“Gumby & Co. Land in Topanga”
by Jeanne Christoferson
Photos by Tom Mitchell
Arthur Clokey—Truth, Love, Gumby
Setting out on assignment for the Messenger, Tom and I drove
up the winding Topanga Canyon roads to enter the home and hear of the life of
Arthur Clokey, creator of Gumby. Arthur Clokey, a man of 56 years who is most
easily recognized by the bald top of his head, the grey bushy hair on the sides
of his head and his moustache, has lived in Topanga with his lovely wife Gloria
since 1972. For years, his character Gumby was one of the hottest selling toys
on the market and the main character in the still-running Saturday morning
cartoon show “Gumby.”
Arthur's story starts in Detroit, Michigan, with an escape
from the hot summer to his grandfather's farm 80 miles to the north. He and his
friend Junior would make figures out of clay, build a fort from building blocks
and shoot them down with toy cannons. As a boy, “when I had hair" Arthur
says, he carried around on the top of his head, a cowlick exactly the same
shape as his father's. It made his hair stand up on the right side of his head
(see photo on the bottom of this page). This natural curl, and the dreams that
Arthur Clokey had, were the inspiration in part for Gumby's appearance.
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| The Clokey cowlick here shown on Arthur's father. The direct inspiration for Gumby's unique appearance. |
At ten years of age he moved to California. Coming from a
very strict upbringing, where the ONLY way to become a very “good" boy was
to enter the Episcopal ministry, Arthur Clokey entered graduate work in
theology in Connecticut. “Conforming to all the goodness," says Arthur. “Then
I suddenly realized," grasping his forehead, “gee, I don’t want to become
a minister."
Back to California and graduate work in the USC Cinema
Department. Then on to Santa Barbara to teach chemistry, physics, algebra, etc.
In the church choir in Santa Barbara his friend asked if Arthur would be
interested in doing a film for the Split Pea Anderson Soup Company. He did a
black and white industrial film for Bob Andersen with no sound. Arthur showed
it to the Coca-Cola agency in Los Angeles, they loved it, gave him $110 and
told him to go back to his garage to “do same thing you did, but put Coke
bottles in it." After the experimental films were sent to Atlanta, Georgia
(Coca-Cola headquarters) Arthur received a package of scripts and storyboards
with a note saying: “Tell Clokey to just use these as guides to get his
technique and style across, just use the message we have."
Arthur Clokey's style and technique did not take long to
enter the walls of NBC. Commercial Spots for Coca-Cola and a spot done for
Budweiser started shaping his film career. In the Budweiser commercial clay
came into his life again. Remember the commercial for Budweiser where the piece
of Swiss cheese disappears on screen piece by piece? Clay cheese achieved this
technique and Arthur Clokey was inspired to do his first art film with clay
entitled “Gumbasia."
Why Gumby/Gumbasia we ask? “Clay has universal
flexibility," says Arthur. “Clay is Gumbo," adds Gloria whom he calls
his memory bank. “I can remember," says Arthur, “Back East in Michigan as
a kid, I heard them say “...Oh we got stuck in the gumbo."
“Not to be confused with gumbo soup," Gloria
interjects. “Yes there is a gumbo soup, thick and gooey." Arthur smiles.
“Yeah, thick and Gumby!" said Gloria as we laughed.
After completion of “Gumbasia" Arthur showed the film
to his friend and eventual partner Sam Engel of 20th Century-Fox. “Sam got so
excited," says Arthur, “that we immediately became partners." Sam
could see the potential for Arthur Clokey's style and technique. “We can make
kid shows out of little clay figures." said Sam. Arthur smiles at the
memory and muses about cartoons that will be different from the children's
cartoons now, films that will be three dimensional.
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| Gumby and Pokey, 130 episodes filmed with love and friendship. |
Shooting of these first pilot Gumby films was done at 20th
Century-Fox Studios and financed by Sam Engel. “How did you make the Gumbys for
filming?" we asked. Arthur explains:
“The artist would roll out a slab of clay, we would cut out
a clay Gumby for each shot, until it would eventually melt under the lights.
Then we would just cut another Gumby out of the slab and continue shooting. We
would use hundreds of Gumbys for each film."
He showed these pilot films to Tom Sarnoff at NBC, who then
signed a contract to do a half hour children’s show. It is now 1956 and Gumby,
the cartoon character, has skated as he so gracefully does on film on this
cover into the hearts and homes of children all over the United States.
But tell them how Gumby the toy got started," says
Gloria. “The first Gumby toys were made for NBC executives," Arthur
continues. “We gave every executive at NBC a big Gumby that we just made
special."
Reorganization at NBC forced Arthur to buy his film back and
expand the Gumby cartoons for syndication. Financing himself, Arthur quickly
realized the marketplace was tight. Walt Disney & Hanna-Barbera were
flooding the market with their cartoons. Arthur related, “I found that only
about five per cent of station managers, owners, and program directors had any
kind of real rapport with children and their needs. They were victims of the
high pressure sales techniques of exploitation and violence."
A friend of his suggested Arthur go into the toy business. I
never thought in a million years of going into the toy business," Arthur
explains, “it just seemed repulsive to me, commercializing Gumby." But
with the exposure Gumby received via NBC, commercialize he did.
“I made a toy, went through the whole process of setting up
production of the toy, running myself crazy all over the industrial areas of
the city," Arthur continues, spinning his finger in the air. “I put a few
spots on three stations to promote Gumby, and it sold! It sold faster than any
toy of its kind in the history of the toy business. Within a year we sold a
million just here in California.”
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| Gumby and Arthur 22 years together and still going strong. |
It would seem at this stage that Arthur Clokey had made it,
but there were more important and deeper things on Arthur’s mind than money.
