Blog: Remember Gumby? Google does

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[media-credit name=”Fernando de Sousa” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]By Katie Barlow

Did you see the google homepage today? It’s Gumby–among the list of things we forget from our not-too-distant childhood.

If you don’t know what Gumby is, you’re too young.

Gumby is a clay character invented by Art Clokey, who is acclaimed to be the pioneer of stop motion animation. The inspiration behind the doodle today is that October 12 marks Clokey’s birthday, if he were still alive.  The New York Times put together an obituary honoring the man behind the clay, who died in January 2010.

Why do we love Gumby? Because he was made of clay. Entertainment Weekly took a stab at why the little green guy made his way into pop culture.

Gumby first appeared on television back in 1956 on the Howdy Doody show and The Washington Post documented Gumby’s timeline here.

In addition to the google doodle and coordinating video, today marks the debut of a site dedicated to Gumby and Clokey called GumbyWorld. This site, created by Art Clokey’s son Joe, has everything Gumby–from episodes of the show to the history of Gumby to merchandise and games. Halloween is coming soon, so you might consider this costume.

While you’re perusing the web for all things Gumby, check out this article from the Huffington Post with a photo of Mr. Clokey.

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