Howdy Doody spoon
date: label: date made
content: around 1952
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Promotional Howdy Doody spoon made and distributed as a premium for the Welch Grape Juice Company. The silverplate spoon has a handle cast in the shape of Howdy Doody and dates to around 1952-1954, when this promotional sales campaign was active. Grocery customers could obtain this ice cream spoon by collecting and submitting proof of purchase of a certain number of Welch’s products.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The Howdy Doody Show was one of the most popular and influential children's television programs in American history. Creator "Buffalo" Bob Smith created and voiced the character on radio before transitioning to television, where he performed alongside puppeteers who operated the Howdy Doody marionette and other characters. The show, which aired on NBC from 1947 to 1960, had a playhouse-style variety format, with puppet and human characters interacting in skits and songs in front of a “peanut gallery” of children. Additional characters – all citizens of the Western-themed “Doodyville” included Clarabell the Clown, Phineas T. Bluster, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, Dilly Dally, and Flub-a-Dub.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The Howdy Doody Show was immediately successful and was NBC's first daily show to be extended to five days a week. Even before the advent of Nielsen ratings, Howdy Doody demonstrated its ability to draw an audience both for NBC and for possible advertisers. When Howdy ran for "President of all the kids" in 1948, the show offered free campaign buttons for anyone who wrote in with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. They received well over 60,000 requests, representing one-third of the American homes with television sets and many more than the households able to see the NBC network at that time. Within a week their advertising time was sold out to major advertisers such as Colgate Palmolive Company. Over the course of the series Buffalo Bob Smith and Howdy did in-show commercials for Wonder Bread, Campbell Soup, Hostess Twinkies, and other sponsors new to television who learned the power of marketing to children.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
topic: label: Subject
content: Television
label: Subject
content: Children's television programs
label: Subject
content: Promotional Item
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Erin Spry in memory of Sidney W. Spry
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2021.0175.01
label: accession number
content: 2021.0175
label: catalog number
content: 2021.0175.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: spoon
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 in x 1 in; 17.78 cm x 2.54 cm