![]() The original Kermit (then a lizard) made of a cardboard skeleton, Henson’s mother’s old coat, and a halved Ping Pong ball for eyes, had a malleable head well suited to the full articulation of the human hand, offering a wider range of expression. As recounted in Christopher Finch’s 1994 book, Jim Henson: The Works, Jane and Jim would watch from onset monitors that “enabled them to see not only their own performances as they were happening, but also exactly what the audience would see.” The use of the monitors led Henson to experiment with perspective and camera angles and ultimately develop a uniquely telegenic style of puppet that was flexible and expressive in close-up. Lip-synching to arias with these puppets proves difficult, but hint at Jim and his partner (and later wife) Jane Nebel’s, early efforts at puppetry on the air. ![]() In an alcove, hand-and-rod puppets, the prototype for the major players in the Muppet-verse, can be manipulated (arms with the plastic rod, mouth with the sleeved hand) in view of a camera and TV screen to recreate clips from Henson’s first show, Sam and Friends. By the entrance is a display of puppets spanning his creative life, from the primitive Pierre the French Rat, the puppet he used to audition for his first gig in television, to experimental creatures of latex and flocked foam, like the taxidermy-eyed vixen, Vazh from the doomed Saturday Night Live segment, “The Land of Gorch.” Moving away from the display, a chronology unfolds with welcome interactive demonstrations suitable for tykes. ![]() The exhibit, made up of an immense collection of finished pieces donated by the Henson family, reveals Jim’s many roles: as director, writer, performer, artist, and, along with his colleagues, a technical innovator and craftsman. It’s a lot of us that do this.” Like the Muppets, Henson’s team was an ensemble whose labors, and much of the technical work on view, have, until now, largely gone unseen. Over these images Henson’s voice can be heard saying “All the work that I do is very much a group effort. Performer Caroll Spinney is seen half harnessed into his Big Bird rig, Frank Oz mugs as Fozzie Bear, and puppet maker Don Sahlin is captured in a candid moment adjusting a few of his creations. Henson himself naturally figures large in the collage, but so do his collaborators. A build of the muppet Rowlf by puppet maker Tim Miller from Don Sahlin’s original design (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)Īt the end of “ The Jim Henson Exhibition,” now on permanent display at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, the visitor is faced with a wall of screens bearing slideshow episodes fr om the Muppet Master’s career.
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