Thank You Captain Kangaroo

The passing of Bob “Captain Kangaroo” Keeshan reminds us of all that he did for children thoughout his career. His show ran for 36 years and won six Emmy Awards. Yet who knew that before he became the "Captain," he was Clarabell the Clown on the Howdy Doody Show? Read what Fox News had to say about the man here.

Few realize that Captain Kangaroo also helped give us Play-Doh. As chronicled in The Playmakers, Rainbow Crafts (the company run by Play-Doh co-developers Joe McVicker and Bill Rhodenbaugh) didn’t have a lot of money in 1957. Play-Doh had been on the market for two years and enjoyed only limited success in stores and schools around Cincinnati.

…the real breakthrough came in 1957 when Play-Doh was featured on TV sets across America. How Rainbow Crafts, a start-up company with few financial resources ended up with a national TV campaign is a testament to Joe McVicker’s gift of persuasion and the intuition of a man named Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo.

By everyone’s account Joe McVicker was a charismatic salesman, and when he talked his way in to see Keeshan, he ended up closing the deal that made Play-Doh famous. "Keeshan liked Play-Doh and wanted it on his show,” recounted Bill Rhodenbaugh. “But Joe told him that we didn’t have any money for advertising. So Joe offered him 2% of our sales if he would feature it on the show once a week. Well, the Captain liked it so much that he started putting it on three times a week! I don’t think there was ever a contract, but I remember signing checks and sending them to his production company. After that we got on Ding Dong School (with Miss Francis) and Romper Room. We had the country saturated with television. Once Play-Doh hit, it took Rainbow Crafts over 16 months just to fill all the back orders.”

The rest, as they say, is modeling compound history. Both Play-Doh and Captain Kangroo debuted in 1955.