, Art's second wife, is art director and
their daughter, Holly, makes the props and
sets. They had sixty-five employees last year
at the height of the production schedule but
are now down to three.
Last year Clokey finished making 66 new
half-hour episodes of "Gumby" for Lorimar
Telepictures. It was the first time new Gumby
episodes had been made in over twenty
years. The new series was syndicated even
before it was finished and is now being
shown in ninety markets.
across the country.
The actual filming of
"Robot Gumby" doesn't
begin for several more
months. At that time the
studio will get really active
again. The story board is
already written and many
of the sets have been
created. We got to talking
and Clokey told us the plot.
of the film which should be
released early in 1990.
"Gumby is in a rock
band and they have a
mascot, a little dachshund,
that cries pearl tears when
he thinks Gumby has
disappeared. The Blockheads from EZ Loan
Company think the pearls are caused by the
music and they steal the dachshund. They
have also been foreclosing on farmers' land
by charging 25% interest. The Blockheads
kidnap each of the members of Gumby's
band, replacing them with robot clones so
no one will notice they're gone. Eventually
Gumby has a long chase and a dual with
his robot clone and then gives a benefit con-
cert for the farmers to pay off their loans."
Clokey has the movie cameras set up in
the gymnasium at the old school that houses
Premavision. There are so many lights on
the shooting set that the air gets hot and,
Clokey tells us, Gumby actually melts while
he is being filmed. The animators go through
several of him a day.
"There are sixty-four sets in the 80-minute
movie," says Clokey as he adjusts some of
the lights for my main photo man. "And it
will take nine months to film."
Today Art Clokey, who is originally from
Michigan, is 66. After studying for the
Episcopalian priesthood in 1948, Clokey
moved to Southern California to teach
school and work on making his own movies.
He invented Gumby and his red pony Pokey
in 1955.
"I got the name from my father," said
Clokey. "He would come home to our
Michigan farm and say, 'We got stuck in the
gumbo, which in those days meant mud,
just plain mud."
In 1954 he made a film called Gumbasia.
"It was animated clay in color. The clay
kept changing form to jazz accompaniment,"
said Clokey. "It was, you might say, one of
the first music videos, although it was on
film. A TV executive saw it and asked me
to make a pilot for a children's show. NBC
signed me up to a contract and we started
producing Gumby films, which they put on
right after Howdy Doody."
When Gumby was dropped by NBC in the
early 1960s, Clokey bought the films back
from them and began making more shows.
and distributing them himself.
"Oh, the trouble I had selling Gumby! It
was amazing. You see, most people who run
television stations are like sheep. They only
buy what they think has been successful.
We didn't have any track record, so it was
really rough."
About that time he needed the money, so
Clokey grudgingly made the first Gumby toy.
"I didn't want to make toys," he admits.
"For the first seven years I resisted merchan-
dising because I felt that Gumby was such
a sincere creation. We had such a good rap-
port with the audience, the children. I didn't
want to sully it with any suspicion that we
were trying to exploit the children."
After that the big toy companies came to
him. In 1967 Gumby got started in syndica-
tion again from the success of the toy.
"Once the stations saw how the kids liked
it," says Clokey, "they'd call us back and
ask for more. We'd say, 'We'd be glad to but
we need money!
"
Clokey made the last original Gumby film
in 1967 with money earned from the United
Lutheran Church for his series "Davey &
Goliath." In 1976 his first
wife conspired with a
former salesman and they
started suing him for
ownership of Gumby. The
case was not settled until
1982.
With minor exceptions,
Gumby has not been
televised nationally since
1978. Yet the clay boy with
wire bones has melted in-
to America's conscious-
ness, going beyond his role
as a wholesome children's
television star to become,
with time, something of a
childhood icon.
Once in a while, though,
Gumby's wholesome character is besmir-
ched without Clokey's permission.
"We are in litigation with a fellow who
made a t-shirt called 'Scumby," Clokey ad-
mitted. "That was a total denigration of
Gumby's character, just kind of a slob, beer
drinking, cigar smoking, unshaven, fat, pot
bellied..."
Now witness Emm, his cameras back in
their bag, standing next to Clokey, a table.
full of Gumby toys spread out in front of him.
He picks up a Pokey and asks if Clokey will
write best wishes to his brother on it. I can't
wait to see his face when I give it to him."
he says.
Clockwise from
Far Left: Papa Art
and one of his
creations. Lefthead
lifts a method. The
life of lonely clay
rock stars.
Gumby and a
scaly homeboy.
77