Mr. Kean, who recently passed away at age 85, played a key role in the production of The Howdy Doody Show.
The program, originally known as Puppet Playhouse, began airing on television at the end of 1947.
As the New York Times obituary notes (see link, below), Mr. Kean was the show's chief writer, co-wrote (with star Buffalo Bob Smith) the lyrics to the program's famous theme song, and named such characters as Clarabell the Clown, and Princess Summerfall Winterspring. The obituary also notes: "He once said that he was probably best known for coining the word 'cowabunga' (originally spelled with a 'k') as a greeting for Chief Thunderthud, a character on the show."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/arts/25kean.html?adxnnl=1&ref=obituaries&adxnnlx=1282709396-k1oU0qF1yTg/Qk3obNZo9A
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Andrew Fielding, while host of a radio talk show in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1996
A Book About Network Television in the late 1940s and early 1950s, by Andrew Lee Fielding. Originally published in 2007 by BearManor Media. Revised Edition published in 2019. See also: www.andrewleefielding.com, or www.earlytelevision.net
A Blog About Early Television...Later Television...The Big Band period...and other matters of history, family, and popular culture...
REVISED EDITION NOW AVAILABLE
"The Lucky Strike Papers"--subtitled "Journeys Through My Mother's Television Past"--profiles such early network television shows as "Your Hit Parade" (also known as "The Lucky Strike Hit Parade"), "Kay Kyser's College of Musical Knowledge," and "The Freddy Martin Show." Author Andrew Fielding's late mother, Sue Bennett, sang on these programs, and others, in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
To purchase a copy of the 2019 Revised Edition of the book, please visit:
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Blog Archive
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2010
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August
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- Sale price of book
- George David Weiss, addendum
- Songwriter George David Weiss
- Edward Kean, from "The Howdy Doody Show"
- More about Helen O'Connell (and Sue Bennett)
- Helen O'Connell, on "Your Hit Parade" radio show
- "Your Hit Parade," on Wikipedia
- Bobby Thomson
- The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention
- Robert F. Boyle, film production designer
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August
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Andrew Fielding, while host of a radio talk show in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1996
About Me
- Andrew Lee Fielding
- Andrew Fielding has written for The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Providence Journal, The Philadelphia Daily News, Horizon Magazine, and other publications. He has also worked as a radio talk show host--in Philadelphia, in suburban Philadelphia, in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in northern New Jersey. He was also, for three years, the host of a weekly talk show on a nostalgia-oriented Internet radio station. His book about early television, "The Lucky Strike Papers," was published in December, 2007 by BearManor Media. A revised edition of the book was brought out in January of 2019.