Cookie Monster Puppet
date: label: date made
content: 1969
name: label: performer
content: Oz, Frank
label: performer
content: Rudman, David
label: maker
content: Henson, Jim
label: builder
content: Sahlin, Don
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>Cookie Monster is a live-hand puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by David Rudman. In a live-hand puppet, like Cookie Monster, one of the performer’s hands is in the puppet’s head while the other is in one of the puppet’s arms, which has gloves for hands. Another puppeteer is usually needed to operate the other arm, which is known as right-handing. Cookie Monster is one of the main characters on <i>Sesame Street</i>. He is covered in blue fur with large googly eyes. He constantly eats anything and everything, but cookies are his favorite.</p> In a 2005 episode of Sesame Street, Hoots the Owl sings Cookie Monster a song about healthy eating, teaching him that “A Cookie is a Sometime Food,” part of a Sesame Workshop educational program launched in response to the obesity epidemic. Though Cookie Monster didn’t stop eating cookies, the episode generated controversy and conversation, with some commentators bemoaning that “woke” Sesame Street producers were robbing the series of its innocent joy.
label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>Cookie Monster evolved from a monster created by Jim Henson for a General Foods Canada commercial in 1966. This character advertised the snack foods Wheels, Crowns, and Flutes along with two other monsters and was known as the Wheel Stealer. The Wheel Stealer continued to evolve as he appeared in an IBM commercial and on <i>The Ed Sullivan Show</i> in 1967. He eventually made his way to <i>Sesame Street</i> after losing his teeth. Once there, he gained his love of cookies and the name Cookie Monster by the second season.</p>
label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>This puppet is the original Cookie Monster puppet created in 1969 for <i>Sesame Street</i>. He is able to feed himself because his hands are simply gloves for the performer’s hands, and he has a hole in his mouth that runs down the performer’s sleeve. The cookies that are eaten by Cookie Monster are rice crackers that are made to look like cookies because the oils from actual cookies would damage the puppet.</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Sesame Street
label: Subject
content: Puppetry
label: Subject
content: Children's television programs
label: Subject
content: Television
label: Subject
content: Television broadcasts
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Jim Henson
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the Family of Jim Henson: Lisa Henson, Cheryl Henson, Brian Henson, John Henson and Heather Henson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2013.0101.20
label: accession number
content: 2013.0101
label: catalog number
content: 2013.0101.20
objectType: label: Object Name
content: puppet
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: synthetic fibers (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: foam (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 26 in x 55 in x 6 in; 66.04 cm x 139.7 cm x 15.24 cm