July 26 - Where Are They Now? Wednesday - Gumby

As a child, I had three favorite toys: Alvin the Chipmunk, a Richard Nixon figurine, and Gumby. I’m pretty sure where Richard Nixon is now and Alvin had his two brothers, Simon and Theodore, and Dave Seville looking after him, but whatever happened to GUMBY?

This week’s WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WEDNESDAY focuses on the little green clay boy. Gumby celebrated his 50th birthday last week but I don’t remember the same fanfare that was afforded a certain snooty mouse last year. Maybe it should be racketeer not mouseketeer.

In 1956 Gumby made his first appearance on television, on "The Howdy Doody Show.” I would like to age as well as Gumby. There's not a wrinkle on him, and if there were, you could smooth it out with your thumb.

I never really lost touch with Gumby. He used to ride in my briefcase on my travels as a reminder of simpler times. Sometimes Pokey, his pony pal, would come along as well.

Art Clokey, the man who made Gumby, was far from the first to breathe life into inanimate objects frame by frame. However, Clokey created the first clay TV star with staying power. Gumby was the subject of a series of television shows with 223 episodes over a 35 year period. Art Clokey also created Davey and Goliath, produced for the Lutheran Church from 1956-73.

Gumby is officially 7 inches tall. He lived in a toy store and with his parents, Gumbo and Gumba. Later he gained a little sister, Minga. (This sounds like the next Pitt-Jolie baby or at least the place where she’s born.)

Clokey spent a year in a seminary studying to become an Episcopal priest. He has spoken of "Gumby" both in art-theoretical and spiritual terms: "Gumby is a symbol of the spark of divinity in each of us, the basis of the ultimate value of each person."

To me, Gumby was just a pliable figure, too large to be flushed down the toilet by my brother like my other toys.


Gumby went into retirement in the late 1960s but made a comeback in the 1980s, when Eddie Murphy played a cranky version of the character on Saturday Night Live. Murphy's famous "I'm Gumby dammit" line represented the antithesis of the sweet, loveable animated character he was mocking.


Gumby remains popular nearly five decades after his creation. Next month, Rhino Home Video plans to release a seven-DVD set of all the Gumby episodes.

And that is where we will find Gumby again.

Below is a picture of me with my favorite friends: Gumby, Pokey, Alvin, and Richard Nixon.