He was the beloved man from the moon with a pencil for a nose who graced Australian television screens for more than 40 years.
Now, Mr Squiggle and the other iconic characters from the show, along with more items from his creator's collection, have been acquired by the National Museum of Australia.
The Norman Hetherington collection comprises the puppets themselves, the scripts for the show and even some of the squiggles sent in by adoring young fans.
Curators hope to inspire a sense of nostalgia for the many Australians who grew up watching Mr Squiggle, Rocket and grumpy Blackboard during its 41 seasons.
But they also want to share the show's magic with a whole new generation of children.
The man from the moon first appeared in 1959
The ABC's Mr Squiggle and Friends first appeared on the small screen in 1959.
With a pencil for a nose, the character of Mr Squiggle would delight children by turning the "squiggles" he would be sent from around the country into pictures, all with the help of his friend Blackboard.
Often, the drawings would end up the wrong way up, leading Mr Squiggle to say "everything's upside down these days" before asking the presenter to turn the picture around.
Blackboard was known for his grumpy demeanour and his catchphrase: "hurry up, huuurryy up".
On air until 1999, Mr Squiggle survived changing formats, the introduction of colour television and several presenters, including none other than Norman Hetherington's daughter Rebecca Hetherington.
A family affair
Norman Hetherington created and voiced all of the puppets on the show — Blackboard, Bill Steamshovel, Gus the Snail and Rocket — while his wife, Margaret wrote the scripts.
Their daughter Rebecca remembers watching her father work for hours creating the characters in the family's basement.
"When I grew up, there weren't endless videos and things that you could do and watch, so I spent a lot of time just sitting in the studio watching him work, and talking to him," she said.
"One time ... he might be giving Mr Squiggle a little bit of a face lift after a long day ... and another time he might be illustrating cartoons or making other puppets," she said.
Ms Hetherington's father was a talented cartoonist who was drawn to puppets because he saw them as "three-dimensional cartoons".
Some of Mr Hetherington's puppets, Nicky and Noodle, were even on air on the first ever night of ABC TV broadcasting.
But Mr Squiggle was by far the most successful.
"A lot of young people talk about the fact that Mr Squiggle helped them to pick up a pencil and just start drawing," Ms Hetherington said.
"My father loved that because he didn't want to be didactic about how you drew ... you just needed to let your imagination take you wherever it led."
In a "full-circle" moment, Ms Hetherington later worked with her father even more closely, ultimately presenting the show in the 1990s as "Miss Rebecca'"
'It's like my close family has moved out'
Ms Hetherington said saying goodbye to the characters had been sad, but she was glad they would be looked after in perpetuity by museum curators, and shared with generations of Australian children to come.
She said her father, who died in 2010, would be "humbled" and "really excited" by the fact his life's work had been picked up by the National Museum of Australia.
"It's a little bit like my close family has moved out ... but they've moved to a new, lovely family who are going to look after them," she said.
"It's really wonderful that the museum has seen fit to sort of treasure and value what my father did and it's lovely for myself and also for his grandchildren and our whole family."
Museum acquires slice of Australian history
The National Museum of Australia had been in negotiations with the Hetherington family for a number of years to acquire the collection.
It includes not only the puppets from the show but original scripts, artworks, props, sets, production notes and merchandise.
Senior curator Sophie Jensen said the collection would be a "real star feature" of the national historical collection.
Like Ms Hetherington, Dr Jensen was excited about the potential of introducing the characters from the show to a new generation, as well as connect with those who remembered him fondly.
"What we are really hoping to do with this particular collection is delve into the idea of creativity, imagination drawing that Mr Squiggle really represents," she said,
"Whole generations of Australians now will be able to look at this collection and really come to understand what their potential is to be creative, to be artistic, to have fun, explore, imagine and create."
A small display, including Mr Squiggle and Rocket, is now on show at the National Museum of Australia until May 16.
Curators hope a larger display will be ready for the public to see midway through next year after they have completed the "massive task" of documenting the collection.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiamh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTA0LTI5L25hdGlvbmFsLW11c2V1bS1hdXN0cmFsaWEtbXItc3F1aWdnbGUtbm9ybWFuLWhldGhlcmluZ3Rvbi8xMDM3NzMwMTDSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTAzNzczMDEw?oc=5
2024-04-28 20:47:02Z
CBMiamh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTA0LTI5L25hdGlvbmFsLW11c2V1bS1hdXN0cmFsaWEtbXItc3F1aWdnbGUtbm9ybWFuLWhldGhlcmluZ3Rvbi8xMDM3NzMwMTDSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTAzNzczMDEw
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar