Google pays tribute to clay animation expert Arthur “Art” Clokey — Gumby and the gang invades search engine giant’s homepage.

Cute Google Doodle today, Wednesday (Hong Kong Time), paying tribute to Mr. Arthur Art Clokey’s 90th birthday. Mr. Clokey is the man behind the popular TV show character Gumby. I should point out that Gumby is made of clay, so Google’s Doodle for Art Clokey features clays transforming into humanoids. If you’re in North America, you will see this new Doodle starting Wednesday, October 12.

Art Clokey Google Doodle featuring the popular TV character "Gumby."

According to Art Clokey’s WikiPedia entry, he was born on October 12, 1921 in Detroit, Michigan. The site also noted that Art Clokey’s birth name is Arthur C. Farrington, but he was adopted by Joseph Clokey when he was 12. The older Clokey was a composer working at Pomona College in Claremont, California.

Art Clokey loved digging fossils and studied Geology, said Wikipedia, and he made his first film in 1955, the Gumbasia, the clay animation parody of Disney’s Fantasia. This film was discovered by Samuel G. Engel, and in 1957, and the first episode of The Gumby Show was aired by NBC.

Gumby The Movie was released in 1995, and Namco created a Gumby video game for the Game Boy Advance titled “Gumby vs. the Astrobots.” In 2007, Google-owned YouTube featured all 200+ full-length episodes of Gumby in celebration of the TV character’s 50th anniversary.

Art Clokey died in his sleep on January 8, 2010 due to a recurrent bladder infection.

Art Clokey Google Doodle: Gumby appears , under Internet and Social Media Category.

Tags used: Google Doodles, Search Engines. Sources: Wikipedia (Art Clokey), Wikipedia (Gumby).

Art Clokey