You’ve almost certainly heard of Kermit the Frog, the puppet from Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and several feature films. But have you heard of Kermit Love, the puppet maker who worked with Jim Henson to create many of the puppets for those productions?
Love was born Kermit Ernest Hollingshead Love on August 7, 1916, in New Jersey in the US. He was raised by his grandmother and great-grandmother. He got his start in marionette construction during the Great Depression, when he got a job with a federally funded theater project. He also designed costumes for some Broadway productions, including for Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater — the crew that enacted War of the Worlds on the radio.
Love met Jim Henson around 1960. Love’s experience creating full-body puppets got him into the group, where he created both Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird. If you remember (I don’t), Big Bird would sometimes shed a feather or two. That was Love’s idea, to make the costume seem more real. He also created Cookie Monster and Mister Snuffleupagus. The Big Bird costume needed a fair amount of maintenance, so when the Muppets made international appearances, Love always accompanied the troupe to manage the costume. Or puppet. Or puppet-costume.
In addition to The Muppets, Love worked on all sorts of other projects, from productions of the Nutcracker ballet to Aza, the mascot for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Aza is reportedly sort of a bird. Love died at 91, and by the way — Kermit the Frog is not named after him.
