Sam Puppet from Sam and Friends: Museum Object and Cultural History
Sam Puppet from Sam and Friends: date made: 1954-10. performer: Henson, Jim. maker: Henson, Jim.
The object in the museum catalogue
Sam is a hand puppet and the title character of Sam and Friends. This is the original Sam puppet that was created by Jim Henson in October 1954. Sam has a papier-mâché head which makes him more rigid than most of the other puppets created by Jim Henson. He never spoke, but he would lip-sync to popular music and comedy records from the time. Sam and Friends was a five-minute show that aired on the local NBC affiliate station in Washington, D.C., WRC-TV. It featured a cast of hand puppets created by Jim Henson and his eventual wife Jane Nebel that often lip-synched to popular songs or comedy records. It aired from 1955 to 1961.
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: 1954-10
- performer: Henson, Jim
- maker: Henson, Jim
- Object Name: puppet
- Physical Description: fabric (overall material)
- Physical Description: paint (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 21 in x 14 in x 11 in; 53.34 cm x 35.56 cm x 27.94 cm
- Subject: Puppetry
- Subject: Television broadcasts
- Subject: Television
- ID Number: 2010.0144.01
- accession number: 2010.0144
- catalog number: 2010.0144.01
- Credit Line: Gift from the Family of Jim Henson
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.
Sources
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