Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:12:21 -0400
From: "Steve Abrams" <sapuppets-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Velma Dawson


Here is an essay by Greg Williams of Los Angeles
Greg brought Velma to the regional festival in Los Angeles in 2000.
She performed at the festival cabaret and it was recorded
Greg's web site is www.puppetstudio.com
He has written quite a few fine articles. He gave me permission to
send the article to pupcrit

August 1998

Velma Dawson made the most famous marionette in the world! HOWDY DOODY

The artist who built Howdy Doody, Velma Dawson, was in town for
Howdy's two-day filming in Jim Carrey's movie, "Man in the Moon."
(Howdy puppet by Rene Zendejas). Dawson, an elegant, striking woman of
a certain age, has an inner light that shines through. Maybe it is a
result from doing what she loves, spending her days creating art. Time
has not dimmed her humor or perspicacity. Velma Dawson is a jewel.

For years, the publicity that NBC sent out about Howdy had many
errors, including misspelling Dawson's name. Much of that erroneous
material has been repeated, even in published books.
Frank Paris had the original puppet show. It was broadcast from NBC's
Radio City headquarters in New York. Frank needed a voice for his
character Elmer. That's how Bob Smith came on the show. Smith already
had a NBC talk show for family and kids on the air. As Buffalo Bob
Smith did Elmer's voice.

The show got better and more popular. When NBC asked for dolls and
merchandising, Paris wanted a part of the money. It was his show and
his puppets. NBC balked at sharing a piece of the show with Paris.
(Ultimately Howdy made about $3 billion dollars in merchandising.)
Paris had an advisor, a close friend, who insisted he walk from the
show. Frank left NBC stranded. He took his puppets with him. His exit
made Bob Smith the top gun on the show.

NBC needed a Howdy Doody . The director of NBC, Norm Blackburn, was a
caricaturist. He did a few sketches that he sent to Mel Allen, an
artist who had worked for Disney. The original sketches for Howdy came
from Mel Allen. In the interim, the character of Howdy spoke from a
box and, at one point, told the kids he was getting plastic surgery to
run for office. Norm Blackburn had come from Hollywood. He remembered
seeing a marionette performance of Velma Dawson's in Toluca Lake. He
contacted Dawson. She was the only puppeteer he knew. She had a puppet
studio in her Hollywood home near the Wilshire District.

NBC was desperate for the puppet. They rushed Velma. Howdy was made in
nine days, a process that Velma wished had taken months. Velma knew
Frank Paris in Hollywood. They worked puppets in a picture together.
Velma made Howdy for $300, a fact that Frank Paris later turned into a
joke. Frank Paris sued NBC for $250,000, a huge sum in those days.
After he got his money, he said he made more money off Howdy Doody
than Velma Dawson did. Velma acknowledges that was true. She adds,
"Good thing I was good. It could have been a lousy puppet."

Velma developed into a good puppeteer the usual way: hard work,
perseverance and talent. She got into puppetry after seeing the fabled
team of Walton and O'Rourke perform in their Olveras Street Theater.
She could not believe how wonderful their show was. Nor how magical
puppets could be. She tried to buy some puppets but found scarcely one
for sale. She looked for puppet-making books and found only one by
Tony Sarg. She said that Sarg's puppets were very crude. He sculpted
them out of plastic wood without molds. They looked very lumpy up
close.

Her first puppet built from the Sarg book "was pathetic." Her
fascination with the craft took her to art school where she learned to
sculpt. Then she happened upon a puppet show in Robinson's Department
Store in downtown Los Angeles. It was Wayne Barlow's production of
Disney's Dumbo. "I was thunderstruck," Velma recalls. Although it was
a very commercial production, the puppets and manipulation were
exquisite. She went backstage and asked if the Barlows sold any of
their puppets. The husband and wife team replied, "No, but we'll teach
you." Both were excellent artisans. (Rene Zendejas adds that Mrs.
Barlow was a superb air brush artist.)

The second puppet Velma built under the Barlows' eyes also "was bad."
She admits, "When you're learning, everything is bad." However, Velma
eventually learned to sculpt beautifully and even mastered the
difficult art of putting personality into her pieces. She continued
making puppets.

Velma eventually had a puppet theater in her own home that sat 10.
Meanwhile her friendships within the field expanded. She did some
shows with Bob Baker. Rene game along and worked the gramophone
although, as Velma tells it, "He broke the record." She continued the
friendships, working with Bob Baker in his studio whenever she was in
town just to keep her hand in puppetry. Rene was a in high school when
Velma made Howdy. He always came over to hang out and see what was
happening.

