This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Anderson, Whisler, Todd, Beaman Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/zk.2ADI/2249 Message Board Post: Lewis “Lew” Anderson, who captivated young baby boomers as the Howdy Doody Show's final Clarabell the Clown, passed away Sunday, May 14, 2006 in Hawthorne, New York at the age of 84. The musician and actor died of complications of prostate cancer. Anderson was born on May 7, 1992 in Kirkman, Shelby County, Iowa. He was the son of Lloyd Anderson, a railroad telegrapher, and Nell Whisler. When one of his sisters decided she no longer wanted to play the clarinet, Lew inherited the instrument and a career in the music business began. He soon became involved in school musical activities and started his own band playing local engagements. A year at Junior College in Fort Dodge, Iowa followed, and while there he received a scholarship to Drake College in Des Moines which he attended for two years. He left Drake to begin his professional musical life and by now was writing arrangements for groups with whom he was playing. When asked one time where he studied arranging, he replied, “On the bandstand, watching & listening.” He became known as one of the best at both instrumental and vocal arranging. In 1942 during WWII he enlisted in the Naval Air Corps and began flying. He soon resigned and was sent to Great Lakes boot camp, eventually being assigned to a submarine tender in the Pacific. The officer in charge, a musician, helped Lew assemble his own band. He also saw his share of action in the Pacific. After leaving the service he joined the Carlos Molinas Latin Orchestra, contributing American dance arrangements to that band. He played as well with many other “territory” bands as they were known touring the Midwest. Long mute as Clarabell, Anderson broke the clown's silence in the show's final episode in 1960. With trembling lips and a visible tear in his eye, he spoke the show's final words: "Goodbye, kids." Though Anderson was not the only man to play "Buffalo Bob" Smith's mute sidekick, he was the best, Smith said in his memoir. The first to play the mute clown was Bob Keeshan, who later became known as Captain Kangaroo. With the Peanut Gallery looking on, Anderson used bicycle horns to give yes and no answers. For more expressive moments, he wielded a bottle of seltzer. The show, which launched in 1947 when televisions were still a novelty, was the first network weekday children's show. Anderson joined "Doodyville," a circus town peopled with puppets and human actors and watched by a Peanut Gallery of kids, in the mid 1950's. Though his fame as Clarabell followed him throughout his life, Anderson was also a success as a musician and bandleader. In recent years, his All-American Big Band appeared on Friday nights at New York's Birdland jazz club. Anderson lived in South Salem, New York and is survived by his wife Peggy, son Christopher and his wife Margaret of Ridgefield, CT, son Lewis, Jr. and his wife Kathy Cohen-Anderson of Providence, RI, grandchildren Jack, Parker and Kristen of Ridgefield, CT, step daughters Lorie George and her husband David Klein of Danbury, CT, Halley Leffler and husband Michael and their children Madison and Dyson of Sandusky, OH, a nephew Jeffrey Bonneville, a niece Suzanne Hayes, her husband Tom and their children Sarah and Andrew, and several other nieces and nephews. Two sisters, Jean Todd and Loyce Beaman predeceased him.