38 “He was not an evangelical” Gordon Jones interview.
39 “Jim found it” Royall Frazier interview.
40 On the corner Turk, Leland, Mississippi: From Hellhole to Beauty Spot, 94.
41 “We’d always go on Saturday” Tommy Baggette and Gordon Jones interviews.
42 “A child’s use of imagination” Being Green, 110.
43 “The good guy had a birthmark” Gordon Jones interview.
44 regular trips from Maryland While many biographies state that Dear was a resident of Mississippi, this is not the case. Pop and Dear lived in the same house on Marion Street in Hyattsville from 1923 until 1955, when they moved into a nearby apartment.
45 “[He’s] the one who taught our mother” JH audio interviews.
46 “the Brown girls were never allowed to forget they were Southerners!” Ibid.
47 “He was convinced” Jane Henson interview.
48 “a little bit more of a nerd” Melissa Townsend, “An Interview with Kermit Scott,” Delta Magazine, January/February 2006, 30.
49 “[He] would do things like that” Gordon Jones interview.
50 “He’d reach out his handkerchief” Royall Frazier interview. 18 It was no accident Gordon Jones interview. Tommy Baggette recalls another skit night at which Jim and other troop members performed a puppet show, using puppets purchased from a toy store in Greenville. However, Baggette could not recall any specifics about the show or Jim’s performance, while others interviewed for this book could not recall performing a puppet show at all. Gourse, 53–54.
51 “were very quiet people” Gordon Jones interview.
52 During the almost weekly summer fish fries Tommy Baggette interview.
53 “absolutely delightful” Gordon Jones interview.
54 “His mother was great for jokes” Royall Frazier interview.
55 “Both of us nearly got killed” Townsend, “An Interview with Kermit Scott.”
56 While Jim and Paul were four years apart Finch, in WAMI, describes Paul as “a shy, precocious boy,” while Jim’s friends recall that Paul, though four years older than most of them, was, according to Frazier, “not very big.” WAMI, 2; Royall Frazier interview.
57 Jim would always be a gadget freak JH audio interviews.
58 “You could get one radio station” Royall Frazier interview.
59 “Early radio drama” St. Pierre, 18.
60 Fibber McGee and Molly While interviewing his parents in 1972, Jim talked briefly about radio shows he remembered (JH audio interviews).
61 But most of all Culhane, “The Muppets in Movieland.”
62 “I wasn’t thinking,” “Edgar Bergen’s work” Ibid.
63 The family purchased While Jim’s address—and tax district—was University Park, Jim would always write his address as Hyattsville, which is how it appears on both his passport and his University of Maryland transcript.
64 “I was really sad” Gordon Jones interview.
65 retire to the porch CH interview.
66 “There was so much laughter” JH, quoted during JH audio interviews.
67 “Fifteen or twenty people would be there” Being Green, 112.
68 “drove ’em all crazy” Culhane, “The Muppets in Movieland.”
CHAPTER TWO: A MEANS TO AN END
1 a log cabin near Beaver, Utah The Encyclopedia of Television, 2nd ed., ed. Horace Newcomb (New York: Museum of Broadcast Communications, 2004), 854–55.
2 while tilling a potato field Neil Postman, “Philo Farnsworth,” The Time 100: Scientists and Thinkers, March 29, 1999.
3 “There you are” Ibid. See also The Encyclopedia of Television, 854.
4 prohibited his own family “Biography of Philo T. Farnsworth,” The Philo T. and Elma G. Farnsworth Papers, University of Utah, Marriott Library, Special Collections.
5 “the simultaneity of television” Settel, 53.
6 “I loved the idea” WAMI, 4–5. See also JH Quotes.
7 the boxy Admiral For typical newspaper advertisements for televisions in 1950, see display ads in The Washington Post, September 1, 1950.
8 “I badgered my family” WAMI, 4. Emphasis in original. There are some differences of opinion as to exactly when the Henson family purchased its first television. Alison Inches speculates it may have been 1949 (see Inches, 14), while others suggest 1950. For purposes of this chapter, I have deferred to the timeline provided by Jane Henson for the program for the September 26, 2006, presentation at the University of Maryland, Jim Henson: Creativity and Other Inspirational Stuff / Jane and Friends: The College Park Legacy—A Casual Conversation with Jane Henson, which sets the date at 1950.
