Dayton Allen, who died November 11 at age 85, was a cast member of “The Howdy Doody Show,” “Winky Dink and You,” and a regular on the “Steve Allen Show,” where he was known for his trademark “Why Not,” delivered with manic intensity and a finger pointed in the air.

In the 1960s, Allen’s voice was nearly ubiquitous in such Saturday morning cartoons as “Deputy Dawg,” “Mighty Mouse,” and “Heckle and Jeckle,” for which he was the voice of both of the madcap magpies.

To the public, he surfaced in occasional news stories about his spectacular successes investing in penny stocks of Canadian mining companies. He published some of his investing theories in his memoir, “Why Not?”

Allen was born in New York and went to school with the actor Art Carney, a lifelong friend. Always interested in performing, he found work as a disc jockey at WINS in 1935 and also wrote comedy bits for Vaudeville.

He found work early in television as a voice of puppets, starting at “The Buffalo Bob Show” in 1947. It was soon renamed “Howdy Doody.” He also worked on “The Adventures of Oky Doky,” which starred Bob Keeshan, later better known as “Captain Kangaroo.”

“I met Keeshan in a men’s room,” Allen said in the oral history “The Box.” “He said, ‘You do a lot of voices. You’d be great for us.'”

The show “was some piece of crap, but that’s where I learned to work with a puppet,” he said. “That thing must have weighed about a hundred pounds. I think it was made by King Kong.”

On “Howdy Doody,” Allen was the voice of the mayor, Phineas T. Bluster, as well as the odd mish-mash monster Flub-a-Dub. Early TV played to Allen’s strengths as an improviser. “You could do anything, as long as you remembered who the stars were, and the Peanut Gallery wasn’t there,” Allen told the Miami Herald in 2000. “There was a script, but we never stuck to it. [Buffalo] Bob was the greatest straight man. He’d fall on his face whatever I said.” Allen added that he came close to being fired for risque ad-libs, and that “Howdy Doody” was eventually taken off the NBC studio tour because rehearsals got so “blue.”

In 1953, he moved to “Winky Dink and You,” where he was the voice of the puppet Mr. Bungle. In 1956, he began work on “Heckle and Jeckle,” the first of hundreds of cartoons he would eventually voice.

He also became a semi-regular on the “Steve Allen Show,” appearing as a bogus expert or man on the street. In one episode, Steve Allen introduced Dayton Allen as “Dr. Harvey L. Dayton,” a world-famous surgeon and headache expert. Dayton: “Why not! Being a very famous surgeon, I have even worked in hospitals. Sometimes I would aid in helping around! Surgery to me is more than just a way to make a good fast buck …” and so on.

The “Why Not?” tag line got so famous that a writer for the Los Angeles Times claimed in 1960 that it had subconsciously become part of the language. Allen appeared in an Off-Broadway musical revue called “Why Not?” in 1960 and that same year released a comedy album called “Why Not?” He also used the line in television commercials. The craze lasted about a year then disappeared with barely an echo.

Allen moved to Hollywood Beach, Fla., in 1986, and, still in excellent health, had just moved to Flat Rock, N.C., a week before he suffered a massive stroke.

Allen was married to Elvi Brown in 1958; she had worked briefly in television as hostess of the WPIX show “Gadget Gallery,” in which she demonstrated new kinds of tools, and also as an NBC tour guide. Allen’s brother, Bradley Bolke, was the voice of Chumley on “Underdog.”

Dayton Allen

Born Dayton Allen Bolke on September 24, 1919; died November 11 at Flat Rock, N.C., of a hemorrhagic stroke; survived by his wife, Elvi, and brother, Bradley Bolke.