I have a vague memory of seeing a puppet show in California when I was small: a stage lit with twilight blue with a puppet theater squarely in the middle. It sits at the hazy crossroads between memory and a dream.
Thinking back to watching Sesame Street invokes much stronger memories of puppets. Like watching a shady man in a trench coat trying to sell Ernie the letter O. Or Ernie singing the rubber ducky song with a version of himself from ancient Egypt. Or one of the counting songs/animations. Who would have thought that counting to 12 could be so funky? (I know there were humans on the show, but I’d be hard-pressed to tell you anything about them.)
As a child I also watched reruns of The Muppet Show, which came out around the time I was born. I didn’t know who the musical or comedy guests were, but it didn’t matter. They always played second fiddle to the Muppets.
When I was in college, I took a class on children and communication in which I had to watch an episode of Sesame Street and comment on it as adult. I remember watching Super Grover singing a song and calling out, “Modulate!” when the key changed. Humor for grownups (and music nerds!), indeed. (This was also apparently an inside joke during the early episodes of the show.)
The reason for these reflections is reading/listening to Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones. I had recently clicked on a YouTube video of a Muppet retrospective that showed some of Henson’s show Sam and Friends, which was Kermit’s origin, but which happened many years before The Muppet Show or even Sesame Street. I was intrigued. What else had Henson done that I wasn’t aware of?
Both more and less than expected. He’d done short daily TV spots, which is how he got his start, for years and took part in a vast number of late-night and variety shows, both of which represented staggering amounts of work. He also did commercials, which is the origin of the Cookie Monster Muppet—one of my favorites—who was originally a snack-snatching monster. On YouTube, I was able to watch Henson’s early Wilkins Coffee commercials, which were surprisingly violent, looking back from a modern perspective. (Hearing Kermit’s voice threatening violent ends to people who didn’t try the coffee was a little unsettling.)
On the other hand, there were fewer large projects I was unfamiliar with than I’d expected, though what there were also represented a lot of time, effort, and talent, and had a worldwide reach.
Speaking of, there’s a plaque in Utvandrarnas Hus (The Emigrants’ House) in Växjö, Sweden, that discusses the origins of the Swedish Chef, another favorite Muppet of mine. According to the plaque, Henson had found a tape called How to Speak Fake Swedish, which was the source of the character. However, Jones’s book says it started out with a tape called How to Speak Fake German (the chef was German in an earlier performance/iteration) and eventually shifted to Swedish. Either way, I love the character and have fond memories of my father mimicking the voice.
Since I’m the rudderless type, I’m fascinated by driven people, and Jim Henson was incredibly driven. He clearly knew what he wanted and worked ceaselessly to get it. I’m hoping that there’s a lesson in there for me, somewhere.
I’ll have to admit that I cried through the whole end section describing Henson’s early, unexpected death. As someone whose father also died suddenly and too young, it’s difficult to hear about other families going through that, especially in minute-by-minute detail.
Speaking of happier times in the book, the opening scene involves Jim (as Kermit) singing the ABCs with a little girl who was described as thinking Kermit was real, apart from the puppeteer bringing him to life. I probably have a bit of that belief in me, having grown up with the Muppets on TV. It likely even carried over into my love of Mystery Science Theater 3000, which includes puppets as well. So I definitely feel the legacy of Jim Henson in my life, all the way down through my love of Labyrinth and the Muppet 3D movie/ride at Disney MGM Studios.
Overall, I’m glad I stuck with the book, though the audiobook took over 21 hours to finish. (The voice actor who read the book did a good job with the Muppet voices throughout.) I see that the author has since written a biography of Dr. Seuss, which will likely end up on my reading list sometime soon.
Numberless Dreams 