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.