Howdy Doody

Howdy Doody was the star of the children puppet show, The Howdy Doody Show, which ran from 1947 to 1960. He was the sidekick of Buffalo Bob Smith.

History
Howdy Doody himself was a freckle–faced boy marionette with 48 freckles, one for each state of the union at the time of his creation (up until January 3, 1959, when Alaska became the 49th state), and originally was voiced by Buffalo Bob Smith. The Howdy Doody show’s various marionettes were created and built by puppeteers Dawson, Scott Brinker (the show’s prop man), and Rufus Rose throughout the show’s run. The redheaded Howdy marionette on the original show was operated with 11 strings: two heads, one mouth, one eye, two shoulders, one back, two hands and two knees. Three strings were added when the show returned—two elbows and one nose. There were duplicate Howdy Doody puppets, designed to be used expressly for off–the–air purposes (lighting rehearsals, personal appearances, etc.), although surviving kinescope recordings clearly show that these duplicate puppets were indeed used on the air occasionally. “Double Doody”, the Howdy stand–in puppet, now is in the collection of the Division of Culture and the Arts at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The original marionette now resides at the Detroit Institute of Arts.