Howdy Doody character puppets ~~~
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Charmayne's Push Puppet Page |
My KOHNER puppets
| The Kohner brothers had a license to manufacture Wakouwa puppets. Early ones were all wood and a few bases were square rather than the much more prevalent round shape. The round wood bases are VERY nice to touch. Soon the bases were changed to plastic. Most were red; blue and green were also available. These plastic bases tended to warp and crack. Several of mine have been in the Push Puppet Hospital, undergoing restorative surgery. Bob has filled the crack with epoxy to stabilize it. I have two Kohner puppets on green plastic bases, one under Howdy Doody and one under Rudolph. Interestingly, these bases STINK!! The surface turns chalky looking and when rubbed off, smells just horrible. It re-chalks quickly. The figures on all the plastic bases were still made with wood beads. I call them "transition Kohner puppets". Later yet, the Kohner puppets were all plastic, much smaller. The figures were not the same as those on the transition puppets but were different characters, many from American cartoons. The newer all plastic puppets are generally not repairable if the strings break. This page shows my all-wood and transition plastic base / wood figure puppets. |
Howdy Doody character puppets ~~~
Other people puppets ~~~
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| Bronco Bill #125: white horse, felt chaps | Bronco Bill #125: brown horse, Bill wear a blue shirt, wood chaps | Bronco Bill #125: brown horse, Bill wear a red shirt, wood chaps | |
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The Lone Ranger #182 The Kohner's took some artistic license with the Lone Ranger's horse. Trigger wasn't white. And note one Bronco Bill is seated on the same horse. I have little doubt this was done to simplify manufacture and control costs. This horse was also used for the Indian Chief in one version. |
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| The Lone Ranger #182, black suit. |
Lone Ranger #182, light blue suit, grey hat |
Note that both color costumes use the same label. |
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| Close-up of the horse's head. | Indian Chief, #176, orange body | ... yellow body, vinyl chaps | close up of the Chief, #176 |
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| Indian Chief #176, riding a white horse | felt chaps | ||
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| Peter Pan, #141 | Mac the Sailor#126 | Davy Crocket
#190, A Walt Disney license to Kohner |
Boxers, 2 of several. More can be found here. |
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Walloping Willie, #111, gray |
Watch Willie swing for a home run! | Another pair of shared heads |
Tipsy Tom #132 |
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| Swing Dancers #127 | older Swing Dancers | Swing Dancer heads | |
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The Kohner labels on the plastic based puppets were cut into the bases and filled with white or gold-colored paint. Another version was paper printed with the informaion including the puppet's name and number, "A Kohner Product" and patent info. |
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Tipsy Tom's label | ||
Animal puppets~~~
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Funny Monkey on the left-hand side of the photo is one of my puppet bases which Bob has repaired with epoxy. |
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| Storky, #155 |
Funny Monkey #154 came in two versions. |
Mickey Mouse, #185 |
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| Donkey # 140 came in several styles. |
Early ones had wood bases with squeakers. |
Later on bases were plastic. |
Donald Duck, #128 |
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A metal reed and bellows are positioned in the base. When the button is pushed, air is forced up through the reed and a squeaking sound is heard. → |
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| Barking Dog, #130 | Squeaker mechanism. |
Lucky the Cat |
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| Elephant #139, wood base | Closer view of label |
Elephant #139, plastic base |
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| Pluto, #131 | All wood Kohner bear | Tiny animals. These are all wood and less than 3" tall. | |
