Infant Industry: St. Elmo's Fire
Under the fuzzy red suit beats a heart of gold.
by Jennifer Baumgardner
May 28, 2007
Like most human beings born before 1983, I had no understanding of the
Muppet phenomenon
known as Elmo until 2005, when my one-year-old helped me
come to terms with the glory of this red monster. Most other kids characters — from
Barney to Dora to the Teletubbies — have voices that make me want to
rip
my hair out and eat it. Elmo sounds like a high-pitched RuPaul with the message
of Jesus (Elmo Loves You!). I defy anyone not to laugh at the Elmo's World
where Elmo explores dancing.
And it turns out the man at the heart of Elmo is as engaging as the muppet
himself. As a youngun in 1970s Baltimore, Kevin Clash begged his parents to
take him
to
the
local
Joann Fabrics on the weekend to buy fake fur for his hand-puppets. He kept
an eye on his mom as she did housework so he could nab the paper towel dowels
as soon as the last sheet was ripped from the tube. By high school, he starred
as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls (enduring a white co-star who
gave up her lead role rather than face kissing a black Sky) and produced local
talent shows to raise money for muscular dystrophy. At sixteen, he performed
Cookie
Monster in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade; by eighteen, he was working in
New
York City on Captain Kangaroo and freelancing for Jim Henson.
Kevin Clash wasn't the first Elmo, but when he donned the red puppet in
1983 (and that signature giggle came spilling forth), he helped to
usher in Sesame Street's new audience, which was years younger than the
grade-school children for whom the show was originally created. Kevin Clash's book is E.T.-level tear-jerking when it comes to Elmo's ability to bring joy. Elmo's
World debuted in 1998 and was an instant success. Tickle Me Elmo
was one of the craziest toy launches in history. In the fall of 2006, Kevin
Clash
came out with My Life As A Furry Red Monster, an as-told-to memoir (with
Gary Brozek as ghost-writer) conveying the serendipitous and charming rise of
the
Elmo juggernaut.
Clash himself is intriguing — a skinny kid with
a puppet
obsession whose working class parents supported his passions, a high-school graduate
who has never held a non-puppet job — but the book is
E.T.-level tear-jerking when it comes to Elmo's ability to bring joy — or
at least
bear witness — to those whose lives are rough. Like the elderly lady who
lost everything in Katrina, including her Hokey Pokey Elmo, the one being she
spoke to
daily. (Don't worry: Sesame Street's V.P. of Global Affairs heard
of her plight and sent her a new one.) Or the little girls who came to see Elmo
during a post-Katrina tour but wouldn't sit down to watch because, while
the shelter provided them with skirts and sweatshirts, it didn't give
them any underwear.
In late April, I met Kevin Clash at the Sesame Workshop Offices across from Lincoln
Center (the Sesame Street set is at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens).
Clash, age forty-six, is trim and handsome. He breezed in, signaling for me
to follow
him
into
his office, which was appointed with toys featuring Elmo's visage, from
a balance bike to videos to a camping set that Clash kindly offered for me take
home to my son. I snatched the toys up like a greedy two-year-old — Elmo
means the world to me now. — Jennifer Baumgardner
©2007 Jennifer Baumgardner and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Jennifer Baumgardner is a Brooklyn-based magazine writer and author. She is the co-author of Manifesta and Grassroots, and the author of Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics.
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