One of the most favorite of Sesame Street characters, Big Bird who has been played by puppeteer Caroll Spinney comes to the big screen. He is also the voice of Oscar the Grouch, another Sesame Street favorite. The film, “I am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story” will present the 50 years of his career on Sesame Street and his continuing contribution to keeping these characters alive.
The show began in 1969 to positive reviews and high ratings. Mr. Spinney is a puppet master and has been since age 5 and worked with Jim Henson and The Muppets since the beginning of Sesame Street. In his early years as a child growing up in Waltham, Massachusetts, he describes himself as awkward with a girl’s name and derided by the other boys because he played with dolls.
After seeing a puppet show, he was so hooked believing it was the perfect way to express himself. Says Spinney, “Somehow, I was shy enough to not care about being seen,” he explains. “And I figured if I could ever get on a TV show with a character that I enjoyed doing, it might even get famous. “And,” he sums up with a grin, “voila.”
He spent some time playing on local kids’ programming playing various characters with various puppets. It was during this time he met Jim Henson at a puppetry fair. Jim Henson was actively looking to gather some innovative ideas for the public program he was working on for children.
When Spinney started working with Henson, he was given two characters: Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird. Oscar is green, lives in a trash can and has a generally grumpy outlook on life while Big Bird is the complete opposite. Big Bird is full of optimism, has a sunny attitude and wide-eyed view of life.
According to Spinney, Big Bird fits his personality type but even that doesn’t really capture the claustrophobic conditions haven’t been difficult for him. While in costume as Big Bird, he must hold one arm up to move the buggy eyes and the 18 inch long beak. With the other hand, he operates its left wing. During this, he speaks in real-time with other characters using a small monitor display strapped to his chest and small bits of the script taped around the screen for him to follow.
However, the monitor display was not available in the first season and Spinney had to fly blind in the dialog. His wife, Debra reminds her husband, “And at first, Jim wanted you to walk backwards”. He quips, “That way,” Spinney laughs, “he thought the legs would bend properly (at the knees), like a real bird’s. I said, ‘Jim, I kind of reject that idea.'”
Though he will admit that his life has been joyous there still remains heartbreak. His first wife left because she couldn’t handle his puppet obsession. The next tragedy was the explosion on the Challenger Space Shuttle Mission in 1986 in which everyone including Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher from New Hamphire. Spinney was actually NASA’s first choice of the first civilian on the Challenger but was replaced by McAuliffe.
When Jim Henson passed away in 1990 at age 53, it was Spinney in his Big Bird character who sang “It Ain’t Easy Being Green” which is the signature song of another Muppet favorite, Kermit the Frog. Kermit was the most associated Muppet with Henson. Henson created the character in 1955 and did the voice until his death. At the conclusion of the song, he looked towards the sky and said, “Thank you, Kermit.”
Despite age and other changes, such as the arrival of Elmo, Spinney continues to to remain busy with securing the Big Bird legacy. Spinney seems to not be about to get his feathers ruffled by a few challenges, however, the film reminds us that it isn’t easy to be Big Bird.
