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Jim Henson: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Jim Henson
James Maury Henson was born on the 24th of September 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi, the younger of two children of Betty Marcella and Paul Ransom Henson Sr. His early life was marked by a profound shift in perspective when his family acquired their first television set, an event he later recalled as the biggest moment of his adolescence. This device introduced him to the world of radio ventriloquism and early television puppets, specifically the work of Edgar Bergen and Burr Tillstrom, which would become the foundation of his own artistic vision. Raised as a Christian Scientist, Henson spent his childhood in Leland, Mississippi, before moving to University Park, Maryland, and later Bethesda, where he attended Northwestern High School and joined the puppetry club. His academic journey took a surprising turn when he enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park, as a studio arts major, only to graduate in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree in home economics. This degree, often cited as a curious footnote, was the result of a university requirement that allowed him to take a newly offered puppetry class, which he attended alongside his future wife, Jane Nebel. The class, mostly populated with seniors, became the crucible for his early career, where he began experimenting with techniques that would revolutionize the medium of television puppetry.
Sam And Friends And The Birth Of Muppets
Henson's professional life began in the late spring of 1954 when he was hired to manipulate marionettes on a Saturday morning children's show called The Junior Morning Show at WTOP-TV. The show was cancelled only three weeks later, but his talent secured him a position lip-syncing on Roy Meachum's Saturday show. When that program also ended, Meachum referred Henson to the local NBC-affiliate station WRC-TV, where he and Jane Nebel were eventually offered a nightly segment. They created Sam and Friends, a three-to-five-minute puppet show that aired from 1955 to 1961, giving Henson the freedom to develop his own creative work. The characters on Sam and Friends were the forerunners of the Muppets, including a prototype of his most famous character, Kermit the Frog. Henson began experimenting with techniques that changed the way puppetry was used on television, foregoing the convention of pointing the camera at a stationary puppet theatre proscenium and instead using the image created by the TV camera and lens to dynamically engage with his characters. He believed that television puppets needed to have life and sensitivity, building characters from softer, flexible materials like foam rubber rather than carving wooden puppets. His first iteration of Kermit was made from a halved table tennis ball and fabric from an old coat belonging to his mother, with denim from a pair of jeans forming the sleeve for the puppeteer's arm. Direct control over the puppet's mouth, in combination with the softer construction materials, allowed the puppeteer to express a wider range of emotions and to more accurately move the puppet's mouth along with the character's dialogue or while lip syncing to music.
When was Jim Henson born and where did he grow up?
James Maury Henson was born on the 24th of September 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi. He spent his childhood in Leland, Mississippi, before moving to University Park, Maryland, and later Bethesda.
What degree did Jim Henson earn from the University of Maryland?
Jim Henson graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree in home economics. This degree resulted from a university requirement that allowed him to take a newly offered puppetry class.
When did Sesame Street premiere and what characters did Jim Henson perform on the show?
Sesame Street premiered on National Educational Television on the 10th of November 1969. Jim Henson performed the characters of Ernie, game-show host Guy Smiley, and Kermit, who often appeared as a roving television news reporter.
What caused Jim Henson's death and when did he die?
Jim Henson died at 1:21 a.m. on the 16th of May 1990 from organ dysfunction resulting from streptococcal toxic shock syndrome caused by Streptococcus pyogenes. He was 53 years old at the time of his death.
When was Jim Henson's public memorial service held and where did it take place?
