Rootie Kazootie August 11, 2007

Here's an almost forgotten children's puppet star who was described as "The World's Newest and Cutest Liliputian" when his show debuted, September 30th, 1950. How did he get his name? Check this out:

In 1947, Howdy Doody was the first live kids program to become a household name, the moment it hit the airwaves. Not only kids and their parents were hooked on the show, but America’s leaders were as well. A mail room count at NBC headquarters in New York on Nov 4, 1952, while most of the country was worrying who would be president, Dwight D. Eisenhower or Adlai Stevenson, showed that Howdy Doody received 1,294,003 ballots more than former Vice President Henry Wallace had, running as a major third party candidate, in 1948.
That same year, a group of psychologists in Boston tested the speech habits of infants 2-years-old and under. They were at a loss to know how to interpret the fact out of 100 diaper debutantes investigated, 86 pronounced the words Rootie Kazootie before they could say “Mommy or “Daddy”.

It's another memory this writer forgot about until I found my family's old deck of playing cards. Got any memories of Rootie Kazootie? Why not share them in the Message Board titled " Memories".

And now, back to the music history.

Todays gallery update: Sour Grapes* (Thanks to Sean McCool)

*Make a point to read the 1975 article in the gallery Sean submitted about the evils of rock and roll called " Rock Music Appeals To Flesh"