Northwest Florida Arts Association
Posts tagged stop-motion clay animation
Art Clokey – Creator of Gumby Dies
Jan 10th
Art Clokey, the creator of the clay animation series Gumby, died this past Friday. He was 88. Clokey was born Arthur Farrington in Detroit in October 1921. Tragically his father died in a car accident when Art was 8, and his mother abandoned him after they moved to California. A few years later, he was adopted by Joseph W. Clokey, a music teacher and composer. Joseph would later say that Gumby’s adventures were inspired by the adventures he and Art had on trips to Mexico and Canada.
Gumby was the result the experimental stop-motion clay animation film Gumbasia Clokey made in 1953. The president of 20th Century Fox saw the film and asked Clokey to do a children’s show.
Gumby debuted in 1956 on the Howdy Doody Show. Soon after, The Adventures of Gumby debuted. This show was the first use of stop-motion clay animation on television.
The Adventures of Gumby was cancelled after a few years. Clokey created and produced another stop-motion clay animation series in the 1960s, the sickly sweet, Christian morality show Davey and Goliath. Art used the proceeds from the show to revive the Gumby series for a few more years.
Gumby from the 1950s:
Gumby from the 1960s:
A few notes about the creation of Gumby:
Gumby was green because Art Clokey cared about the environment.
Gumby’s head shape was based on Clokey’s father’s hairstyle.
Despite the belief that “only someone on drugs” could come up with the Gumby idea and stories, Clokey wasn’t. He didn’t start experimenting with LSD and other drugs until the 1970s when he studied Zen Buddhism with gurus in India.
Art Clokey and Gumby
