GUMBY DHARMA-2006-If you’re my age (over 50; ok I admit!) and you watched a lot of TV as a kid in the ‘60’s then you probably were a fan of “Gumby” the clay animated character created by Art Clokey. This is a documentary about how it all started.
Clokey (still alive at 87 at the time of this writing) is interviewed throughout. He tells of the genesis of the clay boy and his pony pal Pokey, how Hollywood producer Sam Engels produced the TV pilot and that the reason Gumby’s head is that funny shape was the prototype looked to phallic! He says two supporting characters “Goo” and “Itchy” were inspired by a talk British Philosopher Alan Watts gave!
After making the first two batches of shows (and DAVEY & GOLIATH) Clokey dropped out and became a hippie, met Timothy Leary and dropped acid. Steel guitar playing Sneaky Pete Kleinow (who died in 2008) wrote the theme (and many later episodes) and was paid 100 dollars for his efforts. The great Ray Harryhausen says Clokey helped keep stop motion animation alive. And “Moody Rudy” isn’t forgotten either! Great stuff!!
"A book is a mirror. If an ape looks into it an apostle is unlikely to look out"-Georg Christoph
Thanks for reading!
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