Unique Art “Doin’ the Howdy Doody” Howdy Doody & Bob Smith Tin Lithographed Windup Piano Toy *SOLD*

Unique Art “Doin’ the Howdy Doody” Howdy Doody & Bob Smith Tin Lithographed Windup Piano Toy 

We have for you a tin, windup, lithographed “Doin’ the Howdy Doody” Howdy Doody & Bob Smith piano toy manufactured by Unique Art Manufacturing Company Inc. of Newark, New Jersey. 

This piece is in working condition and when wound by its dedicated key and switched on, Howdy dances while Bob Smith plays the piano. There is a working stop and start slider on the side and all pieces and connections are in secure working order. 

This piece is in great all original condition with no breaks, restorations, repairs, or touch ups. This piece shows the usual patina, fading, dust, chips, scuffs, surface rust, scratches, missing accessories and wear that are to be expected from age and play. This is approximately 7” L x 8″ H.  We invite you to view the photos to further determine quality and condition. 

A brief history of Unique Art Manufacturing Company Inc. of Newark, New Jersey:  

Unique Art Manufacturing Company Inc. was an American toy company, founded in 1916, and based in Newark, New Jersey.  They made inexpensive toys, including wind-up mechanical toys, out of lithographed tin. The “Rap & Tap in a Friendly Scrap” was one of its earliest products. Other toys they manufactured were, comic/character tin mechanicals including “Li`l Abner Dogpatch Band” and “Gertie, The Galloping Goose”. 

The company scored a hit in the 1940’s when it acquired the rights to a popular comic strip and released the Li’l Abner Dogpatch Band for Christmas 1945. The windup toy featured Abner dancing, Pappy on drums, Mammy with a drum stick, and Daisy Mae playing piano. Unique followed with a Howdy Doody band several years later. 

Unique’s president, Sammy Bergman, was a good friend of toy magnate Louis Marx, and the two men’s companies at times cooperated, with Marx providing tooling to Unique and sometimes acting as a distributor for Unique’s products. Unique Art’s eventual fate is unclear but the company appears to have disappeared by 1952, with some evidence of Marx picking up the line later on.