Prehistoric Gumby
By James Grahame
Several years before Gumby ambled onto the small screen, Art Clokey created Gumbasia while studying at USC. Gumby didn't appear in this three minute experimental claymation film, but there's a glimmer of the kinetic brilliance that played a key role in the next half century of Gumby and Pokey films.
Clokey showed Gumbasia to movie producer Sam Engel in 1955, who bankrolled the 15-minute episode Gumby Goes to the Moon. The pilot was rejected by NBC but led to the appearance of a second Gumby short - Robot Rumpus - on The Howdy Doody Show in mid 1956. He got his own show a year later. Gumby, along with his faithful sidekick Pokey, Nopey the dog and the Blockheads went on to star in over 200 stop motion adventures.
