Art Clokey, creator of Gumby, on acid

Phyllis shares a video and interview with late, great Gumby creator Art Clokey. Subjects include LSD, hippies, the sixties, carbogen, and NDEs. Fun times in Gumby land for sure.

Hippies always got Gumby, says Art Clokey. "They could see he was an honest expression right from my heart," explains Clokey, the soft-spoken, gently effervescent septuagenarian who created the fanciful pea-green funboy in 1953.
"I wasn't trying to exploit children or do formula television. Gumby was an honest attempt to entertain and give kids a little joy."...
And certain countercultural toonheads claim to have seen hallucinogenic entertainment qualities in "The Gumby Show." And they might be on the mark. Clokey briefly experimented with LSD in the early '60s, he said, when it was still legal, taking the mind-expanding drug under medical supervision.
"There were some pretty psychedelic scenes in the newer episodes," the affable animator confessed. But then, maybe he was just naturally high. "My original subsconscious was in touch with something," he observed.

Rest in peace.

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Posted By jamesk at 2010-01-10 14:51:29 permalink | comments

Tags: gumby acid lsd clokey hippies carbogen video

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Lorenzo. : 2010-01-14 00:05:40

Clokey, in this interview, talks about the place where he went for his LSD experience. It was most likely the Institute for Advanced Studies in Menlo Park, CA. As far as I know, they were the only ones who pre-screened their participants, and also gave them a carbogen experience beforehand. Myron Stolaroff talks about this in his interview in my podcast #83 at [link] , and he does mention that Timothy Leary was on their advisory board of directors.

Anonymous. : 2010-01-11 08:03:00

A few years back I went through all the episodes with my son (they had the boxed set at the local video store, and it took us a few months). At the end of the material they had a few of his Non-Gumby short films, including one called Mandala. When I saw that it became immediately and unquestionably apparent that Clokey was no stranger to psychedelics! It traces the evolution of consciousness from inorganic matter, through the Buddha, and all the way to what was at that time the highest expression of consciousness: hippies frolicking in a meadow.

I encourage you all to take a look at it. I imagine it's up on Youtube somewhere.

dononamous. : 2010-01-10 15:20:43

Thank you for posting!

that was awesome!