Jim Henson's public memorial service was conducted in Manhattan at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the 21st of May 1990. Another service was conducted on the 2nd of July at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
Henson's talk show appearances culminated when he devised Rowlf, a piano-playing anthropomorphic dog that became the first Muppet to make regular appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show. Henson was so grateful for this break that he offered Jimmy Dean a 40-percent interest in his production company, but Dean declined, stating that Henson deserved all the rewards for his own work. From 1963 to 1966, Henson began exploring filmmaking and produced a series of experimental films, including Time Piece, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1965. He also produced The Cube in 1969 and wrote the first drafts of a live-action movie script with Jerry Juhl which became Tale of Sand. During this time, Henson continued to work with various companies who sought out his Muppets for advertising purposes. Among his clients were Wilson Meats, Royal Crown Cola, Claussen's Bread, La Choy, and Frito-Lay, which featured an early version of his character Cookie Monster to promote their Munchos line of potato snacks. The most popular of Henson's commercials was a series for the local Wilkins Coffee company in Washington, D.C., created for a campaign managed by advertising manager Helen Ver Standig. Most of the Wilkins advertisements followed a similar formula: two Muppets, in this case named Wilkins and Wontkins, would appear. Wilkins would extol the product while Wontkins would express his hatred for it, prompting physical retaliation from Wilkins. Over 300 Wilkins and Wontkins commercials were made, and the characters were so successful in selling coffee that soon other companies began seeking them to promote their products. In 1963, Henson and his wife moved to New York City where the newly formed Muppets, Inc. resided for some time. Jane quit performing to raise their children, and Henson hired writer Jerry Juhl in 1961 and puppet performer Frank Oz in 1963 to replace her. Henson credited them both with developing much of the humor and character of his Muppets.
Sesame Street And The Muppet Show
In 1969, television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and her staff at the Children's Television Workshop were impressed by the quality and creativity of the Henson-led team, so they asked Henson and staff to work full-time on Sesame Street, a children's program for public television that premiered on National Educational Television on the 10th of November 1969. Part of the show was set aside for a series of funny, colorful puppet characters living on Sesame Street, including Grover, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, and Big Bird. Henson performed the characters of Ernie, game-show host Guy Smiley, and Kermit, who often appeared as a roving television news reporter. Henson's Muppets initially appeared separately from the realistic segments on the Street, but the show was revamped to integrate the two segments, placing much greater emphasis on Henson's work. The success of Sesame Street also allowed him to stop producing commercials, and he said that it was a pleasure to get out of that world. Henson was also involved in producing various shows and animation inserts during the first two seasons, including a series of counting films for the numbers 1 through 10 which always ended with a baker falling down the stairs while carrying the featured number of desserts. He also directed the original C Is for Cookie and Tales from Muppetland, a short series of TV movie specials that were comic retellings of classic fairy tales aimed at a young audience and hosted by Kermit the Frog. The show featured Kermit as host, with a variety of prominent characters, notably Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great, and Fozzie Bear, in addition to its large cast of supporting characters such as the Muppet musicians Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem with their chaotic drummer Animal. Henson's teammates sometimes compared his role to that of Kermit: a shy, gentle boss with a whim of steel who ran things like an explosion in a mattress factory.
The Dark Crystal And The Labyrinth
Henson also aided others in their work. During development on The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, George Lucas asked him to aid make-up artist Stuart Freeborn in the creation and articulation of Yoda. Lucas had also wanted Henson to puppeteer the character, but Henson instead suggested Frank Oz for the role; Oz performed the role and continued in the subsequent Star Wars films. In 1982, Henson founded the Jim Henson Foundation to promote and develop the art of puppetry in the United States. Around that time, he began creating darker and more realistic fantasy films that did not feature the Muppets and displayed a growing, brooding interest in mortality. He co-directed The Dark Crystal in 1982 with Oz, trying to go toward a sense of realism toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive. To provide a visual style distinct from the Muppets, the puppets in The Dark Crystal were based on conceptual artwork by Brian Froud, and it was a critical success, winning several industry awards including the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and the Grand Prize Winner at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival. The film was less financially successful in theaters, but later claimed an enormous following and revenue when it was introduced on VHS for home entertainment. Henson worked with Oz again on The Muppets Take Manhattan in 1984, this time with Oz as sole director. Labyrinth in 1986 was a fantasy that Henson directed by himself, but despite some positive reviews, it was a commercial disappointment. This demoralized Henson; his son Brian Henson described it as the closest I've seen him to turning in on himself and getting quite depressed. The film later became a cult classic. In 1984 Henson traveled to Moscow, where he made a film about Sergei Obraztsov. Henson also donated four dolls to the puppeteer to replenish the Moscow Museum of Obraztsov Puppets: Fraggle, Skeksi, Bugard, and Robin the Frog.
