Lew Anderson, 84, was "Howdy Doody" clown

Lew Anderson, whose antics as Clarabell the Clown alongside Buffalo Bob Smith and Howdy Doody on one of television's first children's shows made an indelible impression on baby boomers, has died. He was 84.

Mr. Anderson, a musician and bandleader who regularly played New York clubs, died last Sunday of complications from prostate cancer at a hospice in Hawthorne, N.Y., said his son, Chris Anderson.

In the final moments of "The Howdy Doody Show" on Sept. 24, 1960, Mr. Anderson as the long-mute clown broke Clarabell's silence by turning to the camera with a tear in his eye and saying, "Goodbye, kids."

The words became a staple of television highlight reels.

Children related to the mischievous, seltzer-squirting clown — he communicated by honking a horn — because "he got away with things they couldn't," Mr. Anderson told the Westchester County Journal News in 2000.

Although Mr. Anderson's six years as Smith's sidekick were an interlude to his long career as a jazz musician, the TV role brought him enduring fame.

"It was one of those seminal moments that carried into the rest of his life. There are pictures of him still in the costume in his late 70s when he appeared at autograph shows," his son told the Los Angeles Times. "He really dug it."

Although Mr. Anderson was the third actor to portray Clarabell, he was the best, Smith recalled in his 1990 memoir "Howdy and Me."

Bob Keeshan, who became famous as TV's Captain Kangaroo, originated the role in 1947 when the show was called "Puppet Playhouse." The second clown, Bobby Nicholson, decided to play another character: J. Cornelius Cobb.

At the start of each episode, Smith would shout to the Peanut Gallery of 30 to 50 children, "Say, kids, what time is it?"

"It's Howdy Doody time!" they gleefully replied.

Another episode would be off and running in Doodyville, with a cast populated by its namesake marionette, a baggy-suited Clarabell and such friends as Princess Summerfall Winterspring and Chief Thunderthud.

It was the first nationally broadcast weekday children's show, and an estimated 15 million preschoolers tuned in on black-and-white television sets. The show, which ran for 13 years, became NBC's first regularly scheduled program broadcast in color and the first to last more than 1,000 episodes, with more than 2,200.

Born May 7, 1922, in Kirkman, Iowa, Mr. Anderson was the son of a railroad telegrapher and a homemaker.

He attended Drake University in Des Moines on a music scholarship for two years but dropped out to become a professional musician. By then an alto saxophonist, he joined Lee Barron's band, which toured the West in a series of mostly one-nighters.

During World War II, he served in the Navy on a submarine tender and put together a big band that performed in the Pacific theater.

In the late 1940s, he joined a singing group called the Honey Dreamers that appeared on radio and television programs such as "The Ed Sullivan Show." Through that group, he crossed paths with Howdy Doody in 1954.

After the program ended, he spent the 1960s composing and arranging advertising jingles. He also played in Broadway orchestras and recording sessions before forming the All-American Big Band, filled with musicians from recording studios and Broadway shows.

In addition to son Chris, Mr. Anderson is survived by his wife, Peggy of South Salem, N.Y.; another son, Lewis Jr.; a stepdaughter, Lorie George, and five grandchildren.