A Corner of Entertainment History Many Would Prefer to Forget
Tardabell Day! began as a weekly segment on the CBS Radio program Arthur Godfrey Time. A pantomiming clown with marionettes on the radio would seem an unlikely hit, but it did capture the public’s imagination in 1947, then becoming common to refer to Mondays as “Tardabell Day”. The show consisted primarily of light orchestral melodies punctuated by Tardabell’s signature sound of a strip of inner tube rubber slapping against his bare left thigh.
In 1948, CBS began simulcasting Arthur Godfrey Time on both radio and television, with producers now facing the challenge of presenting Tardabell Day! in a visual format. Initial ratings dropped significantly, but Executive Vice President in Charge of Talent David Ronkoff had a moment of inspiration at the annual sponsors’ picnic while watching children from The Lipton Tea Home for Profoundly Retarded Boys at play in the swimming pool.
“Tardabell” and the “profoundly retarded” seemed a natural fit, and a retooled Tardabell Day! premiered the following month.
The marionettes remained as a formality, scattered in heaps around the set and during the animated opening sequence, created by Art Clokey (of Gumby and Davey and Goliath fame), in which a pile of marionettes crawl across one another, bending and twisting until their limbs and torsos are stretched to spell the title.
The program featured a group of profoundly retarded boys swimming in a pool filled with Lipton Tea. Tardabell, with his trademark rubber hula skirt and the ever present giant ears, buck teeth, and devil horns, stands quietly watching at the side, using a lifeguard crook if one of the children appears to be floundering. At the close of each five minute segment, Tardabell kneels at the edge of the pool and spoon feeds the boys Cheerios cereal. The program was entirely dialogue and music free, with only the sound of splashing.
The viewing audience reacted badly to the show, and the CBS switchboard was flooded with complaints of “nightmares” and “suicides”. Lipton Tea and Cheerios pulled sponsorship and Tardabell Day! was cancelled after only three airings. Ronkoff was fired, Tardabell vanished from the scene, and Arthur Godfrey Time itself was quickly retitled Arthur Godfrey & Friends to remove what is still known in the television industry as the “Tardabell taint”.
