Henson closes NY office

[michele herrman]

want to see it

i want to take a trip into the city to see the henson building before its gone. what is a good way to get there, by cab or by walking or subway. also, would they allow people in the building.


please write to michele_herrmann@hotmail.com


michele

 

[Muppetto]

I got to visit this place back in 1996 when I took a trip to NYC with my high school drama club. I have a friend who is a puppeteer (he does Tutter on Bear in the Big Blue House and is currently doing AVENUE Q on Broadway) and was working for JHC at the time and he arranged for me and my mom to visit. I took lots of pictures when I was there. If I can find them, I'll be sure to post some. I also got to visit the set of Muppets From Space in Wilmington, NC back in 1999. Here's my set report from Ain't It Cool News.

 

[Mark Filton]

Oh wow it's been over 10 days now I am back at the computer. Happy new year and everything

Now I can get back to those older replies.

I can't make the quotes thing work...ah well...

Buck Beaver , all of us are speculating. And yes, I know it is a business, but not that doesn't mean every decision they make I protest against I should be told "awwww...too bad little kid, it's a business in a grown up world."

I want to have the HEnson company succeed too, of COURSE, but I don't think this sale is gonna be the difference. It is just thoise guys saying "GOODBYE" to the history and that makes me feel terrible for the new projects.

Business is like art, you make mistakes in both sometimes.

Here is your quote
"I'm not saying that the townhouse wasn't a special place, just that perhaps on this issue we should defer to the wisdom and judgement of those who are closest to the issue - the family and the company."

WISDOM of the Henson kids? Give me a break

They censor the old tape of Jugband Christmas. What? For the nudity? There's your "wisdom." I read the Sesame Street unpaved and there'sd mistakes in it, and they reference to Roseanne Barr as if she's a "celebrity." I don't give two cents for the "wisdom" of the HEnson kids.

Frogboy says " Henson has seen better days and if this is what they need to get back on track then I support it."

And also that there is no need to keep the taxes up and it's not cheap and L.A. is the hub of entertainment.

SElling this building is not going to equal a good movie. It just means a little extra money...but unless they COULD NOT make a movie WITHOUT selling the building, then WHAT is the POINT???

Yes, it's not peanuts for taxes and upkeep, but what is a few points of interest on just ONE million bucks? To a family of millionaires, 15 grand a year is coffee money to you and me. It's nothing. THey are selling the building for no good reason.

Is LA the hub of entertainment? Well, the Muppets are not taking the world by storm if you notice. WHo is David Letterman and Conan and so many other people and Woody Allen and so many others? New York CIty is pretty darn important if you ask me. Who are the Muppets? As big as Paramount? NYC is where they made the big time. They should stay there.

Remember it's a NEW YORK "state of mind."

Now Luke says

"Henson do OWN their offices and puppet workshop in London - it's called the Creature Shop in Camden. They got it around 25 years ago and Jim probably did as much creative Muppet work there than New York because it was their base throughout the TMS years.

He also owned his own home there-

While some creative stuff did go on there about 80% of the time it has been used for all the boring admin, aside puppet building in the workshop of course."

Jim travelled everywhere. He had homes everyplace. If you read the book "The Works" then you will learn that the New York building was THE place. Am I making this up??? Read the book. THis place is a part of the soul of the Muppets. BUt that's how I feel.

Philip----I hope somebody does make a tape and we can check it out here. I sent an email to HEnson and they haven't responded. WHY can't we have a tape? THis website is not popular for nothing.

JUST ME

So I ask you all this: Before they put the place up, did ANY of you say "Hey! Sell that building!?"

No, nobody did. So, why are you all saying what a great idea it is, or that the HEnson kids are having "wisdom?"

Hey, everybody has an opinion.

I think the HEnson kids are not too bright as far as business is concerned, and there is no NEED to sell this building. They can keep all that history for candy bar money.

Is it their building? YES! They can burn it down if they want to. But I am not going to stand around and say "they know best." They don't know best. The loss of this building is a dark sign that the special history is something they can't be bothered with.

