Inside Puppeteer Sid Krofft's Bawdy Beginni...

Puppeteer Sid Krofft gets a kick out of being asked about his "subversive" style that changed children's programming in the late '60s

Published Time: 29.09.2024 - 21:31:12 Modified Time: 29.09.2024 - 21:31:12

Puppeteer Sid Krofft gets a kick out of being asked about his "subversive" style that changed children's programming in the late '60s.

"I take that as a compliment," Krofft tells PEOPLE in the video chat from his Hollywood Hills home, adding that when people ask him for career advice he says, "Go left. Because everyone takes the safe path and they’re too frightened to be a little different and take a chance.”

Krofft and younger brother Marty, who died of kidney failure last November at 86, made an indelible mark on the entertainment landscape, earning them the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Their highly stylized fantasy TV programs, including Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, The Bugaloos and Lidsville, featured huge-headed puppets, high concept plots and low-budget special effects.

At 95, he's still telling stories on his weekly Instagram livestream show “Sundays with Sid." which has featured a number of high profile guests, including Paul Reubens, Dita Von Teese, Joel Gray and Josh Holloway.

When listening to Krofft, the first thing you learn is that there are no short versions to his stories, something he’s quick to apologize for although you don’t want to stifle a living legend. No matter what the question, he starts out with how he started. And that's always with the circus.

Krofft, the eldest in a financially-strapped Montreal family, entered show business at the tender age of 10. He says he quickly became a money-earner, putting on puppet shows that led him to New York City where he performed in vaudeville and Ringling Brothers Circus sideshows.

Although he was barely in his teens, he worked in burlesque, putting on risqué acts with his stripper puppet.

“I saw naked women as a little kid, I thought it was normal,” he says laughing. “I was too young to be in burlesque, so they wouldn’t let me take a bow because (the cops) would have raided the place.”

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Truly, there's no end to the tales of Krofft, which are also often filled with major Hollywood stars, including Liberace, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe.

Recalling the glittery days of Chateau Marmont, where he rented a small janitor's room, Krofft says he was in easy distance from his more affluent pals. He says during this time he walked to Liberace's home and that he once went strolling in a garden with Monroe.

“She told me, ‘If I could just have one night's sleep, I would give up my whole career. Everybody thinks I’m difficult, but the reason why I would come to set late was because I hadn’t slept,' ” Krofft says she once confided in him. “It really touched my heart.”

While successful in his own right as a puppeteer traveling all over the world, t -

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he real turning point came in 1958, when he landed a gig opening for Judy Garland, one the biggest stars at the time.

“We sold out everywhere, and it gave me another elevation,” Krofft says. “But I quit right before 1960 because I came up with the next incredible thing.”

Now teamed with his brother Marty, who came on as his assistant during the Garland tour, the two created shows that played at World Fairs in Seattle, New York and San Antonio.

The $250,000 adults-only musical review “Les Poupées de Paris” featured 250 puppets and a musical score by Broadway team Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen. The costumes alone cost $75,000.

“It played to millions and it was a puppet show for adults only because it was topless,” he said of the nearly naked puppets. “Billy Graham said everybody should come to the World’s Fair, but don’t go see ‘Les Poupées de Paris' because the women don’t wear bras.”

Critics and pundits took aim at the racy musical comedy show, with talk show host Jack Paar calling it “naughty pine.”

Krofft loved it, “it was always the number one attraction because no one ever saw anything like it. That was my goal.”

But it was the other family-oriented show they created, Kaleidoscope, that sparked their TV career by taking the hero-turned-dragon character and turning it into “H.R. Pufnstuf.” (The name was inspired by the Peter, Paul and Mary tune, “Puff, the Magic Dragon.”)

The Kroffts had been hired to do the costumes for an NBC children's show, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, when the network asked if the Kroffts wanted to pitch their own show.

They were cautioned that under the federal guidelines on children’s programming, they had to include an educational element. “I told them those kids are going to school five days a week, I am not a teacher,” Krofft says.

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He did, however, say he would figure out a way to “come in the back way.” One solution centered on Dr. Blinky, the owl. He lived in a house with a fireplace that smoked too much and had a terrible cough. When you left the house, it sneezed you out the front door.

Years later, going to Comic Con in San Diego and others, the now-adults would come up and tell him it was a clever way to get the educational stuff in, Krofft says.

Reflecting on the breadth of his career, Krofft shares an analogy involving a tree house he built 30 feet up in a eucalyptus tree at the Los Angeles home where he's lived for 52 years.

“The ladder going up is like my career. It’s a step at a time and it takes a long way to get to the top,” he says. “I still go up there at 95 years old. My life has been so exciting because every day I wake up and am grateful I was allowed to do all these incredible things.”