Puppetry Center is Final Home for Lewis’ Creations

The museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts has added Lamb Chop, the popular television puppet star, along with some of its costumes and an Emmy Award to its permanent Global Gallery display. The simple hand puppet was created by Shari Lewis, the beloved American television entertainer. It made its first appearance on the CBS television network’s children’s series, “Captain Kangaroo,” in March of 1956.

Lamb Chop. which is not much more than a white knitted sock with some basic facial features, became what Lewis readily admitted was her alter ego, even surprising her sometimes by the feisty comments from the creature that came to life in her hand.

It made its first appearance when Lewis was only 23 and it was with her during her last appearance on a PBS children’s show in 1998. Earlier in that decade, the puppet starred in, “Lamb Chop’s Play Along,” which was also a public television production. That series won six Emmy Awards to cap her four decades as a beloved children’s entertainer.

The manager of the puppet museum’s collections, Micah Walsh, is a big fan of Lewis’ work particularly for what she accomplished in the early days of black and white television.

“When you watch some of the early video of her when she’s younger and starting out, it’s just mind boggling,” Goodman said. “The way she brings Lamb Chop to life is a sight to behold.”

Lewis was born Phyllis Naomi Hurwitz. Her father was from Vilnius, Lithuania, which was a center of Jewish life before the Holocaust. He later became professor of education at Yeshiva University and was named New York City’s “Official Magician” during the Depression when he performed before audiences in the public schools. Her mother was a music educator. Both of them played important roles in guiding their daughter’s early career.

Last year, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival screened a documentary about Lewis, entitled, “Shari and Lamb Chop,” as its closing night presentation. The film is now available for purchase as a DVD and was recently added to several streaming rental platforms.

It features an extensive series of performances, including those which made her a national star when she replaced, “The Howdy Doody Show,” on NBC in 1960. According to Walsh, her ambition and her creative ability fueled her early rise.

“There weren’t a lot of women in puppetry at that time, and so she sort of filled the gap there with determination,” Walsh said. “She was just a force to be reckoned with, I think, and was very driven, obviously, in making a career out of what she loved and was good at.”

Children’s television in the medium’s infancy was produced live, mostly in the network’s New York City studios and, during the 10 years from 1953 to 1963, was a popular presence on the tube. In addition to Lamb Chop, she created in those early years a stable of characters like the shy and goofy Hush Puppy and the sarcastic Charlie Horse that would remain with her for the next four decades.

Later in her career, she created a pair of home video presentations built around the Jewish holidays of Chanukah and Passover. During the year-end holiday season this month, the Puppetry Museum included the Charlie Horse puppet in his costume as King Antiochus, the villainous ruler in the traditional Chanukah story.

All of the Shari Lewis puppets were a recent donation by Mallory Lewis, her daughter. She has carried on her mother’s work as a puppeteer after her mother’s death in 1998. At the AJFF last year, she helped introduce the documentary about her mother. She returned in February of this year for a show at the puppetry center with Lamb Chop, whom she describes as her younger sister. According to Walsh, Lewis’s daughter has developed a strong relationship with the museum.

“As part of her donation process, she had a program here which was very successful,” Walsh points out. “She continues to be a big supporter of us and involved in the center in different ways. As part of the donation, we did conservation on Lamb Chop, and that’s one of the reasons why Mallory selected the center as a home for Lamb Chop and Hush Puppy and Charlie Horse.”

There’s a touching scene that’s mentioned in the Lewis documentary that centers on the relationship between Lewis and her daughter. It comes on the set of the PBS program, “The Charlie Horse Music Pizza,” just after Lewis has been told she is going to die of cancer. As it is later recalled, her daughter reached for her mother’s puppets and said, “I’ll take her now.”

In so many ways that’s what she has done.