9 There were four television channels Federal Communications Commission, “History of Communications,” http://www.fcc.gov/omd/history/tv/1880-1929.html.
10 more time watching TV WAMI, 4.
11 “I immediately wanted to work in television” Ibid., 5.
12 Ernie Kovacs Jim’s enthusiasm for Kovacs is described in ibid., 4.
13 “I don’t think I ever saw” JH, interviewed by Judy Harris, “Jim Henson,” http://users.bestweb.net/~foosie/henson.htm. This is hereafter cited as Harris.
14 In March of that year Christian Science Monitor, March 17, 1950, B13.
15 “Walt Kelly put together a team of characters” Gerald Volgenau, “Henson’s Offstage Voice Surprises Muppet Family Christmas Visitor,” Knight-Ridder News Service, December 16, 1987.
16 Paul to the University of Maryland “Naval Officers Killed in Crash,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), April 16, 1956. Paul would also briefly attend Principia College before transferring back to Maryland.
17 “He always wanted to fly” Tommy Baggette interview.
18 “I hit a bad lob” Joe Irwin interview.
19 based on Jim’s beloved Pogo Bob Payne interview.
20 “When I was old enough” WAMI, 7.
21 “You’re not fooling anyone” Thomas C. Reeves, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy (Lanham, Maryland: Madison, 1997), 635.
22 little trouble getting dates Joe Irwin interview.
23 he pleaded with his mother Jane Henson interview.
24 “I would have a nice little proper date” Joe Irwin interview.
25 “youngsters twelve to fourteen” See Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), May 13, 1954.
26 “When I was a kid” WAMI, 8–9.
27 a small, skinny hand puppet Ibid., 8. Jim later added as an afterthought that he might also have built “a couple of birds.”
28 “Three of the program’s participants” Harry MacArthur, “On the Air,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), June 25, 1954.
29 Meachum even landed Roy Meachum, August 26, 2003, post on kidshow.dcmemories.com: “Jim Henson, Jane [sic] and Russ were hired to cover records on Saturday, the show’s name. It ran from March through August. Saturday was a spinoff to Roy Meachum in the Morning. That show ran from June 1953 to March 1954.”
30 “It was interesting” WAMI, 8–9.
31 his performance had caught the eye Jim’s move from WTOP to WRC involves a bit of detective work, intuition, and supposition, as nearly all accounts differ. According to one story, Roy Meachum phoned Kovach to recommend Jim. (See Chuck Knight, “Sam and Friends,” Old Line, May 1958, 25.) That differs slightly from the version Michael Davis reports in Street Gang, 75–78, in which Kovach—during his unsuccessful recruitment of Meachum—spotted Jim at Junior Morning Show and then later recruited him to join the cast of Afternoon. Given that Junior Morning Show only lasted three episodes—and that Meachum immediately hosted another show on which Jim worked—it seems likely that Kovach approached Meachum during his run on Saturday. From there, it follows that he brought Jim to WRC to do other work first, before finally inserting him into the Afternoon cast. That version of events more consistently aligns with Jim’s own recollections that he went to WRC and began working on “these little local shows” before finally lan
ding Afternoon. It also fills in a roughly seven-month gap in the story reported by Davis—the time in which Jim, by his own admission, worked alone. This information is further supported by Jim Henson—the Early Years on WTOP and WRC (K. Falk JHCA 2010).
32 put through a brief audition WAMI, 15.
33 “I took the puppets over to NBC” Ibid., 9.
34 stammer and giggle Jane Henson interview.
35 “The three of us had lunch” J. Pendleton Campbell, On the Edge of Greatness (But No Cigar): An Autobiography of Radio and Television Performer Joe Campbell (Xlibris, 2003), quoted in an email from Bob Bell to Karen Falk, “New Revelations: Jim Henson and Circle 4 Ranch” (JHCA).
36 work solo for the next eight months Ursula Keller, “ ‘Muppets’ Win Way,” Christian Science Monitor, December 15, 1959, 14.
37 “I was very interested in theatre” Harris.
38 University Theaters’ publicity director Knight, “Sam and Friends.”
39 designed and printed posters Harris; interview with Anne Turkos, archivist, University of Maryland.
40 “My first year” Harris.
41 “[My] puppetry teacher said” Ibid.
42 Jane Nebel Description of her family and quotes are from Jane Henson interview.
43 “Back in those days” Harris.
44 “They would have a cooking segment” WAMI, 15.
