Jim Henson’s Muppets are a household name – Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Cookie Monster, and the rest of the crew. Less remembered, though, are Kukla and Ollie, the clown and dragon puppets that were just as well known in their own time - the 1950s – as the Muppets are today. Along with their on-camera human foil Fran Allison, Kukla and Ollie created a witty, low-key, character-based humor that (again like the Muppets) appealed to adults as much as kids.
And all of it was improvised by a man who was almost never seen on camera – Burr Tillstrom.
For nearly 50 years, Tillstrom provided the hands and voices for Kukla, Ollie, and numerous other characters while staying almost completely behind the scenes. At the height of the show's popularity, the cast received 15,000 letters a day, and its ratings were comparable to shows featuring Milton Berle and Ed Sullivan. By all accounts, Tillstrom was a self-effacing man who channeled his improvisational gifts and his art through the characters who paraded just above his head as he ducked below the puppet stage.
"Kukla could talk to everyone and anyone," Tillstrom once said. "When I was too young or too ignorant to have an answer, Kukla took over. What would have been naive, coming from me, sounded funny coming from Kukla."
Somehow I can just picture a clueless career counselor trying to advise a young Burr Tillstrom: “You want to be an improv performer but you don’t want to be onstage? Son, have you thought about what you just said? You can’t have it both ways!”
Fortunately for those who still remember him and his art, Burr Tillstrom proved that you can have it both ways. For the Daily Improviser, Burr Tillstrom’s story illustrates that you can take an And Stance toward your life’s work (e.g., performing and being offstage) by recognizing your strengths, being creative in applying those strengths, and discovering your own special niche - or, as Jim Collins put it in Good to Great, “finding what you can be the best in the world at.”
And all of it was improvised by a man who was almost never seen on camera – Burr Tillstrom.
For nearly 50 years, Tillstrom provided the hands and voices for Kukla, Ollie, and numerous other characters while staying almost completely behind the scenes. At the height of the show's popularity, the cast received 15,000 letters a day, and its ratings were comparable to shows featuring Milton Berle and Ed Sullivan. By all accounts, Tillstrom was a self-effacing man who channeled his improvisational gifts and his art through the characters who paraded just above his head as he ducked below the puppet stage.
"Kukla could talk to everyone and anyone," Tillstrom once said. "When I was too young or too ignorant to have an answer, Kukla took over. What would have been naive, coming from me, sounded funny coming from Kukla."
Somehow I can just picture a clueless career counselor trying to advise a young Burr Tillstrom: “You want to be an improv performer but you don’t want to be onstage? Son, have you thought about what you just said? You can’t have it both ways!”
Fortunately for those who still remember him and his art, Burr Tillstrom proved that you can have it both ways. For the Daily Improviser, Burr Tillstrom’s story illustrates that you can take an And Stance toward your life’s work (e.g., performing and being offstage) by recognizing your strengths, being creative in applying those strengths, and discovering your own special niche - or, as Jim Collins put it in Good to Great, “finding what you can be the best in the world at.”
Thank you for posting this. I grew up with Kukla, Fran and Ollie, but never knew their work was mainly improvisation till I got older. Towards the end of Burr's career, hot shot TV execs would try and get him to follow a script. Burr would try, but his characters would protest (in particular, Buelah Witch during a 1980 TV special). No one knew Burr's characters better than he did. They needed to leave him alone to work his magic (with help from Fran, of course).
ReplyDeleteThank *you*, Leslie. I too grew up with the Kuklapolitans and always knew *of* Burr and Fran but have only recently started to delve more deeply into the background of the show (and I look forward to exploring your page). I'm particularly inspired by Burr because he found his own path for using his improvisational gifts, showing that you don't need to fit the mold of the out-front extravert. (And though I didn't focus on her in my post, I'd also acknowledge Fran's integral part in the unscripted magic.)
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