Clarabell the Clown

Clarabell the Clown died yesterday. Actually, the person, Les Anderson, 85, who was the last and best to play Clarabell on the Howdy Doody Show, died. The first person to play Clarabell was Bob Keeshan, who became Captain Kangaroo. The Howdy Doody Show, airing in 1947, was the first network children's show. It was important because it showcased the novelty of the new technology of television and also sold tv sets bought by parents so all we little kiddies could see it. The show was in black-and-white until 1955. Buffalo Bob, Howdy Doody, and Clarabell the Clown were characters in a circus town, Doodyville, which had a mix of puppets and human beings as well as a Peanut Gallery of Kids. Clarabell was a mute, lovable, and mischevious clown who communicated by toots on bicycle horns and with a bottle of seltzer. It was a big surprise when Clarabell the Clown, who never said anything, spoke the very last words, "Goodbye, kids," when the show went off the air in 1960. My family did not get a television set until 1952, when I was six years old. I remember the Howdy Doody Show as one of my favorites and the very first television show I remember. Clarabell's death heralds the passing of an era.