Say Kids! What Time is It? Notes From the Peanut Gallery

Say Kids! What Time Is It? is the first backstage history of The Howdy Doody Show, which transfixed children of the American Baby Boom between 1947 and 1960. Author Stephen Davis, the son of Howdy writer and director Howard Davis, provides an authoritative look at the glamorous early days of television in New York and the improbable cast that populated Doodyville - Buffalo Bob, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, Clarabell, and Chief Thunderthud - whose daily on-camera adventures are indelibly branded on the consciousness of a generation. Davis also tells the real life stories of Bob Smith, Robert Keesan, Judy Tyler, Dayton Allen, and the other bright new faces of the 1950s who made Howdy Doody the first hit show on network television. Say Kids! What Time Is It? chronicles all of Howdy's dramatic crises: the 1952 cast rebellion, the firing of the first Clarabell, Buffalo bob's near-fatal heart attack, the desertion of the beautiful Princess to star with Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock, and the final crushing ratings defeat by the Mouse from California. Say Kids! What Time Is It? is an irresistible and sometimes shocking trip behind the scenes of collective memory for Howdy fans everywhere.