American animator (1921?2010)
Arthur Clokey
(born
Arthur Charles Farrington
; October 12, 1921 ? January 8, 2010) was an American animator, director, producer, screenwriter and voice actor, he was pioneer in the popularization of
stop-motion
clay animation
, best known as the creator of the character
Gumby
and the original voice of Gumby's sidekick, Pokey. Clokey's career began in 1953 with a film experiment called
Gumbasia
, which was influenced by his professor,
Slavko Vorkapich
, at the
University of Southern California
.
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Clokey and his wife Ruth subsequently came up with the clay character Gumby and his horse Pokey, who first appeared in the
Howdy Doody
Show
and later got their own series
The Adventures of Gumby
, from which they became a familiar presence on American television. The characters enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1980s when American actor and comedian
Eddie Murphy
parodied Gumby in a skit on
Saturday Night Live
.
Clokey's second-most famous production is the duo of
Davey and Goliath
, funded by the
Lutheran Church in America
(now the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
).
[6]
Clokey founded the company Premavision (which has manufacturing subsidiary, Prema Toy Company) around his Gumby and Pokey franchise.
Early life
[
edit
]
Arthur Charles Farrington was born in Detroit on October 12, 1921. After his parents' divorce when he was about 8, he lived with his father; when Arthur was 9, his father was killed in an automobile accident. Rejoining his mother in California, the boy was banished by her new husband and placed in a children’s home. At about 11, young Arthur was adopted by
Joseph Waddell Clokey
, a well-known composer of sacred and secular music.
[7]
At
Webb School
in Claremont, young Clokey came under the influence of teacher Ray Alf, who took students on expeditions digging for fossils and learning about the world around them. Clokey later studied
geology
at
Pomona College
, where his new father Joseph was an organist, before leaving in 1943 to join the military during
World War II
.
[8]
[9]
He graduated from his father's alma mater,
Miami University
, in 1948.
[10]
Clay animation
[
edit
]
Art Clokey also made a few highly experimental and visually inventive short clay animation films for adults, including his first student film
Gumbasia
(produced in 1953 and released in 1955), the visually rich
Mandala
(1977)?described by Clokey as a metaphor for evolving human consciousness?and the equally bizarre
The Clay Peacock
(1959), an elaboration on the animated
NBC
logo of the time.
[11]
[12]
Consisting of animated clay shapes contorting to a jazz score,
Gumbasia
so intrigued Samuel G. Engel, then president of the Motion Pictures Producers Association, that he financed the pilot film for what became Clokey's
The
Gumby
Show
(1957). The title
Gumbasia
was in homage to Walt Disney's
Fantasia
.
In 1987, Clokey provided the voice for the figure Pokey in
Arnold Leibovit
's film
The Puppetoon Movie
, and voiced him thereafter.
The Clokeys are credited with the clay-animation
title sequences
for the 1965 beach movies
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
and
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
. His son, Joe Clokey, continued the
Davey and Goliath
cartoon in 2004. In March 2007,
KQED-TV
broadcast the hour-long documentary
Gumby Dharma
as part of their
Truly CA
series.
[13]
In 1995, Clokey directed and co-wrote (with his second wife, Gloria)
Gumby: The Movie
, a feature film. The movie was not a success at the box office and was widely panned by critics, although it saw modest success on home media, going on to sell more than a million copies on home media, cementing itself as a
cult classic
.
[14]
It was released in its original 90-minute theatrical version on Blu-ray in 2017.
[
citation needed
]
In the mid-1990s,
Nickelodeon
,
Fox
, and
Cartoon Network
signed a contract with Art Clokey to air every episode of
Gumby
for its anchor spots at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. It was on top of their ratings for over three years.
[
citation needed
]
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
Clokey died in his sleep on January 8, 2010, at age 88, at his home in
Los Osos, California
, after suffering recurrent bladder infections.
[15]
[16]
[17]
On October 13, 2011, a day after what would have been Clokey's 90th birthday,
Google
paid homage to his life and works with an interactive
logo doodle
in the style of his clay animations, including
Gumby
, produced by Premavision Studios.
[18]
Filmography
[
edit
]
- Gumbasia
(produced in 1953 and released in 1955) (animator, director, producer and writer)
- The
Gumby
Show
(1957?1968) as Pokey (voice; also animator, director, producer and writer)
- Davey and Goliath
(1961?1964, 1971?1975) (director, producer and writer)
- The Clay Peacock
(1975) (director, producer and camera operator)
- Mandala
(1977) (director, producer and camera operator)
- The Puppetoon Movie
(1987) as Pokey (voice)
- Gumby Adventures
(1988) as Worm and Pokey (voice; also director, producer and head writer)
- Gumby: The Movie
(1995) as Pokey, Prickle, and Gumbo (Gumby's Dad) (voice; also director, producer, script writer and animator)
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Inkpot Award
- ^
Tim Lawson; Alisa Persons, eds. (2004).
The magic behind the voices
.
University Press of Mississippi
. p. 120.
ISBN
978-1-57806-696-4
.
- ^
TV personalities: biographical sketch book: Volume 3
. St. Louis, Mo. : TV Personalities. 1957.
OCLC
2470684
.
- ^
"Hero Complex"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
- ^
"Art Clokey dies at 88; creator of Gumby"
.
Los Angeles Times
. January 9, 2010.
- ^
"Who Are Davey and Goliath?"
. Daveyandgoliath.org. Archived from
the original
on 2012-08-29
. Retrieved
2011-10-11
.
- ^
Fox, Margalit (2010-01-11).
"Art Clokey, Animator Who Created Gumby, Dies at 88"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2022-06-09
.
- ^
Felch, Jason (9 January 2010).
"Art Clokey dies at 88; creator of Gumby"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
6 November
2020
.
- ^
Gilbertsen, Christian (12 February 2010).
"Arthur Clokey Dies: Pomona alumnus and creator of Gumby dies at 88"
.
The Student Life
. Retrieved
29 July
2020
.
- ^
Fox, Margalit (2010-01-11).
"Art Clokey, Animator Who Created Gumby, Dies at 88"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2021-11-29
.
- ^
These films have recently become available for purchase by the public and are included in the
Rhino
box-set release of Gumby's television shorts.
- ^
"Art Clokey's Clay Peacock"
.
www.gumbyworld.com
.
- ^
"KQED | Public TV: Truly CA: Home: Gumby Dharma"
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-03-21
. Retrieved
2007-03-26
.
- ^
Clokey, Joe (2017).
Gumby Imagined: The Story of Art Clokey and his Creations
.
Dynamite
. p. 228.
ISBN
9781524104344
.
- ^
Felch, Jason (January 9, 2010).
"Art Clokey dies at 88; creator of Gumby"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
May 20,
2012
.
- ^
Fox, Margalit (January 11, 2010).
"Art Clokey, Animator Who Created Gumby, Dies at 88"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on 14 January 2010
. Retrieved
January 11,
2010
.
- ^
Pemberton, Patrick S.
"'Gumby' creator and Los Osos resident Art Clokey dies"
Archived
January 10, 2010, at the
Wayback Machine
, SanLuisObispo.com/
The Tribune
, January 8, 2010
- ^
Art Clokey: How Gumby got his name
,
The Christian Science Monitor
, retrieved 2010-10-12.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Art Clokey
.
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