The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 37

Pantagraph Friday, September 7, 2007 D5 Pantagraph It's time to meet Muppets on display in Arkansas LITTLE ROCK, Ark. "The Muppet Show" had humble beginnings: a few pages drawn in marker with cutout photos that read, "Muppets Incorporated takes almost patriotic pride in presenting The Muppet Show, a concept for a half hour big budget show starring The Muppets." The simple proposal is among the drawings, doodles, puppets and story boards that show the creative process of Jim Henson, in an exhibit that launches its nationwide tour Friday at the Arkansas Arts Center and will travel through 2011. The exhibit shows a primitive drawing of Big Bird, labeled as "Nutty-Bird." Another Big Bird sketch shows how the puppet is operated -the puppeteer reaches his hand above his head to operate Big Bird's mouth, while seeing outside the puppet by way of a small screen in the costume. Oscar the Grouch is sketched in a 1969 drawing, but the surly garbage can dweller is purple, not green. The exhibit also showcases Muppets, typically made of fleece or fur fabric and with polyurethane foam, including a 1992 puppet with a singsong name that gets stuck in visitors' heads: Mahna Mahna.

A drawing on yellow legal-pad paper shows the origins of the Muppet Beaker, along with sketches of the pal to Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. Henson includes the notes, "Flesh color," "pink nose" and "Mouth to scream." "Jim Henson was a wonderful artist who worked in many, many media and kind changed our world, and that's why we're excited about this show," said Nan Plummer, executive director of the Arkansas Arts Center. "Jim Henson's Fantastic World" comes from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and The Jim Henson Legacy. It features 100 pieces, many of which have never before been displayed.

The pieces are on loan from Muppet character Kermit the Frog Arts Center in Little Rock, tution Traveling Exhibition Service's World." the Henson family, the Jim Henson The Muppets Studio and Sesame Workshop, along with the Jim Henson Legacy and Smithsonian. The exhibit will run through Nov. 25 in Little Rock, before heading to the Arizona Museum for Youth in Mesa, where it will open Dec. 15. The exhibit has stops planned over the next three years at several museums, including Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

Josette Cole, registrar with the Smithsonian Institutional Traveling Exhibition Service, said the new exhibit is the most comprehensive Henson art show to date. "A lot of these have never been seen before," she said, referring to doodles and sketches done on typewriter paper, notebooks and legal pads. "With the nature of the works on paper, they can't stay on the road so long because they're intended to be sketches and were not done for durability," Cole said. The exhibit includes art and photos from Henson's childhood until his death in 1990. One photo, from 1946, shows a Associated JOHNSTON is displayed at the Arkansas as part of the Smithsonian Henson's Fantastic young Henson pretending to be a snake charmer with a garden hose in Leland, Miss.

The show also displays his art from his high school and college days in Maryland, when he was drawing cartoons. "This is an exhibition that's really about Jim Henson, and that creative process, which really started when he was in high school," Cole said. Among the Muppets displayed in the exhibit are 1968 puppets King Goshposh and Featherstone, used in 1970's "Hey Cinderella!" and 1971's "The Frog Wilkins and Wontkins, used for Wilkins Coffee commercials in 1979; piano-playing Rowlf from 1976; Kermit the Frog, sitting on a log; and Bert and Ernie, from the 1970s and 1980s. Another pencil on paper drawing, from 1970's "The Great Santa Switch," depicts the special's featured elves: Zippity, Pippity, Boppity, Bing, Bong and Fred. The museum has a large collection of works on paper, so Henson's pencil sketches of Muppets and characters complement the center's art well, Plummer said.

Actress Suzanne Pleshette still the same spitfire she always was BEVERLY HILLS, Suzanne Pleshette much alive, and ever self. In a rare public Monday night for a 35th-anniversary tribute to "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972- 78), her most enduring work, the veteran actress showed that a year of serious personal and By Jill Zeman ASSOCIATED PRESS By Michael Cidoni ASSOCIATED PRESS Calif. is very her saucy appearance Suzanne Pleshette health matters hasn't damp.ened her spitfire personality. "I'm cancer-free, my (breasts) are great and I'm extremely, extremely rich," she told The Associated Press, generating howls of laughter from a packed audience during a panel discussion featuring the beloved sitcom's cast and crew. The tribute, co-hosted by the TV Land cable network and the Paley Center for Media, attracted most of the show's principals, as well as legendary-comic guests Don Rickles and Tim Conway.