Yes, it is sentimental nonsense, but so are the Muppets, too! Chaplin had a Hollywood history. The Chaplin building even has to be CALLED Chaplin.

If the Henson kids are tired of trying to match the glory days, they sell the glory place, because they don't expect any more glory.

This decision is terrible. THey are turning on their own roots, and that means more of Kermit on Jimmy KImmel, and we are watching another big piece of what we love and cherish DIE.

Why make a World Trade Center memorial? Why make a "Strawberry Fields" for John Lennon? WHy bother with ANYTHING? Because it matters.

Sadly, it's pretty plain to see that it doesn't matter too much to Brian. I'm NOT saying he didn't love his Dad, but this decision means more crapola from the Muppets is coming

 

[Random EMO Fan]

Well, this is the first I've heard of this (I haven't heard anything to do with Henson in news/tv in the UK for years unfortunately), and I have to say it sucks. Really, said building should be purchased by the State or a charitable organisation (it's the National Trust/Department of Heritage/National Lottery Herritage Fund's job over here). Henson has to be important enough historically. Less important things have been preserved.

 

[Mark Filton]

That's a good point I wish I had written.

LESSER things have been saved!!!

Hey man, like David Letterman says after 9/11, if you have any doubt, now you know "New York City is the best city in the world."

Sorry to everybody else, NYC is the best. Even Kermit did an "I love New York" ad so many years ago.

It's New York City. Favourite song of Frnak Sinatra, too.

New York

I'm in a New York state of mind

(stupid Henson company still won't email me back for a video of the building)

 

[Luke]

New York

Do you happen to live there by any chance ?

 

[Mark Filton]

No. But I sure wish I did

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Anyone know when the place will be closed? I've called JHC-NY and one guy would not even comment on whether the place was up for sale in the first place.

 

[Luke]

I think they need to find a buyer first

 

[BoyRaisin2]

My 999th Message

From pages 156-157 of the 1993 book "Jim Henson--The Works":

Home Sweet Headquarters

Perhaps the best place to observe the special family feeling that characterizes the company to this day is the town house near Central Park that supplies Jim Henson Productions with its New York headquarters. This building was purchased in 1977, when the success of "The Muppet Show" made a physical expansion necessary. Jim had not planned to buy anything quite as grand--he had been thinking, rather, of something like an old industrial building, and he briefly considered a disused schoolhouse and an old fire station. But he fell in love with this gracious structure in the middle of New York's diplomatic district--with the grand staircase that spiraled up from the lobby to the third floor, and with the elegant second-floor library that would make an ideal boardroom.

It took more than a year to renovate the building, but when it was finished it was a magnificent sight. Murals and stained-glass windows portrayed the characters who had made ownership of this building possible, and restrooms were papered with Muppet wallpaper. At the same time, though, the building had been restored (by architect Peter Strauss) with great respect for its period charm, making it a graceful blend of two worlds. Helping to integrate the two were the masses of carefully tended flowers and plants with which the building was (and is) always filled.

What made the building especially pleasurable to visit in the late seventies and early eighties was the fact that for a few years it contained a significant part of the New York workshop, installed in a bright, airy basement area that opened onto a sunny courtyard and was illuminated by an enormous skylight projecting from the rear of the main building. It was there that you would find Calista Hendrickson decorating a gown for Miss Piggy with bugle beads. It was there that you would come across Leslee Asch restoring classic Muppet figures for a traveling museum show. It was there that you would encounter Faz Fazakas tinkering with electrodes and transistors.

Today, although the workshop has moved a few blocks away, feelings of creativity and camaraderie still permeate the building. Visitors to the office get a chance to sit in red velvet theater seats in front of Coulter Watt's mural of the Muppet Theater--as close to the "original" experience as you can get. The atmosphere is relaxed, with an air of cheerfulness that is catching.

The office is one of those rare places where people enjoy coming to work in the morning.