Fort Lauderdale FL—“Say, kids, what time is it?”
“It’s Howdy Doody time!”
Jack Drury, former business manager of Buffalo Bob Smith of The Howdy Doody Show, will be the featured speaker at today’s Howdy Doody Stamp Day event being held in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale’s luncheon/meeting. Fort Lauderdale Postmaster Mike Fortunato will present an enlargement of the Howdy Doody stamp in the Early TV Memories commemorative stamp set. This event will be at 12 Noon at the Coral Ridge Country Club, 3801 Bayview Drive in Fort Lauderdale.
The Howdy Doody Show is a happy memory for many baby boomers. It premiered as Puppet Playhouse in December 1947, but its name was quickly changed. The show was set in the imaginary town of Doodyville and blended live-action characters such as host “Buffalo Bob” Smith and Clarabell, a mischievous clown, with puppets including the title character. It was performed before a live audience of children known as the peanut gallery. Howdy, shown in the stamp art, was a boy with red hair and 48 freckles—one for each state in the Union at that time.
The Early TV Memories sheet of 44-cent First-Class stamps celebrate 20 productions from television’s Golden Age. The stamps recognize The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Dinah Shore Show; Dragnet; Ed Sullivan Show; George Burns & Gracie Allen Show; Hopalong Cassidy; The Honeymooners; Howdy Doody; I Love Lucy; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; Lassie; The Lone Ranger; Perry Mason; Phil Silvers Show; The Red Skelton Show; Texaco Star Theater; The Tonight Show; Twilight Zone; and You Bet Your Life.
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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 149 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes, six days a week. It has 34,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services, not tax dollars, to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.