The Final Negotiations And The Tragic End
In late 1989, Henson entered into negotiations to sell his company and characters to The Walt Disney Company for almost $150 million, hoping that he would be able to spend a lot more of his time on the creative side of things with Disney handling business matters. By 1990, he had completed production on the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World and the Disney-MGM Studios attraction Muppet*Vision 3D and he was developing film ideas and a television series entitled Muppet High. Henson's final television appearance was with Kermit on The Arsenio Hall Show in Los Angeles on the 4th of May 1990. Shortly afterwards, he privately disclosed to his publicist that he was tired and had a sore throat, but he believed it was a minor illness. On the 12th of May, Henson traveled to Ahoskie, North Carolina, with his daughter Cheryl to visit his father and stepmother. They returned to their home in New York City the following day. Due to his ill health, Henson cancelled a Muppet recording session that had been planned for the next day, the 14th of May. Henson was having trouble breathing when he woke up at around 2:00 a.m. EDT on the 15th of May, and he began coughing up blood. He suggested to his wife that he might be dying, but he did not want to take time out of his schedule to visit a hospital, feeling that the illness would resolve on its own. Two hours later, Henson agreed to be taken by taxi to the emergency room at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. Shortly after admission, he stopped breathing and was rushed into the intensive care unit. X-ray images of his chest revealed multiple abscesses in both of his lungs as a result of a previous streptococcal pharyngitis he had apparently had for the past few days. Henson was placed on a ventilator but quickly deteriorated over the next several hours despite increasingly aggressive treatment with multiple antibiotics. Although the medicine killed off most of the infection, it had already weakened many of Henson's organs, and he died at 1:21 a.m. the following day, at the age of 53. David Gelmont, the hospital's intensive care unit director, initially announced that Henson had died from Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes bacterial pneumonia. However, by the 29th of May, Gelmont had reclassified the cause of Henson's death as organ dysfunction resulting from streptococcal toxic shock syndrome caused by Streptococcus pyogenes. Gelmont noted Henson might have been saved had he gone to the hospital just a few hours sooner.
Legacy And The Rainbow Connection
News of Henson's death spread quickly and admirers of his work responded from around the world with tributes and condolences. Many of Henson's co-stars and directors from Sesame Street, the Muppets, and other works also shared their thoughts on his death. Numerous outlets covered his death alongside that of Sammy Davis Jr, who died the same day. On the 21st of May 1990, Henson's public memorial service was conducted in Manhattan at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Another was conducted on the 2nd of July, at St Paul's Cathedral in London. At the former, Harry Belafonte sang Turn the World Around, a song that he had debuted on The Muppet Show, as each member of the congregation waved a brightly colored foam butterfly attached to a puppet performer's rod. Later, Big Bird walked onto the stage and sang Kermit's signature song Bein' Green while fighting back tears. Dave Goelz, Frank Oz, Kevin Clash, Steve Whitmire, Jerry Nelson, and Richard Hunt sang a medley of Henson's favorite songs in their characters' voices, ending with a performance of Just One Person while performing their Muppets. In accordance with Henson's wishes, no one in attendance wore black, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band finished the service by performing When the Saints Go Marching In. The funeral was described by Life as an epic and almost unbearably moving event. The Jim Henson Company and the Jim Henson Foundation continued after his death, producing new series and specials. Jim Henson's Creature Shop also continues to create characters and special effects for both Henson-related and outside projects. Steve Whitmire, who had joined the Muppets cast in 1978, began performing Kermit the Frog six months after Henson's death. He was dismissed from the cast in October 2016, and Matt Vogel succeeded him in the role of Kermit. The Children's Television Workshop was renamed Sesame Workshop, which retained the Sesame Street characters in 2001. On the 17th of February 2004, the Muppets and the Bear in the Big Blue House properties were sold to Disney. One of Henson's last projects was the attraction Muppet*Vision 3D, which opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios on the 16th of May 1991, exactly one year after his death.