New Gilda's Club project...with a little tribute to Richard Hunt

Convincing John

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New Gilda's Club project...with a tribute to Richard Hunt

Hey, everyone! Great news!

Some of you know that I am involved with volunteering for Gilda's Clubs. I thought I'd let you all know about my new project. For other foam-blooded Muppet fans like me, I think this'll put a lift in your day.

Okay, I'm making a drawing, a color drawing of Gilda Radner for the Gilda's Club Desert Cities in Palm Desert, California. Since Gilda was a basketball fan, I am working on a drawing of Gilda as a basketball player. She is soaring through the air, about to make a slam dunk and win the game. In the audience are people Gilda loved, worked with and admired over the years. So, you'd see celebrities like John Belushi, Steve Martin, Gilda's brother Michael, Gene Wilder, etc. The drawing will be auctioned off, with all proceeds going to the Gilda's Club Desert Cities.

And guess who else I've included? That's right! Even though space was limited, I managed to reserve space for Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson and Dave Goelz in the audience. I know other Muppeteers worked on SNL, and Dave didn't work on it at all, but he did play :confused: when Gilda was on TMS, so he is included. Due to space, I unfortunately wasn't able to include Fran Brill (Vazh) and Alice Tweedy, who I believe played Queen Peuta on SNL. The same goes for Peter Friedman, who played the seven-foot tall talking carrot. As much as I wanted to include them all, there just wasn't room for everyone. Sorry. :frown:

So all that "made the cut" was Jim Henson, who is sort of resting his chin on his knuckles, smiling and watching Gilda. (I used page 130 from "Of Muppets and Men" as my main reference), Frank Oz is next to him, Jerry Nelson is next to Frank, complete with his sunglasses, hat, and holding a box of popcorn. Next to Jerry is Dave, who is sipping a soda. They all look like they did around 1980 or 1981.

Now here comes the best part. One of the first things I thought of when I started the drawing was having Richard Hunt be a part of it. This is partly because I felt bad I couldn't include Beaker in an earlier statue I did of Gilda. For those of you who don't know, I created a life-size statue of Gilda from the "Tap Your Troubles Away" number from TMS. I wanted so much to include :eek: and the chest pull as well. Unfortunately, my request to include him went unanswered by the Jim Henson Company's legal department. :frown: I felt kind of like I needed to make it up to Richard. So, in this drawing I needed something funny for Richard to do in the picture. Something he'd like. So guess what? :wink: In a tribute to Richard, he's selling popcorn, just like Scooter did. And even the price a bag is the same..."only a buck!" the tray says.

I read that sometimes Richard Hunt's family reads our messages. I hope they enjoy my tribute to Richard in this drawing.

If anyone's interested, I have a rundown of the list of people (over 50) who appear in the drawing.

Convincing John
 

Super Scooter

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Wow! That sounds (as Scooter would say) great!

I especially love the Richard Hunt part you added. Terrific idea!
 
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