Richard (Dick) Clayton was an unusually tall man, even from the eyes of a six year old boy. My mom was well known for tailoring men's suits and he called her and said he needed several puppets, all looking alike, of a turtle. He asked her if she thought she could do it. Mom saw it as a challenge and she said yes. He showed up at our house and had what looked like a crude version of some sort of puppet. It did not look like a turtle. Here is an excerpt in his own words how he came up with it.
I was an avid fan of the comic strip by Walt Kelly called "The Adventures of Pogo" and one of my favorite characters was Churchy LaFemme, a turtle. What a great idea for a puppet. I cut holes in an army helmet liner, added a wooden face plate onto it, painted the shell green, with white and yellow trim. Made up a turtle like puppet, complete with arms and legs...iron on patches for eyes, sewed in a red satin mouth, put on short yellow string hair...and Mickey Mud-Turtle was born.
Mom worked for days on this project. She bought a toy army helmet and cut out the hole for the hand of the puppeteer. She took cardboard and cut it out to be the under shell of the turtle. Colored it with crayons! She sewed the rest of the body, head, arms and legs. My two brothers and I would be out playing and she would come to the door and ask, "Does this look like a turtle?" We'd say no and off she'd go to try again. After several times of doing this we finally said, "YES! That's it!" And the Mickey Mud-Turtle seen on TV was born. She also made Amanda Possum. She made many copies and even made us a set of these puppets. I still have old home movies showing us boys putting on a puppet show. She also later made Albert The Alley Cat and Mary Jo Gorilla.
The cast of the Mickey and Amanda Show on the Cartoon Clubhouse Set as seen from left to right: Boris Bear, Mickey Mud Turtle, Scotty the Snake, Amanda Possum and the contest winner. A letter write-in contest was held to see who ought to be the treasurer of the clubhouse. Thousands of letters came in from children telling the kind of animal it should be and the animal's name. The judging was unanimous for Mary Jo Gorilla. (Coincidence?)
KFJZ-TV had a booth at the Fort Worth Stock Show for one week. Justin boots was the major sponsor. "Mickey and Amanda" broadcast from a portable set twice a day for five days. When the cartoons were running, Dick and Hilda were out front with the puppets talking personally to the hundreds of children who came to see them. (As you can see, Dick was a little taller than Hilda.)
