Huckleberry Hound Strikes a Pose

Huckleberry Hound trivia? Here’s a piece from Frank Rizzo, who interviewed various rock stars in 1985 about their first musical memory. The answer he got from Michael Stipe of REM:

“It was ‘Moon River.’ It used to make me cry when I was a kid. I liked it a lot because there was a line in it about ‘Huckleberry friend.’ But I thought it was about Huckleberry Hound which would give you an idea of how young I was, about 5.

With that, here are some drawings of Huck from the early days. Whether they’re Ed Benedict’s or Dick Bickenbach’s, I don’t know. The drawings of Huck in the Stone Age and the dinosaur come from Caveman Huck (about 1961), with layouts by Tony Rivera.



And one other piece of Huck trivia. Bob Hope sneered at Huck’s TV audience. From the Wall Street Journal, April 2, 1963:

CHICAGO—Bob Hope’s theory about the current ruckus over the accuracy of TV audience rating systems is that it all started “when Huckleberry Hound topped the President’s State of the Union message.”
In Chicago to receive an award from the National Association of Broadcasters, Mr. Hope spotted Newton Minow, Federal Communications Commission chairman, in the audience, and commended him for his “needling, suggestions and constructive prodding.” These efforts, he said, have “led the industry up the path to the Beverly Hillbillies,” a popular situation comedy.
“That’s all we needed,” Mr. Hope added, “an outhouse in the vast wasteland.”

This is the same Bob Hope that brought you those highbrow TV specials featuring Charo, college football cheerleaders and obvious glances at cue cards.