Cuddly Dudley

Cuddly Duddly was a large plush stuffed animal that was given away as a promotional gimmick by the Chicago Tribune in the mid-60's. The idea was very similar to Disney or Mcdonald's, in that the hope was that the kids would pester the parents for the animal, effectively shilling for the paper. Not only was it a brilliant gimmick for the Trib's PR department, the animal took on a life of its own as a recurring character on Chicago Children's TV for many years.

File:CudXXXX.jpg

Cuddly becomes a star on television

Roy Brown, a fixture on WGN's kid vid for decades, actually retrofitted the plush animal as a working puppet. He performed as the voice and puppeteer behind Cuddly for many years on "Ray Rayner and Friends", a classic morning show on WGN. The segment appeared weekly on fridays near the end of the show, for the last 10-15 minutes. Ray would begin singing "The Cuddly Duddly Song" and walk over to Cuddly's doghouse. Cuddly would proceed to read jokes and display artwork submitted by local Chicago children. The big draw was getting one's name mentioned on air, as Cuddly would always namedrop each submitter's name before the joke/artwork was read/ shown. Knock-knock jokes were a recurring theme. Ray would give a wonderful forced laugh after each joke. There were always adult ad-libs between Brown and Rayner, and Roy Brown often would get Ray to crack up if he was feeling particularly silly that morning.

The Cuddly Duddly theme song

 "We're off to Cuddly Duddly's house
 as plain as you can see,
 a friend till the end, 
 on which you can depend,
 as happy as can be,
 so come with us now, and stiffen your brow,                
 and dance and play with me,
 as we go see the dog, 
 who goes by the name of CUDDLY"

External links

http://www.chicagotelevision.com/rayXX3.htm