45 2:15 P.M. “TV Highlights,” Washington Post and Times-Herald, March 7, 1955, 35.
46 “51% ownership of muppetts [sic]” See “Jim Henson—The Early Years on WTOP and WRC” (K. Falk JHCA 2010).
47 “It was really just a term” Harris.
48 “As I try to zero in” Being Green, 25.
49 “just by sitting down” Lawrence Laurent, “The Straight Man Totes the Load,” Washington Post and Times-Herald, May 15, 1955.
50 “integrated chaos” Ibid.
51 “The work I did in those days” Harris.
52 “in his stumbling unsure way” Lawrence Laurent, “They Call It Plain Old ‘Muppetmania,’ ” Washington Post, October 23, 1977.
53 “Jim Henson was a very nice young guy” Jim Naughton, “Jim Henson and Friends: Where It All Began,” Washington Post, May 17, 1990.
54 “The kid is positively a genius” Laurent, “The Straight Man Totes the Load.”
55 “to do spots for children” WAMI, 15.
56 “We very often would take a song” St. Pierre, 37.
57 “I guess it had a quality of abandon” WAMI, 15.
58 “falling down” Naughton, “Jim Henson and Friends: Where It All Began.”
59 “Those kids knocked us all out” Ibid.
60 a prime piece of TV real estate While it is usually reported that Jim received the pre–Huntley-Brinkley 6:25 P.M. slot concurrently with the 11:25 P.M. one, that cannot be the case, as Huntley-Brinkley would not debut until October 29, 1956—seventeen months after the debut of Sam and Friends. And once it did appear, it aired at 7:45 P.M. While Jim would soon receive an early news hour slot, it was initially as part of the Footlight Theatre lineup. There would be quite of bit of tinkering with the WRC schedule before Jim finally landed both the pre–Huntley-Brinkley spot and the pre-Tonight show slot. See the next chapter for more details.
61 “A choice time slot” WAMI, 15.
CHAPTER THREE: SAM AND FRIENDS
1 “Harkness; Wthr. Sports; Muppets” “Monday TV Programs,” Washington Post and Times-Herald, May 8, 1955.
2 “I made him originally” Phil Geraci, “Sam’s Best Friend,” Sunday Star Magazine (Washington, D.C.), December 8, 1957.
3 “are actually within him, within Sam” Jane Henson interview.
4 slowly dying of heart failure JH audio interviews.
5 “Kermit started out as a way of building” WAMI, 19–21.
6 “milky turquoise,” “I didn’t call him a frog” Harris.
7 “Those abstract characters” Ibid.
8 similar to a habit Burr Tillstrom A May 23, 1949, feature in Life contains a photograph of Tillstrom watching his performance on a television monitor, with the rather tangled caption, “To watch operation, Tillstrom uses backstage TV screen on which he sees how puppets look to camera.”
9 “you can actually see what you are doing” Donna Hudgins, “The Ancient Art of Puppetry … Hidden Hands That Teach,” Fifteenth Dimension, January 1970.
10 “You’d perform but you’d also be the audience” Jane Henson interview.
11 “After you go through working” Harris.
12 “What Jim came to love” Jane Henson interview.
13 “Many of the things I’ve done” Being Green, 54.
14 “Burr Tillstrom and the Bairds” Eleanor Blau, “Jim Henson, Puppeteer, Dies; The Muppets’ Creator Was 53,” New York Times, May 17, 1990.
15 “We pretty much had a form” Harris.
16 “Very early on” JH Quotes.
17 “[They were] puppets that didn’t look like puppets” JJ, archival interview (Henson Family Properties).
18 “the most brilliant newcomer” Bernie Harrison, “On the Air: Gobel Persuades Chicago Buddy to Try TV Again,” Sunday Star (Washingon, D.C.), July 3, 1955.
19 “It was so short” Layne Mandell Bergin, quoted by Bob Bell, http://kidshow.dcmemories.com/sam4.html.
20 by his own count Geraci, “Sam’s Best Friend.”
21 “a way that one” Inches, 27.
22 “like catching flies” Jane Henson interview.
23 It had taken Paul “Naval Officers Killed in Crash,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), April 16, 1956.
24 “When I first started working” Harris.
25 “I was a kid” Ibid.
