Rest in Peace Hank Stohl

Hank Stohl was a star puppeteer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the early days of television.

I'm sad to report that we've lost another of the early pioneers of television puppetry. Henry "Hank" Stohl - a well-known as a puppeteer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1950s and `60s - passed away on Monday after a long illness. Hank was well-known in Pittsburgh (and later New York) for the dozen years he spent working on kids' shows beginning in 1952. Later in his career put away his puppets to become a successful actor, appearing in dozens of movies, TV series, soap operas and plays, Hank also worked steadily for many years doing commercial voice-overs. One of his well-known characters, Knish, can still be seen today on exhibit at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.

John K. on Vintage Puppets

John K. wrote a great post yesterday about "what makes Funny Puppets". I love his take on the charm of vintage puppets and maybe there's something to his claim that The Muppets inadvertantly ruined puppetry by being so successful that almost everyone decided to copy their style without understanding the elements of their work that made them so successful in the first place (be sure to read the comments underneath the post for some lively discussion).

19/08/08 Update: Just to clarify (since I got a few emails from upset readers), I don't really think that the Muppets ruined puppetry. The Muppets have inspired a lot of puppetry over the years - some good and a lot of it bad - which just goes to show how difficult it is to do what they do well.

Babes in the Hollywoods

Legendary animator/puppeteer Bob Clampett created the surprisingly risqué Babes in the Hollywoods in 1950.

Babes in the Hollywoods is a classic Beany & Cecil film by Bob Clampett (see previous post) from 1950. This was made as fundraiser film for RTRA (Radio Television Recording & Advertising) and is surprisingly risqué. What really struck me about this was the way that Clampett performed the wolf, frequently employing Chuck Avery-style held takes and motion takes. I haven't seen nearly enough Beany and Cecil and this makes me want to track down more of Clampett's work and see other examples of him applying animation principles in puppetry.

BTW, if you're interested in Beany & Cecil history, watch this interview with Sody Clampett (Bob's widow).

Special thanks to Wes for spotting Babes in Hollywoods!

Rowlf and Jimmy Dean on DVD

American country singer Jimmy Dean and Rowlf the Dog, in an undated photo from the 1960s.

Jim Henson's first regular gig on national TV in the U.S. was Rowlf the Dog appearing as a regular on the Jimmy Dean Show in the 1960s. Clips of Rowlf and Jimmy Dean have traditionally been few and rarely seeen, but The Muppet Newsflash reports that Volume One of The Best of the Jimmy Dean Show has been released on DVD and includes several of the classic Rowlf/Jimmy Dean skits.

I've seen a few of these over the years and I think they're brilliant and still really funny even after all these years. This is the first in a series of Jimmy Deans DVDs planned by Time-Life so there should be lots more Rowlf and Jimmy Dean to look forward to in the future!

More Pookie

Soupy Sales and his puppet sidekick Pookie ham it up together.

John K. has been on a Soupy Sales/Pookie kick lately (see previous post) and he's got another rare clip of Pookie posted here (link goes directly to a Quicktime file). I love seeing classic television puppetry like this, but comparing it technically to the better work being done today it gives me just that much more appreciation for the contributions that Jim Henson and the Muppets made to the art form.

Oh and I'm not sure when this clip is from, but if it's 1962 or earlier (I suspect it is) Clyde Adler performed Pookie. However, if it's post `62 it would be Frank Nastasi. Anybody out there know for sure?

Pookie vs. Shrek

Pookie the Lion was a witty, fast-talking hipster on the famous 1950s series The Soupy Sales Show.

John K. has a post on his blog that compares the expressiveness of a multi-million dollar 3D animated Shrek to Soupy Sales' classic puppet character Pookie The Lion, which John estimates can be done for about 50 cents. It'll probably spark some interesting discussion so keep an eye on the comments at the bottom of the post.

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25/4/07 Update - John K. has some more Pookie stuff here.

Using Puppets To Pay The Bills

Muppets Harry and Professor Madcliffe help sell Esskay Meats in a commercial from the early days of television.

As long time readers of the blog know, two of my big influences are Scott McCloud and John K. Neither of them are involved in puppetry, but their respective art forms (comics and animation) have traditionally faced a lot of the same challenges as puppetry and many of their ideas can easily be adopted by puppeteers. Both John and Scott have been at the forefront of trying to figure out how independent creators can harness the internet to actually make a living doing the work they love.

In the mid `90s I first got interested in the internet's potential as a distribution channel for puppetry when I saw John's pioneering web series The George Liquor Show. One of the neat things John did with that series - which was the first-ever professionally produced Flash cartoon - was go back to the early television practice of having the show's characters act as pitchmen for the show's sponsor. John was a little a head of his time and the concept didn't really gain traction, but now a decade later he's started experimenting with it again. He discusses direct sponsorship in two recent posts on his blog (click for part one and part two).

(Note: This is a long post so I am test-driving a new feature...to continue reading this article on the main page of the blog just click on "Read More" below, otherwise keep scrolling down for more puppet film and video fun)

Some puppetry artists feel that using their work to sell products and services is too crass and commercial. I respect that point of view, but puppets pitching products was a common practice in early television...and it was often really entertaining too! It's how the Muppets paid most of their bills in the 1950s and 1960s. I don't see why it can't work for web video. Actually, I know that it can from my own experience.

Back in 2000 a few puppetry friends and I did some experimenting with a directly-sponsored web series called The Marshall and Buck Show. Looking back now the show itself was very crude, but the business model did work. Although it didn't last long enough to turn a profit (our sponsor was wiped out when the dotcom stock market bubble burst about four episodes in), it did pay enough to cover the rent on a small studio and take care of small production-related expenses. If the online advertising market hadn't imploded who knows what might have happened?

Right now there are puppet web series are popping up all over (just check the list in the sidebar) and I know of several more on the way. Most of the creators doing these would love to make their show a full or even part-time job. Could the classic direct sponsorship approach enable that? I think it can, but it has to be the right show delivering the right audience to the right sponsor.

This is a big, complicated topic with lots of questions that nobody can answer yet. If you're interested in reading more about the financial possibilities of web video I highly recommend Scott Kirsner's excellent new ebook The Future Of Web Video.

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Update: John K. has just posted some additional thoughts about making direct sponsorship work in Direct Sponsorship Part 3.

More Puppets and Perry Como

The picture is pretty grainy, but that's Burr Tillstrom's famous puppets Kukla and Ollie.

Here's another clip of Perry Como and puppets (see previous post), this one is a Christmas Carol medley featuring Burr Tillstrom's Kukla & Ollie singing "Deck the Halls" with Perry. The song starts at about the 4:50 mark in the video.

If you'd like to see more of Burr's work, I previously wrote about him back in July and included in the post links to some great videos of his work.

Bil Baird and Perry Como

A rare clip of the legendary puppeteer Bil Baird is available on YouTube.

Here's a clip from 1958 of Bil Baird on The Perry Como Show. How cool is that? For those who aren't familiar with him, Bil Baird is one of the legends of American puppetry.