The audience packed into Woldman Theater in Norton Hall Tuesday night, when Art Clokey, the creator of the ancient children's television character "Gumby," gave a live presentation on the small clay cult figure.
The rather odd presentation, sponsored by the University Union Activities Board, went over quite well. "Except for the Bruce Lee Festival, the Woldman Theater has never been so filled during the Spring Semester," Student Association Speakers Bureau Director Todd Feibush said.
The crowd was actually restless when the program was late in starting. The audience began chanting "Gum-by!" when Art Clokey, a tall, thin man in his sixties, wearing a matching blue cloth cap and jacket, ran onto the stage, waving to his cheering fans.
After briefly leaving the stage, Clokey returned wearing a lifesize Gumby head strapped onto his own. The audience again went wild. Many stood up. Almost everybody chanted "Gum-by," clapping with each syllable. One woman shouted from the middle of the crowd, "We're the Gumby Generation!"
When the noise died down, Clokey introduced his wife Gloria, who also wore a Gumby head. She stayed on the stage for only a minute. Clokey spoke briefly about his personal background and how he began producing Gumby, as if he were having a conversation with a few friends. The audience's undivided attention was his.
A film was then introduced, composed of five Gumby short stories and two films of other clay figures without acting characters. During the five short stories, the audience cheered for Gumby and his clay horse pal Pokey and hissed at the appearance of the "bad guys."
One of the films without characters, Gumbasia, made in 1953, was an imaginative display of rainbow-colored clay pieces which continuously rolled and bent themselves into various geometric shapes. After the films, Clokey walked back onto the stage—without his Gumby hat—to answer questions from the audience.
People asked Clokey what it was that inspired him, who his influences were, and how he produced his films.
He explained his work in the filming studio, how his characters were positioned for still-shooting films (using himself as an example figure), and that Gumby is simply a flat clay figure.
He explained, in less detail, film market distribution, why he chose certain names for his characters, and said that it pleases him to see Gumby portrayed on Saturday Night Live by Eddie Murphy.
"I find that all of these films expose my inner psyche," Clokey said. "I would base one of Gumby's adventures on an experience of my own, or from a bedtime story I told my children."
Following his graduation from the University of Southern California, Clokey studied film under Yugoslavian film director Slavko Vorkipitz, his greatest influence. Together they experimented with cinematography and "stop-go" animated filming. During the '50s, Clokey produced advertisements for Coca-Cola and Budweiser as well as animation for NBC, which paid him only $300 a month.
The Lutheran Church was impressed with his work and commissioned him to produce the television series Davey and Goliath, still in syndication. Using his earnings, Clokey independently developed the Gumby series.
After everyone sang the Gumby theme song and more films were shown, the program ended. Clokey said he still enjoys filming children stories and hopes to produce a full-length Gumby movie by next year. He added, however, "Actually, only a child can tell a child's story."
E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