Velma didn't have a television set, so after she shipped the Howdy
Doody off to New York, she "forgot about the whole thing." She saw the
show later and "thought it was awful, pathetic. The manipulation was
atrocious." The original puppeteer on the Howdy Doody show was not
very skilled.

Meanwhile, Velma helped pioneer puppetry in television locally with
her own show. It was a fifteen-minute broadcast every day at 5:00 p.m.
on KTTV Los Angeles. Two months into the run, Velma, who did
everything on the broadcast herself, found that she was running out of
new puppets and material. She was a bit relieved when she got a call
from NBC in New York. Howdy's inept puppeteer had broken the
marionette's head and Velma was needed for repairs. She told her TV
audience that she was ending her program and heading to New York, "to
fix Howdy Doody."

In a story that has never been printed, Velma says that while working
on Howdy in New York, it got late in the day. She decided to work on
the marionette in her hotel room a few blocks from NBC. Velma put
Howdy in a suitcase and started out. On her way, she was accosted by a
young man (she says "a bum") who seemed seriously out-of whack. He
insisted on carrying the case for her. It was a tug of war, with Velma
holding on tightly as she headed for the hotel. When she reached the
door, she yelled for help. What if that man had grabbed the suitcase
and disappeared with it?

It was on this visit that Velma insisted that NBC hire a puppeteer who
could manipulate a marionette. She said the way Howdy jiggled and
walked on his knees was awful. She didn't want the job; she had a home
and husband in Hollywood. Two years later, in 1952, NBC hired Rufus
Rose and Howdy began to act better.

Velma made a second version of the famous marionette at NBC's request
although she told them that it would not be the same Howdy. (All
puppeteers will understand that!) Velma was right. That puppet became
the Inspector on the show. As for the other puppets like Flubadub,
uncredited New York puppeteers built them.

An interesting aspect to Velma was her marriage. Velma married John
Dawson, a prominent amateur golfer, in the early '40s. Her husband
found it remarkable that a resort like Palm Springs had no 18-hole
golf course. He got into golf development and is credited with making
Palm Springs the golf capital of the world. John Dawson bought an old,
failing dude ranch in Rancho Mirage, a place called the Thunderbird
that was losing $35,000 a year and up for sale. It became Palm Springs
first golf club. (That's when the desert town was four-hour drive from
L.A.) The last country club Dawson created before his death was the
Marrakesh in the '70s. By then the Dawsons had divorced after 32 years
of marriage.

Ve lma admits to four careers, so far, in her life. She started as a
dancer. That got her into the entertainment business or "show biz" as
Velma calls it. Then she became an actress, a career she gave up on
marriage. Puppeteering, her third career, led to her fourth career in
art. She loved to sculpt and got into ceramics. At one time, she sold
figurines for $150 (pricey in those days). She gave that up after ten
years. It demanded so much of her time fussing over kilns. Then she
turned to painting. Velma added a fifth career, interior decorating.
Interior decorating was the most profitable for her. Her wealthy
clients included many celebrities. Velma Dawson decorated every
country club her husband John built.

An early member of the Puppeteers of America and the Los Angeles Guild
of Puppetry, Velma thought the local puppet guild "pathetic" on first
encounter. She and others like Baker and Rene were "pioneers of
puppetry." It took television to make their art and craft the big-time
commercial enterprise that it is today.

Live puppetry offers a creative refuge for anyone who has ever loved
it. "Once you do puppets, they're always with you," Velma admits. She
still entertains with her marionettes. "I gave a show two months ago
in City Hall in Palm Desert for 50 people." Her favorite puppet is a
saucy madam who works the crowd. She loves to ad lib.

Velma has sold most of her other puppets including full shows at
national puppet conventions. She is down to fifteen.

Velma found that many did not give her credit for making the original
Howdy. Even the Puppeteers of America insisted that the Roses made
Howdy Doody. When Velma objected, the national puppetry organization
asked her to prove her claim. Velma sent the paperwork that
established her role. Buffalo Bob never acknowledged Velma's
contribution to the Howdy Doody show until a few years before his
death. He sent Dawson an autographed picture of himself and Howdy. He
wrote under Howdy "Hi, Mom." Many say that Buffalo Bob disliked
puppeteers. Velma says that Smith once told her somewhat resentfully
"I spent my career making that puppet famous."