“Money is power." Arthur says, “you can't get in through the heart."
With the creation of his Prema Toy Company. Arthur finally hid an outlet
through which he could begin to express his real feelings about love and the
giving of love to a child through a toy.
This feeling is expressed through the logo of the Prema
Company, a heart containing the ancient Sanskrit symbol Prema which every Gumby
wears on his chest. It means universal love. At this point in the conversation.
Arthur and Gloria break suddenly into the Gumby theme song: “If you have a
heart, then Gumby is a part of you."
"Gumby and his horse Pokey would merge together into a
clay heart to end every Gumby film." Arthur explains.
We begin to reminisce about our experiences with Gumby. Tom
remembers in Germany finding a Gumby in the PX, he took it to a local
playground and the kids loved it. He recalls: “They didn't want to give it up,
so I went back to the PX and bought a bunch more Gumbys for them."
“We find them in the most amazing places," says Gloria.
“I found one in a teacup in an antique store." I recalled giving a Gumby
to eight year old Ricky and he immediately started to twist the body to its
limits, arms and legs. He smiled and threw Gumby into the air and said, “Hey,
he is great!"
Arthur has tried to get kids interested in doing and in
making their own little clay things. "You remember Engineer Bill?" he
asks. “You mean the guy that only drank milk on the red light?" says Tom.
Arthur nods: "He asked the kids to send in their own little clay Gumby
figure, and the hallways of the station were piled high to the ceiling with
boxes from kids! Some of them were made out of clay; but many turned out to be
Gumby cookies."
Gumby is not like a Disney character, his basic form is much
simpler so a kid can project onto him without interference."
“He is universal." says Gloria as Arthur goes on:
“Gumby appeared first on national television in the era where there were only
black and white sets around the country. In the South, Gumby was considered the
first Black cartoon character. His green color projected on a black and white
screen made him look black."
Gumby is made out of soft pliable rubber with a shielded
armature or wire running through his entire body. The materials are organic,
Arthur explains, non-toxic and very durable.
“Playing with a Gumby can very therapeutic," Gloria
says. “Children can put their own expressions into the Gumby figure,"
Arthur adds, “it is very creative, you can really express yourself.
“There is something really deep and profound about the
symbolism of this. Back in the 60’s when the drug culture was flowering, a lot
of the hippie generation were deeply moved by the Gumby figure. Some of them
called him a symbol of universal love.”
In Gumby cartoons, Gumby could turn himself into any shape or
form. “He could melt and reappear as a boat” says Gloria, “he is also an
astro-traveller, able to jump into a book and be timeless."
Arthur again: “He is unlimited. That is what the swamis
teach us, that we are unlimited. In creating Gumby, I was not aware of what I
was really doing or why." His subconscious was poking through: “I guess my
films were like dreams in a way. I had full control at NBC to do exactly what I
felt with Gumby."
After years of psychological testing, workshops, and
spiritual experiences, Arthur Clokey realized “that my whole psyche was exposed
on national television through my films." His interests outside the film
industry include parapsychology, self-realization, and the searching for each
human's potential and power.
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| Like a proud father, Arthur Clokey displays his two creations. Right the world famous Gumby, left his newest character Moody Rudy. |
The conversation drifts onto another plane of the
subconscious and then our eyes focus onto the table in front of us and Arthur
Clokey's newest character, Moody Rudy, who is made of the same pliable rubber
as Gumby. But, Arthur says: “Moody Rudy is more sophisticated."
Gloria picks up a Moody Rudy from the table and begins
forming his face in her hands. She holds Moody Rudy up to us and Arthur
comments: “Now that expresses a feeling!" People can relate to Moody Rudy
even more than Gumby himself. “He is a mask," Arthur says, “and we all
wear masks, we all live a life of a masquerade. Moody Rudy helps us somehow
play around with the idea. It is, and can be, a physical, psychological, and
emotional outlet for people ages 4-100 and over."
Tom and I think Moody Rudy can be an essential tool in
relating your feelings to your family and friends. “Moody Rudy will have many
faces," says Arthur who plans to make Moody Rudy in all colors of the
human race. "Do you plan to put Moody Rudy into the movies?" I ask.
Arthur answers: “Maybe we could put him into a Gumby series, he can be Mr.
Nobody who knew everything."
Moody Rudy was born as a thought 15 months ago. The first 40
Moody Rudys (up to this point a very hush-hush subject as the patent had not
been cleared) have been painted by three Topanga residents, including me.
Arthur says: “Can't keep it a secret when we start making millions of them in
the Canyon."
And what better place than in Topanga which Arthur Clokey
calls his oasis and refuge: “A place where you get back to nature and live in
it. There are no straight lines in Topanga. There's not a straight street up
here. I came to Topanga to have dogs for my son Joe" (Joe the tennis freak
of 16 years blushed).
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| Arthur and his artist wife Gloria, her skills and talents are a catalyst for his work. |
Topanga is where he met Gloria. They were married nearly two
years ago in the St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. Arthur smiles: “It was a big
show, we like to have big shows."
In January Arthur and Gloria plan to visit India to see a
spiritual leader, Sai Baba, and to bring him Gumby and Moody Rudy. Besides
vacationing after setting up production of his characters, Arthur will continue
his search for the truth and hopes to bring back information that will lead him
to other projects.
Have a great time in January, Arthur and Gloria, and thank
you for helping us and our children more easily express ourselves through
Gumby, and can’t wait to meet Moody Rudy on the streets of Topanga Canyon by
Christmas! In the meantime, pick up a piece of clay and see where it takes you….
