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This is an archive collection of entries from  my main personal blog, My Mundane Mid-Life.

This collection of entries is from the Category "Puppeteering".

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Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Puppeteering 201

Last week's (LOOOOooooog) post about my audition that started my short, wonderful career as a television puppeteer really got me thinking about those days and what it was like to puppeteer on a kids television show, and I remembered more things about that "lifetime".

read more of this entry »


posted at 01:44 PM | Link | Puppeteering § |

Thursday, November 03, 2005

It Was 30 Years Ago Today

November 3, 1975. Thirty years ago this morning, I stepped out of my comfort zone and did something that was pretty unlike me. I have never had the courage to try it again (I don't know why), and yet I have cherished every moment it produced.

read more of this entry »


posted at 12:11 PM | Link | Puppeteering § |

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Silver Circle

The Grand Ballroom of the Drake Hotel Me, Carol, Bill and his wife Jo Bill's Silver Circle Award

read more of this entry »


posted at 12:31 AM | Link | Puppeteering | 1 comment § |

Friday, April 29, 2005

What is this feeling?

I don't get it. It's just an awards banquet tonight, and I'm not even getting an award.

Then, why do I feel... nervous?

Maybe it's just excitement. I mean, I get to see my old boss again and I get to see (meet?) some other local TV "stars". I don't know, it's just a weird feeling.

Went out and bought some new shoes last night. Tried on my suit for the first time in a couple of years. It'll barely do for tonight. I mean, the jacket buttons fine, the pants took me quite a few minutes to actually get on. Which means, I'm going to have some major comfort problems tonight. It's just the waist, so I'm hoping I don't have any possibilities of blowing out the seam.

Time to get a new suit.

posted at 07:24 AM | Link | Puppeteering § |

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Bill on the Radio, Bill on TV

As you may know if you either know me or have rummaged around this website, I used to be a puppeteer many, many, many years ago for an icon in Chicago Children's Television - Bill Jackson. As I had mentioned earlier, he is being honored into the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle, honoring individuals who have devoted 25 years or more to the television industry and who have made a significant contribution to Chicago broadcasting.

Bill certainly qualifies.

This past Sunday, Bill was on WGN Radio on the Dean Richard's show and I was able to snag a few minutes of it here (17Mb MP3).

This Friday morning, Bill will be on the WGN Morning News.

And then on Friday night, Bill will be "inducted" into the Silver Circle.

I have never been more proud about anything I've done in my entire life, including my current career, than I have been working for and with this man.

And I am fortunate to be going to that ceremony Friday night at the Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago. I have to be there to honor that man.

Hope I can fit into my suit...

posted at 04:11 PM | Link | Puppeteering § |

Monday, February 07, 2005

Silver Circle

Yesterday morning I get this frantic phone call from my mom. "Turn on WGN," she says. We had the TV on so we went over to Channel 9. No, it was the radio - something that we don't have in the house. I hung-up the phone and dove for my portable radio and my digital voice recorder. It was Dean Richards' Sunday Morning show and he was talking to my wonderful former boss - Bill Jackson. It seems that Bill has been voted into the Chicago Chapter National Academy Of Television Arts and Sciences (you know, the Emmy people) Silver Circle (it's to recognize outstanding individuals who have devoted a quarter of a century or more to the television industry and have made a significant contribution to Chicago broadcasting).

Well, I guess the induction is April 29th at the Drake Hotel, and he'll be inducted along with Roger Ebert, Greg Gumbel, and Linda Yu.

I. MUST. BE. THERE.

I wonder how?

posted at 02:49 PM | Link | Puppeteering § |

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

29 Years Ago...

I just realized that it was 29 years ago this morning that I auditioned for the best job of my life.

I only wish I knew it back then...

posted at 05:43 PM | Link | Puppeteering § |

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

I'm mentioned in a book!?!

The Golden Age of Chicago Children's Television
This past weekend, my sister bought me a book that I've read about and, well, was curious about - The Golden Age of Chicago Children's Television by Ted Okuda, Jack Mulqueen. I mean, I've always thought that I was part of the whole Chicago Children's Television movement by working for one of the major people in the business at that time.

So, I needed to see what it said about my boss.

And there it was. Page 151. Bill actually mentioned me in an interview and there it is in print. Not only that, I'm referenced in the index of the book.

Do you have any idea how much this means to me? This was the best times of my life, something that I don't think I realized at that time. No, I'm sure I didn't fully realized it back then.

And here's Bill Jackson immortalized along with Ray Rayner, Bozo, Garfield Goose... and I get mentioned along the way.

Wow.

posted at 08:20 AM | Link | Puppeteering | 1 comment § |

Tuesday, December 03, 2002

DirtyDragon.com

Go visit DirtyDragon.com!
My old boss has decided to "pare down" his website starting next month. If any of you out there remember Cartoon Town on Channel 32 in Chicago, go to his website now at DirtyDragon.com to order videotapes because he won't be selling them anymore after the first of the year.

Bill always had a page on his website called Memories where he reminisced about things that have happened with the shows that many people didn't know about. Great stories. A few of them I remember from the days of Gigglesnort Hotel. In his final installment, however, he thanks those that he's worked with... and he took the time to tell the story about replacing a puppeteer that had left...

Finding a replacement proved difficult. Auditions were held at Columbia College, but no one had the experience the show required, nor did they display the heart necessary for the intense training that would be necessary--no one except a determined, diminutive young man with the shortest arms I've ever seen on a puppeteer--arms that appeared far too short to hold a puppet high enough so that the camera didn't catch the puppeteer's head. Michael Lans auditioned with the Dragon, the largest puppet I had at the time, and showed so much energy and desire I decided that if heart could make you a puppeteer, Michael could do it. He proved me right, somehow magically removing his head from his body during shoots. With Nancy as his instructor, Michael trained long and hard and became a superior puppeteer.
I can't help it - I'm all teary-eyed. It was my most favorite time in my life and my childhood and now adult idol remembered and took the time to thank me. I will always be grateful to Bill Jackson for the time and fun and opportunity to work with him. Always.

posted at 02:05 PM | Link | Puppeteering § |

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Fie...

I don't know why, but I went stumbling over to my old boss Bill Jackson's website at DirtyDragon.com. He has a great story about contract negotiations with WLS over the last year of Gigglesnort Hotel. Both Carol and I remember this event, though we never saw it. I mean, how many people would bring a gypsy violinist with them for the negotiation? Bill would. And did.

I really miss that time in my life. I think with my Dad's terminal illness, and the impending baseball strike Friday (I, for some unknown reason, measure the passage of time in my life along the passage of baseball seasons, and the players are screwing up my clock), I'm in a melancholy mood.

I spent the afternoon slapping some pages together and gathering pictures and materials of my short-lived puppeteering career. I have a series of slides that are the only things I really have of my time on Gigglesnort that I have to find a way to get them into a digital format so that I can use them here. Look for the new pages in the next week or so - there's a lot of other pictures I have to scan yet.

I think, though, I'm going to take tomorrow "off" and go to the ballgame. There aren't a lot of day games during the week at Comiskey, and there aren't many days left (potentially) to the baseball season.

posted at 08:58 PM | Link | Puppeteering | 1 comment § |

 

That's it for the entries in this particular Archive of my blog. If you want, you can look through other entries by selecting the links in the right-hand column of this page under either Archives by Month or Archives by Category, or you can search the site for specific keywords by using the Search page.

This Blog was last updated Friday December 18, 2009 13:03:12 CDT (-06:00 GMT)
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