Glendora’s green friend is returning this summer for another celebration of squishy fun.
Gumby Fest is returning and will take place at Citrus College Friday, Sept. 18, to Sunday, Sept. 20.
The three-day event will take place in Citrus College’s Haugh Performing Arts Center.
This year’s event will feature the U.S. Stop-Motion Animation Festival spotlighting animated works of students from kindergarten to post-collegiate entries. Also included will be children’s art workshops, Gumby cartoon screenings, a history of Gumby presentation and workshops with stop-motion animation professionals, according to Gumby Fest organizers.
This year, Gumby turns 60 years old.
For nearly two decades, famed animator and “Gumby” creator Art Clokey operated a studio in Glendora where 85 “Gumby” episodes were produced after moving operations from Hollywood. To celebrate the impact Clokey made with his characters Gumby, Pokey, Prickle and, yes, even those Blockheads.
“This is the perfect time for us to present Gumby Fest,” says Robert Slack, Dean of Fine and Performing Arts at Citrus College. “We are 18 months away from finishing a new 30,000-square- foot Fine Arts Complex that will have more than 100 Mac stations to teach design, animation and various other digital media classes,” Slack said.
In 2013, Clokey’s son Joe and daughter-in-law Joan Rock Clokey were honored, along with Gumby who was the grand marshall of the Glendora Christmas Parade.
The idea for Gumby Fest came from Jeff Kugel, Glendora planning director, in 2013. Kugel made a casual comment that the city should hold an event celebrating the city’s connection to Clokey’s green, clay creation. Soon enough, the idea was off and running.
“Growing up, I was always a Gumby fan. Somebody along the way mentioned to me the Clokey studios were in Glendora. There’s a whole tie-in and interest in stop motion animation in general,” Kugel said in a previous interview.
Clokey first launched Gumby in 1955. In 1960, Clokey and his wife, Ruth, moved production from Hollywood to larger facility in Glendora where production on 85 episodes of Gumby and 65 episodes of Clokey’s other creation “Davey and Goliath” occurred, according to Gumbyworld.com.
The Glendora studio once stood in what is now an industrial area on Fleetwood Avenue near Grand Avenue and Arrow Highway.
Citrus College is located at 1000 W. Foothill Blvd.
