John Lucas

And you thought the holidays were over! (Except for New Year’s, of course. ) Perhaps you forgot about Kwanzaa. Since today is the second day of Kwanzaa (which continues through January 1), I thought I ought to mark the occasion.

Turns out that there aren’t very many good Kwanzaa songs! But I did find this one, which isn’t bad!

For those not familiar with it, Kwanzaa is an African-American celebration of culture and unity. It was created in the 1960s by a Black separatist named Maulana Karenga. He is a pretty controversial figure! Then again, so was Jesus, and we still celebrate his holiday, don’t we?

Less controversial is Howdy Doody, largely due to the fact that he’s a puppet. Why am I bringing him up? Well, it’s also Howdy Doody Day, marking the fact that the character made his television debut on this day in 1947, on a program called Puppet Playhouse. Later retitled Howdy Doody, this ran until 1960, cementing Howdy as a generational touchstone for Baby Boomers (and some of their Silent Generation siblings).

Incidentally, the week after the final Howdy Doody episode, NBC premiered The Shari Lewis Show. Puppeteer Lewis is remembered best for her character Lamb Chop, who debuted on Captain Kangaroo in 1956. That show was created by the man who played Captain Kangaroo himself, Bob Keeshan—who got his start on television playing Clarabell the Clown on…drum roll, please…Howdy Doody. Kid’s TV was a pretty small industry in those days.

Howdy Doody didn’t make a lot of music videos (or any at all, most likely), but here’s the very episode of Puppet Playhouse, for any nostalgic boomers who might be reading.

Not too long ago I wrote a pretty fun article about the early development of television for Mental Floss. You can read that here.