A Visit to Clokey Productions-Home of Gumby and Pokey

[@petersackett9058]

That man in the park with the moustache and cap is my cousin Dallas McKennon, who performed Gumby’s voice.

[@zebraradio1610]

Peter, thanks for filling in that significant detail. Of course, Dal McKennon had a long, illustrious career as a voice actor and even acted in various TV series. Now if we can find out who the other actor was and who owned that Renault Dauphine, we’ll have a complete rundown on the cartoon.

[@princesspeachfan100]

2:37 Oh wow! So nice to see SOMETHING of him when he was actually younger for once, this and then Captain Zoom! :) So cool! :)

[@Kawaii_Lannie]

Gosh thank you SO much for uploading this! It really brought a big smile to my face

[@zebraradio1610]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@t00bed]

Thank you so much for taking the time to digitise and upload this!

[@zebraradio1610]

Glad you enjoyed it. Part of this 8mm film is on the official Gumby DVD collection of the 60's. However, I wanted to add my own recollection of this visit and a little bit of info about "The Lawn Party" Gumby Adventure. That could only be accomplished on KZbin.

[@ukmedicfrcs]

Aww I love Gumby. I think I've seen every episode. Watching it as an adult, it's actually pretty funny and I can't believe how well they did back then with the claymation and props. Thank you for the upload.

[@zebraradio1610]

You're welcome. It's great hearing from someone across the pond.

[@CaltransD7]

16mm Cine Kodak wow. I wondered about that. It makes makes me want to play with my DSLR. What great work

[@zebraradio1610]

I had a Cine Special II and it was indeed a beautifully engineered camera; built in New York City back in the late 50's. The film stock Clokey Productions used, Ektachrome Commercial 7255, was a low contrast, tungsten, superfine grain film with a speed index of 25. Shortly before his death, Joe Clokey gave me tour of their Premavision studio in Los Osos, CA. They were working on some commercials which had licensed the Gumby and Pokey characters. The camera was a Nikon DSLR shooting 1080p. The raw clips that I saw looked great.

[@SnyderTools]

Wow!! Awesome video!! And to have your visit on film is so neat!! Thank you for sharing!!

[@zebraradio1610]

Thanks. I gave the Clokey family permission to put this footage on their DVD boxed set of Gumby Adventures from that era.

[@meowkitty5588]

A Gumby Adventure: Lawn Party Behind the Scenes (1964).

[@meowkitty5588]

Glendora, CA.

[@SalDaGal1]

I love this! Thank you SO much for sharing it and I can't believe I didn't see it sooner! I love seeing your visit and the actual clay puppet you kept and also your letter. I had only seen your letter in the book, but I don't think there was a photo of the actual clay puppet! I also saw the pamphlet on how to make your own 3-D adventures that accompanied the letter and was wondering if you ever made any films with your bendy toys from back then? Or have any old photos that you took back then? It's SO awesome and so generous of you to give the clay puppet to the Clokey family. And very generous of you to share this film for all of us Gumby fans out there too; I really appreciate it! And I loved that you narrated it too! Very, very special! Love it so much!

[@zebraradio1610]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I tried clay animation a few times. And while I did enjoy sculpting characters, building and lighting sets and writing scripts, I found the actual work of animating tedious. But I still appreciate the art form of clay animation. The how-to pamphlet Clokey Productions put out was surprisingly advanced in many ways. Shooting "on-twos," the use of a head gauge and other how-to hints are not beginner techniques. I do have a couple of photos of me working on an animated cartoon from that time period.

[@SalDaGal1]

@@zebraradio1610 I love watching it, but would never have the patience to try to do it myself. Sculpting clay puppets and building the sets would be more fun to me than actually animating the puppets would be and at least you actually did what you were interested in doing even though it didn't become a lifetime passion for you. You still did it! That pamphlet seemed pretty sophisticated for a child to do, but I loved seeing it and am glad you kept it and it ended up in the book. And that is so wonderful that you have a couple of photos of you working on an animated cartoon! Would love to see them if you have them posted somewhere.

[@zebraradio1610]

@@SalDaGal1 I obviously missed something. What book did I end up in? I know the Clokey family put some of my movie footage on a Gumby DVD. But that is the only media that I'm aware of. I have an interview that I recorded in 1984 with Art Clokey. I may digitize it and post it here.

[@SalDaGal1]

@@zebraradio1610 Oh, I wish you would! I would love to see your 1984 interview with him! And I haven't seen this footage before of yours on any DVD that they put out, but your letter and the pamphlet are shown in the book that Joan and Joe wrote that got published right before Joe passed away. I can take a photo of the page if you don't have the book and email it to you or if you have an instagram or Flickr account, I can send to you that way. My Instagram I don't have any photos posted on, but it's sallyraek1 (Sally Kimmel) and my Flickr page is : Sally Rae Kimmel. I don't recall seeing a photo of you with the clay puppet or the clay puppet you gave them in it, but I will look again.

[@meowkitty5588]

2:57 Look like the Gumby design from 1959

[@zebraradio1610]

Yes, Art Clokey was careful to give me one the earlier designs and not the latest 1964 Gumby.

[@meowkitty5588]

@@zebraradio16101:56 Produced in The first week of September 1964?

[@zebraradio1610]

I believe that was Sept. 3, 1964.

[@meowkitty5588]

⁠@@zebraradio16102:57 Did Art Clokey gave you the 1950s Gumby design from 1964.

[@zebraradio1610]

@@meowkitty5588 The Gumby Art Clokey gave me was from a 1958-59 design. As Clokey Productions was re-editing some of the older adventures, they used Gumby puppets like this one to create new pick-up shots to add to the re-edited films.

[@magicmacstudio3910]

Wow! How big was the gumby art gave you? I have never been able to figure it out.

[@zebraradio1610]

The figure was about 8 inches tall. The arms had a soft wire in them.

[@magicmacstudio3910]

He's taller than I thought! What episode is he from?

[@zebraradio1610]

They had Gumby puppets in different sizes based on whether the shot was a close up or farther away. I don't know which film this Gumby was in but it had to be around 1959-1960.

[@magicmacstudio3910]

Looking at how big the eyes are, he was probably from the episode "tree trouble"

[@zebraradio1610]

@@magicmacstudio3910 That's possible. The eyes of the 1963-64 Gumby were made from slices of ping-pong balls and coated with Vaseline, according to Ray Peck. The pupils were black plastic disks that were obtained from a crafts store.

[@meowkitty5588]

0:14 Is that Pokey made out of Clay?.

[@zebraradio1610]

Yes, with soft aluminum wire in the legs.

[@meowkitty5588]

@@zebraradio1610 What kind of Clay did Art used?.

[@zebraradio1610]

@@meowkitty5588 Plasticine clay, the type that is used in clay animation.