The couple decided to move to Southern California to join the film business. After college, he joined a seminary to become an Episcopalian priest, but soon met his first wife, Ruth. Happily, Art Clokey was adopted by a well-known musician, Joseph Clokey, who encouraged Arts creativity and artistic interests. Thats one of the reasons why he stayed an 11-year-old boy for so many years. It was really hard for my dad psychologically, said Joe Clokey. But his new stepfather did not want anything to do with him, and his mother agreed to send Clokey to an orphanage. After Art Clokeys father died when he was 10 years old, he moved from Michigan to California to live with his mother. The Gumby story can be traced back to the creators troubled childhood, his son said. He wants children to have something of value on TV. My dad wanted Gumby back on TV, said Joe Clokey, who lives just outside San Luis Obispo near his father. Joe Clokey, who owns a company that produces educational videos, said his father asked him to take over the Gumby business six years ago and bring the gingerbread-shaped hero back to children. And the family hopes a documentary film about Art Clokeys life will be broadcast on television. The first Gumby video game and a DVD of Gumby shows from the 1980s are scheduled for release this summer. Later that month, Clokeys family will celebrate Gumbys 50 years at a birthday extravaganza in San Francisco, said Joe Clokey, 43, who now runs the familys Gumby business, Premavision/Clokey Productions. In mid-June, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City will open a six-month exhibit about Gumby and creator Clokey.
Over the next four decades, Clokey, along with his first wife and later his second wife, produced 223 episodes chronicling the adventures of wide-eyed Gumby, horse Pokey and other pals as they traveled to the moon, the Wild West and Toyland.
IM GUMBY DAMMIT SERIES
The Antioch exhibit is the first event planned this year to commemorate the 50 years since Clokey made a short art film called Gumbasia, featuring clay animation set to jazz music, that inspired the beloved TV series that debuted a year later in 1956. Theres a whole new generation thats going to embrace and love Gumby as much as I did. Hes a cultural icon that many of us grew up with. Gumby is an icon, said Diane Gibson-Gray, 49, executive director of the Arts and Cultural Foundation of Antioch, which is sponsoring the monthlong exhibit. Creator Art Clokey, now 83, signed Gumby figurines at the two-story exhibit, which featured photographs, toys and other memorabilia. Gumby and Friends: The First 50 Years attracted fans of all ages at Saturdays opening at the historic Lynn House Gallery in Antioch, about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO Five decades after Gumby first captured the nations imagination, the little green guy and his chums are starring in a new art exhibit the first in a series of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the TV icons creation and launch his comeback. Gumby grew out of creator Clokeys troubled childhoodĬreator Art Clokey mingles with a stuffed version of Gumby on Saturday.
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