Jim Henson's Red Book

In June 1965, 28-year-old Jim Henson started a written log of his activities in what became known as “The Red Book.” He noted what had happened up until that point (deemed “Ancient History”) and then recorded anything that he felt was worth recording as single line journal entries until the end of 1988.

Selected curated entries courtesy of The Jim Henson Company Archives.

2/27/1969 – ‘Shoot commercial – Sprint – Candy Bar.’

Posted on February 27, 2012 by admin

As happened with Rowlf the Dog and later with Cookie Monster, many Muppets got their start in television advertisements. In the case of those two characters, puppets were built and performed in commercial shoots. Other times, however, Jim came up with a design but didn’t end up constructing the puppets. In 1963, Jim designed a large walk-around bird for the Stouffer’s frozen food company. The commercial did not get made, but Jim kept the drawing. When he was asked to create a character to roam Sesame Street in 1969, Jim revised his design and created Big Bird.

The population on Sesame Street benefited from another unrealized commercial character design. In early 1969, Jim was approached by advertising executive Ted Bates on behalf of his client Mars, Inc. about making a commercial for Sprint Wafers, a treat that was a combination cookie/candy bar. The split personality of the product inspired Jim to suggest a two-headed creature, one who thought Sprint was a cookie and the other who thought it was candy. Jim had made a two-headed monster before, but this one had an added element of contrast – one head would have a sort of smokestack at the top that would let out a “toot” to punctuate his speech, while the other had a light bulb on top and would make a “ding” sound to accompany his words. In the end, humanoid characters were created for the commercial instead, but Jim used his idea later. Sesame Street features both a two-headed monster (without sound effects) and, since 1981, two types of single-headed characters clearly descended from the Sprint monster design: Honkers (who honk rather than toot) and Dingers.

See Jim perform Ernie with the Honkers and Dingers on Sesame Street.

Jim’s rough ideas for a two-headed Sprint monster, 1969.

Jim’s proposal for a Sprint candy commercial, 1969.

Jim’s Sprint Lady design for the 1969 commercial.

Jim’s unrealized 1963 design for a Big Bird-like character, 1963.

Topics: 02-February '69, 1969, Commercials | Tagged Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Dingers, Honkers, Inc., Mars, Muppets, Rowlf, Sesame Street, Sprint Wafers, Ted Bates

2/26/1968 – ‘Begin filming “Youth ‘68” in NYC. Travel to San Francisco – L.A. – Houston – Omaha – and Miami. Finish in NYC mid March.’

Posted on February 26, 2012 by admin

Jim’s NBC Experiment in Television: Youth ’68 combined filmed interviews of the man on the street with those of music celebrities, famous quotations read and recorded in a studio, and musical numbers illustrated with innovative film techniques. The real heart of the show was interview clips featuring America’s youth juxtaposed with those featuring the older generation. Within those groups, the contrast between urban/coastal and those from the rural heartland was impactful and telling about the conflicted feelings in a changing society.

To get his sound bites, Jim had an ambitious travel schedule, organized by his associate producer, Barry Clark. Clark had done extensive scouting of the locations and assessed the general mood of each spot to guide the interview process. About Omaha, Clark wrote in his planning notes, “To look cool in Omaha, one wears a loose sport coat, slacks, and a crew cut. Or else an air force outfit covered with General’s decorations. And eat a lot of steak, be ruddy-faced and hefty, laugh and sing a lot, and be sociable to unattractive women. Be sports-minded, in a word.” He added, as a warning to Jim, “You will feel grossly uncool in Omaha.” About the scene in San Francisco, Clark wrote, “Free love and political activism are big here, and legal aspects of war and pot and censorship.” His advice to Jim, “Questioning should be enlightened.” In thinking about what to film, Clark noted that they could get good, “….footage of hippy communism and lethargy along Haight St.,” however, “This is a lot grubbier and sadder than Hollywood Flower People movement.”

Having shot the studio quotations and dance numbers in February, Jim returned from his travels and got the last of his on-the-street footage on March 28th. Scenes of urban loneliness were captured on West 48th Street and in Times Square in the morning. After lunch, Central Park provided the background for “lyrical shots”, “angry SDS spokesmen” and, “Flower People…talking softly of hope.” Jim then had less than four weeks to put it all together, choosing clips, adding music, editing the dance numbers, and making it all flow. It went on the air to great critical acclaim, and the fan mail rolled in, mostly extremely positive but with a few from unhappy viewers.

Learn more about Youth ’68.

Jim’s location permit for Los Angeles. He filmed just down the block from the Henson Company’s current home.

Some of the youth represented in Youth ’68.

Positive fan mail for Youth ’68.

Negative fan Mail for Youth ’68.

Topics: 02-February '68, 1968, Youth 68 | Tagged Barry Clark, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Omaha, San Francisco

2/–/1962 – ‘Show in Berlin for USIA.’

Posted on February 24, 2012 by admin

Being in Washington, DC and popular on the local airwaves, it made sense that several government agencies sought Jim’s contributions to various public information efforts. He and Jerry Juhl had performed as part of the US Department of Agriculture’s presentation at a Food Fair in Hamburg in 1961. Their contact at the USDA, Barbara Witt, recommended them to the US Information Agency. So, from January 29th to February 12th, Jim and Jerry took another trip to Germany, this time to Berlin on behalf of the USIA. Their contract required that they, “Present a puppets play program and act as conferenciers in connection with the entertainment program of the American Exhibit ‘AGRARAMA’…” and that their performances would total about three hours each day of the exhibit.

Jim’s plan was to do more or less the same performance they had done in Hamburg and used his experience there to make some specific requests regarding his staging requirements. He explained that they worked kneeling, holding the puppets over their heads, and that the “puppet playing ledge” should be at 54 ½ inches, higher than in Hamburg because, “…we has some trouble with our heads showing.” He also asked for a scrim or audience viewing slit and an electrical outlet to plug in their robot. The show must have been a success as Jim received an invitation to reprise it the following year, but busy with other things, he declined.

Jim did do some additional work for USIA in 1962 in service of their efforts supporting democracy in the Dominican Republic. He was commissioned to produce nine one-minute spots. Using lessons and messages from various USIA brochures like “You and Your Political Party,” “Your Rights As A Human Being” and “Your Government and Free Economy,” Jim and Jerry Juhl wrote scripts and performed in English, and the films were translated and dubbed into Spanish. Five years later, Jim participated in a USIA television special to be aired by foreign broadcasters, performing his “Beautiful Day” and “Glowworm” monster sketches.

Learn more about Jim’s 1961 participation in the USDA show in Hamburg, Germany.

See a short film Jim made for the USIA’s work in the Dominican Republic.