26 “He had a warm glow” Amy Aldrich, “The Muppets Take Disney World.” Originally slated to appear in the March 1990 issue of the University of Maryland’s Inquiry magazine, neither the magazine nor the article was ever published. The article may be found at http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/images/Henson/Articles/InquiryArticle.html.
27 “All the time I was in school” St. Pierre, 41.
28 “I had assumed at that point” JH, the American Film Institute Elton H. Rule Lecture Series in Telecommunications, seminar with Jim Henson, May 6, 1986 (JHCA 7974).
29 angry phone calls and letters Bernie Harrison, “On the Air: WRC Lifts Whammy on Our Sammy,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), August 31, 1955.
30 “Don’t be too grateful” See the collection of Sam and Friends–related clips (JHCA Sam and Friends folder).
31 WRC bounced its newscast See the daily TV listings in The Washington Post for May 1955 through May 1956.
32 The car veered off the road “Naval Officers Killed in Crash.” See also “Ensign Dies in Crash,” Washington Post and Times-Herald, April 16, 1956.
33 After receiving the phone call Jane Henson interview.
34 “never got over” Arthur Novell interview.
35 “The way of carrying on would be to keep a smile on your face,” “good company,” “He shared so much” LH interview.
36 “When his brother died” FO interview.
37 “His intention of working” Jane Henson interview.
38 “a rightness” Ibid. “Boy, no matter what I say it’s going to be wrong,” said Jane Henson, trying to describe Jim’s religious views. “It’s sort of like, however things went, that was right.”
39 “I believe that we form our own lives” JH, “The Courage of My Convictions.”
40 “that whole Footlight Theatre was so contrived” Jane Henson interview.
41 pirate named Omar See “Man of Many Voices” promo for WRC, circa 1956 (JHCA).
42 “He just drove it home” JH audio interviews.
43 “After all” WAMI, 21.
44 “He posed himself beside these signs” Joe Irwin interview.
45 “Producers got in touch” Jane Henson interview.
46 “Producers were impressed” See Sam and Friends–related clips
(JHCA Sam and Friends folder).
47 “This could be their big break” Evening Star, circa September 1956 (JHCA Sam and Friends folder).
48 “There were times” Harris.
49 That didn’t make his schedule less hectic Jane described a typical day to Katharine Elson, “For Jane and Jim, Muppets Set a Merry Pace,” Washington Post and Times-Herald, February 17, 1957. Geraci, “Sam’s Best Friend,” also describes a typical daily schedule for Jim.
50 it was his intention Geraci, “Sam’s Best Friend.”
51 “In his spare time” WAMI, 18.
52 “At that time” JH Quotes.
53 “The atmosphere in the studio” Jane Henson interview.
54 “We’d use a lot of records” Jane Henson, remarks at MuppetFest 2001.
55 “I think we were working” Ibid.
56 “I take it all back” Stan Freberg to JH, telegram, 1957 (JHCA SF 8928).
57 “who has a knack” “New Lineup at WMAL,” Sunday Star (Washington, D.C.), August 18, 1957.
58 “In the early days of the Muppets” St. Pierre, 40.
59 “We’d try some really way-out things” J. Y. Smith, “Jim Henson, Creator of Muppets, Dies at 53,” Washington Post, May 17, 1990.
60 “I remember one strange thing” JH Quotes.
61 “I was convinced” Smith, “Jim Henson, Creator of Muppets, Dies at 53.”
62 “We have so few local shows” “Televue Mailbag,” Sunday Star (Washington, D.C.), September 22, 1957.
63 “This is one case where I’m certain” Ibid.
64 The Huntley-Brinkley Report Barbara Matusow, The Evening Stars: The Making of the Network News Anchor (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983), 69–73.
65 “We got the Huntley-Brinkley audience” Jane Henson, remarks at MuppetFest 2001.
66 “very shy, a retiring sort of person” Naughton, “Jim Henson and Friends: Where It All Began.”
67 Jane designed most of her own clothes Elson, “For Jane and Jim, Muppets Set a Merry Pace.”
68 “Why are you having your picture taken with all my puppets?” Jane Henson interview.
69 Jim would usually slouch way down Ibid.
70 involved with other people Ibid. Jane’s relationship is also mentioned in Elson, “For Jane and Jim, Muppets Set a Merry Pace,” while Jim’s engagement can be found in “Engagement Announcements,” Washington Post and Times-Herald, December 22, 1957.
Jim Henson: The Biography Page 60
