Like so many of us, I grew up with The Muppets. As a kid in the 70s, Sesame Street was in full swing and by the early 80s, The Muppet Show had begun. I still remember waiting for that special time, (was it 7:30 or maybe 8 pm?) sitting cross-legged in front of the TV. I loved that magical half hour of TV. Even better was when Fraggle Rock started because it would play after The Muppet Show giving a full hour of MUPPETS!
Those shows, those wonderous puppets, made a huge impact on me. The characters were wildly different from each other, and none of them were perfect; they might overreact to something, get upset, get angry, be confused, mess something up, and yet they were all so amazing at the same time. Their flaws were part of what made them wonderful.
Jim Henson, while not a diary writer, did enjoy keeping track of the events in his life; everything from when puppeteers were hired, to show dates, and family events too. He also had extensive notes of numerous ideas and sketches. Karen Falk, the official archivist for Jim’s archive, has gathered parts of his notebooks and put that together with photos and write-ups giving us a timeline of his life and career. The result is a fascinating peek into the amazing creativity that was Jim’s life.
One of my favourite parts mentions Wilkins Coffee – you can see these commercials on YouTube and they are hilarious, although full disclosure, also fairly violent! You can see a sample of them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K33mMjsjbdA
Other interesting facts you will learn in this book!
By the time Jim was only 28, he was already successful with his own TV show, hundreds of commercials under his belt, and many appearances on variety shows. He also had numerous projects in development and was connected with a multitude of creative and talented people.
He studied art, costume design, graphic design, typography and ran his own silk screening business.
In the 1960s he worked on Cyclia, “a dome-shaped multimedia nightclub, where patrons would enjoy a full sensory experience of music synchronized to rapidly changing images projected onto faceted screens”. The vision did not ever materialize as Jim moved onto other projects.
Jim directed The Cube, “a surrealistic comedy that “dramatizes the complex baffling problems of reality versus illusion,”
one of Jim’s cars was a 1978 Lotus Éclat customized in Kermit green with headlights designed to look like Kermit's eyes.
There is an introduction by Ron Howard who recently directed the 2024 documentary Jim Henson: Idea Man, and a forward by Lisa Henson, Jim’s eldest daughter.
I recommend this book to especially anyone interested in little trip into nostalgia and interested in learning more about the working of the mind of the man who brought so much joy into the word.
Thank you so much for my copy of this inspiring book Insight Editions!
You can get a copy here or most other places books are sold. Jim Henson's Imagination Illustrated – Insight Editions
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