In Praise of Hoots

Sesame Street has been on the air since 1969 and just kicked off its 45th season. It has also just taken up residency in LPA’s Donald & Mary Oenslager Gallery, where you can see manuscripts, music, media, original designs, and, best of all, Muppets through January 31. Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, the Count, and Oscar, can be seen up close. Even Snuffy, thanks to amazing engineering devised by Installer René Ronda. And, by my special request, Hoots.

Hoots, the saxophonist owl, joined the cast in 1986, just in time for my second period of Sesame Street watching with my young nephews. His Muppeteer, Kevin Clash, used a husky voice for dialogue and singing, many octaves below his Elmo voice. The original Hoots, which is on exhibit, has shaggy fur eyebrows and coat with feather detailing. His name sounds like it should be a well-known jazz nick-name. Named, possibly for Toots Thielemans, can be heard on the harmonica on the original theme song recording, or after his Muppet Show colleague, Zoots, who is named for Zoots Sims who inspired the lyric “When Zoots walked in, everything began to swing.”

Hoots is the manager and host of Birdland, which resembles the '50s jazz club of that name, but seats more birds, penguins and ducks than ever hung out on Swing Street. In his words, “Cats, birds, ducks, and people,” all are welcome. The Hoots sequences introduced audiences to jazz through veterans, such as boogie-woogie pianist Dorothy Donegan and blues great Joe Williams, and his performances. A beautifully soulful sequence in which Hoots and Yo-Yo Ma trade alto improvisations is included in the exhibition.

Like Louis Armstrong, he is both an instrumentalist and singer. Artifacts on exhibit and the soundtrack document his best known performance—“Put Down the Duckie.” In the parody case, we show the lead sheet and production notes for the song, introduced in 1986. In it, he explains to saxophone student Ernie that he needs to put down his Rubber Duckie in order to practice and play the instrument. Christopher Cerf’s production notes specify that the song was to be introduced for pledge week, so it is a longer sequence than usual (over 5 minutes) and features PBS stars, such as news anchor Robert MacNeil and Masterpiece Theatre’s Jean Marsh and Jeremy Irons. Curriculum research underlies all Sesame Street content, but while Ernie is learning to focus, the rest of us are enjoying a wild variety of performers. Others who tell him to “Put down the Duckie” include Andrea Martin, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Paul Simon, and Celia Cruz. Cerf’s instructions also provide a reward to jazz fans in the audience—when Ernie finally understands that he can temporarily aside the duck, he breaks into a hot and very practiced jazz riff.

Who is your favorite Muppet?