Magical Muppetry

Melissa Schorr

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998 | 9:49 a.m.

Emily Newberry stares up at Big Bird in wonder.

"I never knew he only had three fingers," she says, gazing up at the 8-foot, 2-inch "Sesame Street" character, all yellow-dyed turkey feathers and orange spindly legs, rising above everything else in the gallery.

Lance Harkins has seen all this before.

"Seeing Big Bird in person is a big deal for people," says Harkins, laughing. He is an exhibits technician for Jim Henson Productions, a job which has brought him to Las Vegas to set up "The Vision of Jim Henson," the traveling exhibit that debuted last weekend at the Lied Discovery Children's Museum.

The touring show stops in Las Vegas for six weeks, through Nov. 15.

"In American culture, they're more than just puppets, they're personalities of their own," Newberry, the museum's public relations director, says. "Big Bird is like a perpetual 6-year-old -- that's the talk around 'Sesame Street,' " she confides knowledgably. "He never gets older, unlike the rest of us."

Actually, seeing Big Bird and the other characters from the display will make most of us -- including a grown woman such as Newberry -- forget we ever aged a day.

There are old friends and newer ones here: Bert and Ernie, Kermit and Miss Piggy, Elmo and Prarie Dawn, Rowlf the Dog and the Swedish Chef, as well as characters and sets from later Henson works such as "Fraggle Rock" and the fantasy films "Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth."

"Puppetry is a great educational tool," says Newberry, explaining why the museum rented the Muppet exhibit, which costs about $50,000. "Children get a sense of power -- they can create a whole world. They learn communications skills. There are all sorts of wonderful lessons for children -- other than that it is the Muppets, and that alone is worthwhile."

At a VIP premiere party last week, a 6-foot-tall Cookie Monster was on hand to receive the key to the city, which he promptly chomped into his mouth.

But Big Bird still stole the show.

One-year old Cody Bosnos and his older brother, Chris, 2, looked up in wonder when they saw the giant yellow creature, says their mother, Kim. "They love Big Bird. Of course, when they say it, it comes out as 'Bubba,' " she says, laughing.

The biggest challenge, Newberry confides, will be keeping people from plucking Big Bird's feathers. "How do we have kids fulfill what is a natural desire to touch, without actually doing so?" she asks. "We hate to bring things in that kids can't touch. But these are priceless artifacts."

One answer is the posting of a cardboard cutout next to the "real" puppet, with detachable feathers that kids are allowed to stroke and pull.

Another is the Creature Shop and Workshop Area, where there are touchable displays of the foams, fabrics and fur used on the puppets, and where kids of all ages can construct their own paper puppets.

The exhibit also features a "Video Studio" in which children can experience what it's like to manipulate a puppet on a TV screen in front of a space-themed backdrop.

The exhibit traces the career of founder Jim Henson, who died of pneumonia eight years ago, but whose work is carried on through his company.

With displays and photos, the exhibit traces Henson's early work creating puppets for commercials, such as the La Choy dragon and his first show in the '50s, "Sam & Friends," which introduced an early version of Kermit the frog created from an old green coat of Henson's mother.

The exhibit also includes photos of Henson's appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and the huge, hanging Gawkie Birds, which appeared in Las Vegas with Nancy Sinatra during the taping of a 1971 television special.

But fans will be most interested in Henson's main legacies: "Sesame Street," which will mark its 30th birthday next year, and the Muppets, which began with his Emmy-award winning "The Muppet Show" in 1976, and went through many incarnations: films, beginning with 1979's "The Muppet Movie"; the '80s cartoon "The Muppet Babies"; and a short-lived revival, "Muppets Tonight!" in 1996.

Fans will be pleased to know that a new Muppet movie, called "Muppets from Space," will begin shooting this month and will be released in July. Henson Productions is also in negotiations with the Odyssey cable channel to provide programming.

Despite offering this behind-the-scenes insight into its traveling exhibits, Henson Productions tries to be careful about keeping the illusion going.

But can the fantasy survive seeing Bert and Ernie mounted in a glass case?

Margaret Heinlein, a display associate in charge of setting up the exhibit, believes that, yes, the Muppet magic remains.

"Seeing the things they're made of, it doesn't take away, it adds," she says. "There's so much that lives in your imagination about these characters, even when you see them on someone's arm, you will still believe in them. I think this is the one game we let ourselves play."