The 'Gentle Anarchy' of the Muppets

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

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4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Icky Gunk. Moldy Hay. Kermit. You might recognize one of these names. Before Kermit joined Miss Piggy and Big Bird, he was kicking it with Sam and Friends — a local tv show in Washington, D.C. that launched Jim Henson's career. We journey back to 1955 to figure out how this eccentric cast of puppets built the foundation for everything Jim Henson would do afterwards, from Sesame Street, to The Muppet Show and even Labyrinth (we see you, David Bowie fans). And we venture into the conservation labs to learn what it took to revive these crumbling hunks of foam and fabric when they landed at the Smithsonian.

Guests:

Ryan Lintelman, curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Sunae Park Evans, senior costume conservator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Bonnie Erickson, a director of The Jim Henson Legacy; creator of Miss Piggy
Craig Shemin, author of Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX and Lizzie Peabody.
0:24.0	Sunnay Park Evans has touched some pretty important pieces of clothing.
0:28.7	Joji Washington's uniform and Ben Franklin's costumes and ring concert and it's kind of a lot of different people.
0:39.6	Why has you touched the fabric that touched Abraham Lincoln's skin?
0:43.5	I know, it's so amazing.
0:45.3	Sunnay is a costume conservator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
0:50.3	And costume is basically museum-speak for clothing.
0:53.9	So when a first lady's ball gown or a boxer's gloves or an actor's legendary cowboy hat come to the Smithsonian to be preserved for all time,
1:02.0	they usually wind up in her workshop.
1:04.5	But the things she receives aren't always in great shape.
1:09.3	Like a few years ago, when someone dropped a bag on her pristine lab table.
1:15.0	She pulled it open and saw what looked like a pile of orange dust and gunk and some metal parts that once held everything together.
1:23.6	This is like a pipe kind of holder.
1:26.4	Oh, how is that tough?
1:28.2	Like that's what you find in the ceiling of like an infinite statement.
1:31.4	Right, right.
1:33.4	I've since learned she was pointing to a hose clamp for those of you in the know.
1:38.1	And then this is the duct tape.
1:40.1	That's duct tape?
1:40.9	Yeah.
1:41.5	Oh my gosh, it is duct tape.
1:43.0	Yeah.
	...

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