Fans still seek out Velma and adore her. She gets taken to dinner by
successful, forty-something gentlemen who fly to Rancho Mirage just to
meet Howdy's famous mom. Velma takes it all in stride. "All I did" she
says, "was make a stupid puppet."



On 9/28/07, Michael <mreher-AT-dc.rr.com> wrote:
> Thank you Alan for passing on the news about Velma. I have been a
> close friend of Velma's for many years. I know that she has continued
> on a wonderful journey. I visited with Velma often, once a week. I
> had a long conversation with her Tuesday evening and had shared with
> her about Marcel Marceau. I had the honor of meeting him several
> years ago. We talked about his teaching and helping puppeteers and
> Velma said, "Good, they need all the help they can get." We both
> laughed very hard. Velma had a wonderful; sense of humor and sharp
> wit. I am grateful I have shared wonderful times and helped keep
> puppetry alive with Velma. There was hardly an evening when friends
> gathered or a party that Howdy and Madame Sings Off Key didn't make a
> special appearance. This past spring Velma was honored for 50 years
> of service by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. I
> had the responsibility and pleasure of presenting Howdy before the
> more than 500 guests. Howdy, spoke with the guests and MC, Bryce
> Zabel. When the time came to present Velma her special award, there
> was no more joy in me than when Howdy pointed to Velma's and said
> "Come on up her Mom!".
>
> Velma created wonderful puppets and marionettes. She recently asked
> me to bring back to life a special series of characters she created
> in the fifties. We, Velma and I, have already been able to share with
> another generation of young people a few of the beautifully built
> characters. I know that everyday that a string is pulled, that Velma
> is right here pulling that string too.
>
> Below is an article from the front page of the Desert Sun. Earlier it
> was mistakenly reported Velma being 84. She'd let you know, as well
> as all who helped celebrate her Birthday May 30, that she is 95 years
> old. The article below originally referred to Iris Beach as a
> caretaker. Iris has been a close and valued friend of Velma and her
> late husband for more than 50 years. She has known Velma longer than
> anyone and provide quality of life, a caretaker never could have.
>
> Desert Sun Article (Revised)
>
> Creator of Howdy Doody dies at 95
> Judith Salkin * The Desert Sun *
>
> September 27, 2007
>
> Velma Wayne Dawson, the woman who made Howdy Doody a TV icon, has
> died at the age of 95 at her Palm Desert home.
> Dawson was born in Sydney, Australia, on May 30, 1912.
> Originally taking an interest in dance, she was a ballroom dancer
> with Charles Tesks and worked as a dance stand-in for Marion Davies.
> She became enamored of puppets, marionettes in particular, after
> seeing the Walton and O'Rourke puppets on Los Angeles' famed Olvera
> Street.
> After trying to find a puppet to purchase, Dawson searched for
> puppet-making books.
> Dawson spent the next several years developing her skills as
> marionette designer.
> "There's a lot that goes into the puppets. You have counter balance
> the strings to get them move right," said Robin Montgomery of the
> Pacific Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts
> and Sciences.
> In 1948, when NBC was looking for someone to carve a new Howdy Doody,
> after a dispute with Howdy's original designer, Frank Paris, they
> contacted Dawson.
> She continued as Howdy's primary caretaker through the 1960s when the
> show went off the air.
> Dawson was married to golf course designer Johnny Dawson in the early
> 1940s. The couple was married for 32 years before they divorced in
> the 1970s.
> While Johnny Dawson designed the Thunderbird Country Club, Velma
> designed the clubhouse. "It never looked as beautiful as when Velma
> designed it," said longtime friend, Edith Morrey. The two also
> collaborated on other country clubs in the area.
> Morrey, who shared a friendship with Dawson for more than 50 years,
> recalled her work with Coachella Valley charities, particularly the
> Pathfinder Ball at Thunderbird Country Club and her seat on the board
> of the College of the Desert Foundation. The foundation building is
> named in her honor.
> According to Dawson's longtime friend, Iris Beach, memorial services
> are pending. "She wanted to be cremated and her ashes buried next to
> her mother."
> Throughout her long life, Dawson was best remembered for Howdy Doody.
> "All I did," she is quoted as saying, "was make a stupid puppet."
> End end end
>
> I will have a few pictures to share soon. For now, everyone=8A.
> It's Howdy Doody Time
> It's Howdy Doody Time . . . . . .
>
>
> Michael Reher
> Master Puppeteer-Proprietor
> Things On Strings
> La Quinta, CA 92253
> 760-771-9671
> visit us and shop on line
> <http://www.thingsonstrings.com/>www.thingsonstrings.com
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