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Jim Henson
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Description
He was a gentle dreamer whose genial bearded visage was recognized around the world but most people got to know him only through the iconic characters he created: Kermit the Frog Bert and Ernie Miss Piggy Big Bird. The Muppets made Jim Henson a household name but they were only part of his remarkable story.
This extraordinary biography--written with the generous cooperation of the Henson family--covers the full arc of Henson's all-too-brief life: from his childhood in Leland Mississippi through the years of burgeoning fame in Washington D.C. New York and London to the decade of international celebrity that preceded his untimely death at age fifty-three. Drawing on hundreds of hours of new interviews with Jim Henson's family friends and closest collaborators as well as unprecedented access to private family and company archives--including never-before-seen interviews business documents and Henson's private letters--Brian Jay Jones explores the creation of the Muppets Henson's contributions to Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live and his nearly ten year campaign to bring The Muppet Show to television. Jones provides the imaginative context for Henson's non-Muppet projects including the richly imagined worlds of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth-as well as fascinating misfires like Henson's dream of opening an inflatable psychedelic nightclub or of staging an elaborate all-puppet Broadway show. An uncommonly intimate portrait Jim Henson captures all the facets of this American original: the master craftsman who revolutionized the presentation of puppets on television the savvy businessman whose deal making prowess won him a reputation as "the new Walt Disney " and the creative team leader whose collaborative ethos earned him the undying loyalty of everyone who worked for him. Here also is insight into Henson's intensely private personal life: his Christian Science upbringing; his love of fast cars high-stakes gambling and expensive art; and his weakness for women. Though an optimist by nature Henson was haunted by the notion that he would not have time to do all the things he wanted to do in life-a fear that his heartbreaking final hours would prove all too well-founded. An up-close look at the charmed life of a legend Jim Henson gives the full measure to a man whose joyful genius transcended age language geography and culture-and continues to beguile audiences worldwide.
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Edition:
1
Number of Pages:
608
Release Date:
2013-09-26
Publication Date:
2014-01-16
Publisher:
Virgin Books
Languages:
Original:
English
ISBN10:
075355514X
ISBN13:
9780753555149
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
Weight:
1001 g
Height:
153 cm
Width:
234 cm
Thickness:
35 cm
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