On September 24, 1936, a baby named James Maury Henson was born in tiny Greenville, Mississippi. His family later moved to Maryland, where Jim got his first job at age 17 making homemade puppets for a local television station. He cut up his mother's old green coat to make his very first puppet, which had a vaguely amphibian shape. That ragged little fellow would eventually grow into Kermit the Frog.
Jim Henson had a special gift for thinking like a kid. He invented a new type of puppet he called the Muppet, which was operated by hand from below the camera so it could move expressively. He combined Muppet performances with songs, jokes, and big-feelings storytelling. In 1969 he helped launch Sesame Street, which used puppets to teach reading and counting to millions of kids around the world, and gave us Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Grover, and a cookie-obsessed monster. In 1976 The Muppet Show began, and Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Gonzo became the funniest TV variety act on the planet. Henson also made movies like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth and created the giant alien Yoda look for his friend George Lucas's Star Wars films.
Jim Henson died too young, at just 53, but the Muppets kept going. Sesame Street is still on the air after more than 50 seasons, broadcasting in over 150 countries and teaching kindness, sharing, and even hard topics like grief. Whenever you see a puppet wave its little felt arms and sing about counting to ten or being yourself, you are seeing Jim Henson's idea that anything is possible if you just believe in your characters.