But Pleshette's attendance had been a question mark. In August 2006, it was announced that the actress, 70, was being treated for lung cancer. In April, her actor-husband Tom Poston died from respiratory failure. Even as late as Monday afternoon, publicists would not confirm Pleshette participation in the tribute, and she did not walk the arrivals line, where Newhart spoke about his longtime leading lady's health. "It is not cancer," he said.

"She had an operation, they got it all. She then developed a pulmonary problem. She went in the hospital. When she went in the hospital, she caught pneumonia, so she went back in the hospital. It was touch and go.

She's here tonight, and she told me, 'Yesterday, I couldn't have made Early into the panel discus- sion, Pleshette noted, "I could have dropped dead. There are three doctors who kept me alive, just for tonight." Pleshette, looking fresh in a black pinstriped suit, was asked what she thought the classic show's real secret of success was. "The sexual energy between us," she responded dryly, inspiring a belly laugh from Newhart. "I don't remember that," he shot back. She was serious for a moment, though, when talking about working with Newhart as the ever amusing and ever loving Bob and Emily.

"We were a bright couple," Pleshette said. "We were a couple who cared deeply for each other. We were a working couple, both making substantial amounts of money. And I just think we were fabulous." TV Land airs a 35th-anniversary marathon of "The Bob Newhart Show" on Monday, running eight episodes selected by Newhart, from 8 p.m. to midnight.

Attorneys spar during closing arguments LOS ANGELES Prosecutors in the murder trial against Phil Spector presented only "speculation instead of certainty" as to who pulled the trigger when actress Lana Clarkson died, the music producer's attorney told jurors Thursday in closing arguments. Spector's attorney Linda Kenney-Baden counterattacked the prosecutor's hourslong closing argument the previous day, contending that Spector was too far away to have fired the gun inside Clarkson's mouth and instead that Clarkson killed herself. "Finally after four years of investigation, five months of trial and approximately 70 witnesses, we now have a variety of the government's speculations as to how this could Obituaries CENTRAL ILLINOIS Janette Albert LINCOLN Janette A. Albert, 76, Lincoln, died at 4:47 a.m. Thursday (Sept.

6, 2007) at Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital, Lincoln. Service: 10:30 a.m. Monday at Zion Lutheran Church, Lincoln, with the Rev. Mark Thompson officiating. Janette Visitation: 2 Albert to 5 p.m.

Sunday at FrickeCalvert-Schrader Funeral Home, Lincoln, and one hour prior to the service Monday at Zion Lutheran Church. Burial: Union Cemetery, Lincoln. Memorials: Zion Lutheran Church or Abraham Lincoln Memorial Foundation. Survivors: her husband, Robert "Bob" Albert, Lincoln; one son, Michael (Jody) Albert, Bull Head City, four daughters, Linda Sue Sheley, Lincoln; Diana (John) Lally, Bloomington; Susan (William) Streicher, Granville, Ohio; Gayle Caskey, Springfield; 18 grandchildren; and seven greatgrandchildren. Byron R.

Bahn CHESTNUT Byron R. Bahn, 75, Chestnut, died at 1 a.m. Thursday (Sept. 6, 2007) at his residence. Service: A private family service will be held I at a later date.

FrickeCalvert-Schrad- er Funeral Home, Mount Pulaski, is handling the Byron R. arrangements. Bahn Visitation: None. Survivors: wife, Lois Bahn, Chestnut; three daughters, Crystal Rae Holmes, Chestnut; Tina (Shawn) Bahn-Dooling, Excelsior, and Deborah (James) Matheny, Clinton; four brothers, Lloyd Bahn and Vernell (Dorothy) Bahn, both of Mount Pulaski; Verneil (Kathryn) Bahn, Chestnut; and Leland (Wilma) Bahn, East Peoria; one sister, Erma Baker, Creve Coeur; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Loren Gillette CHATSWORTH gene Gillette, 74, died at 8:10 a.m.

(Sept. 5, 2007) at his His funeral will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul Lutheran Church Chatsworth, with Jerry Gentes, minister of pastoral care. officiating.

Burial will be in Chatsworth Cemetery. Friends from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday tin-Burke Funeral Chatsworth, and from 1 Sunday at the church. Funerals today Brown, Jason 10:30 a.m. at Fricke-Calvert-Schrader Funeral Home, Lincoln.

