Interview with Art Clokey-Creator of Gumby & Pokey

This interview was recorded in April 1983 for a magazine article. In the interview, Art Clokey explains the origins of Gumby, his philosophy regarding Gumby, clay animation and children’s films in general. He also explains how tensions with his first wife, Ruth, led to his losing Gumby and how he reclaimed his famous creation. Finally Mr. Clokey discusses how he wrote the screenplay for his feature film, “Gumby-The Movie.”

[@matthewmclees4105]

Badass that you put this on RUclips. Gumby is a forgotten legend.

[@zebraradio1610]

Hopefully that's a good thing. I thought Gumby fans and animation history buffs might find the interview interesting.

[@zestygurl]

This deserves a proper movie show behind the scenes of Gumby. Work with clay and now have a new appreciation for a style of film making art of claymation. Fully. Stop motion is not easy to do consistently the time Gumby was first released especially was impressive to me still is.

[@zebraradio1610]

Yes, animating with clay requires a great deal of patience. In the future, I hope to share more information on Gumby and Art Clokey.

[@dj-um7el]

​@@zebraradio1610
On God, I'm working on Ceramics at school, and now claymation seems like something I'd like to learn.

[@DezMonKei]

Thank you! 🙏🏿

[@meowkitty5588]

Art Clokey did the commercials from the early 1950s such as Andersen’s Pea Soup, Coca-Cola and Budweiser.

[@castanedagus]

Loved this history on Gumby and Pokey

[@zebraradio1610]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@EricHowl]

Awesome interview

[@zebraradio1610]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. In the age of podcasts it seemed that now was a good time to release this interview.

[@meowkitty5588]

I like the interview.

[@LorenIpsum75]

Gumby's very first opening theme was written by production music composer, William Loose.
When the same theme was chosen for the Columbia/Screen Gems sitcom, "Dennis the Menace", Clokey replaced all the Gumby shorts with the second William Loose theme. 😁👍

[@wallygator92]

Now they are making a Gumby reboot, but it's 2D animation instead of stop motion clay, and they are also making an adult Gumby show too. 😒😒😒😒😒

[@zebraradio1610]

These are terrible ideas! In the interview, Art Clokey said that people had a connection not just to Gumby but to the clay. But take the clay away and make Gumby 2D and where is that connection? In my last conversation with Joe Clokey, he said that he wanted to partner with a major company but still retain control of Gumby, much like his father wanted. Obviously, Joe's children and wife don't feel the same way. They seemed fairly eager to unload the Gumby franchise to Fox Entertainment. As Art might have said, "They don't respect Gumby. They don't know what Gumby is about," (quoting from the interview).

[@josephesposito3499]

LOL. Gumby creator knew FRANK ZAPPA! WOW! Also he created Davey & Goliath! WOW!

[@zebraradio1610]

Actually the Lutheran Church had the idea of a boy and his dog with a family. Art added the seemingly small but critical dimension of having the dog talk to the boy and only the boy understood the dog. Such was Art Clokey's genius.

[@josephesposito3499]

@@zebraradio1610 OK, I meant he even created the clay characters for that animation as well as Gumby