Cordero, Virginia, 10:30 a.m. at Kibler-Smith Memorial Home, Bloomington. Davis, Ezell 1:30 p.m. graveside at' East Lawn Cemetery, Bloomington. Harder, Oneida, 2 p.m.

at First Lutheran Church, Pontiac. Holtz, Marlene, 10 a.m. at East Lawn Funeral Home, Bloomington. Hummel, Fern, 10:30 a.m. at Martin-Burke Funeral Home, Pontiac.

Mitchell. Julie 4 p.m. at Davis Funeral Home, Minier. Norris, Dorothy 9 a.m. at Holy Family Church, Lincoln.

Schelle, Gerald, 1 p.m. at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Normal. Waters, Mary Ann, 10 a.m. at Calvert Metzler Memorial Home, Bloomington. Funerals pending Lee, Elsie 88, of Bloomington, formerly of Lincoln, 1:58 a.m.

Thursday (Sept. 6, 2007) at Manor Care Nursing Home, Normal. Peasley Funeral Home, Lincoln. Markowitz, Robert, 81, of Bloomington, 3:18 p.m. Sept.

6, 2007) at Heritage Manor Nursing Home, Normal. Carmody-Flynn Williamsburg Funeral Home, Bloomington. Miller, Ellis "Judge" 96, of Peoria, mother of a Normal resident, 6:36 a.m. Thursday (Sept. 6, 2007) at Proctor Hospital, Peoria.

Cumerford-Hurd Funeral Home, Peoria. Reeser, Donald Lynn, 85, of Farmer City, 8:45 a.m. Thursday (Sept. 6, 2007) at Dr. John Warner Hospital, Clinton.

Calvert-Belangee-Bruce Funeral Home, Farmer City. Schaefer, Donna 78, of Bloomington, 8:40 a.m. Thursday (Sept. 6, 2007) at her home. Beck Memorial Home, Bloomington.

ly suggests memorials be made to St. Paul's Lutheran Church or Heartland Health Care Center in Paxton. Loren was born July 8, 1933, in Livingston County, a son of Homer Eugene and Viola Lee Gillette. He married Elizabeth Ann Ashman on June 14, 1959, in Chatsworth. She survives.

Surviving are two sons, Richard (Denise) Gillette, Elmhurst, and Karl (Glenda) Gillette, Cloverdale, one daughter, Beth Gillette, Chicago; three grandchildren, Jacob, Deirdre and Maeve; two sisters, Linda (Gene) Lemen, Colorado Springs, and Jeanne (Mike) Scott, Heyworth; three brothers, Lester (Carol) Gillette, Silver City, Dale (Gayle) Gillette, Chatsworth; and Leland (Rita). Scanlon, Bloomington; and several nieces and nephews. Loren was preceded in death by his sister, Marilyn Berbille, and infant sister, Mary Beth. Loren graduated from Chatsworth High School in 1951. He was one of the first employees at American Screen which is now Nichols-Home Shield, and drove and delivered fuel for Hicksatomic Gas in Chatsworth.

Loren worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 40 years, retiring in 2005. He was the postmaster in Danforth, Forrest and Chatsworth for 30 years. He held various offices in the postmaster organization. Author Norman Mailer hospitalized BOSTON Pulitzer Prizewinning author Norman Mailer spent the Labor Day weekend in a hospital with breathing difficulties and has been told not to travel until cleared by his doctors, his editorial assistant said Thursday.

Mailer, 84, has adult onset asthma and was experiencing "labored" breathing, Dwayne Raymond Prickett said. He spent five days in a Boston hospital undergoing tests. Prickett declined to say when Mailer was released or name the hospital where he was treated. Mailer has since returned to his Provincetown home, is doing well and is preparing for his daughter's upcoming wedding, Prickett said. "There's not really any need Calvert Metzler memorial homes 1115 East Washington, Bloomington Family Values, Trusted Friends Alex A.

Calvert, Director Serving All Faiths He was a member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Chatsworth, where he served on the church council. He was also a member of the Masonic Lodge in Chatsworth. This obituary may be viewed and private condolences left at www. www.martin-burkefuneralhome.com.

Florence Tisdale EL PASO Florence Tisdale, 81, El Paso, died at 7:10 a.m, Sunday (Sept. 2, 2007) at Heritage Manor Nursing Home, Bloomington. Service: 10 a.m. Monday at Calvert Froelich Memorial Home, El Paso, with the Rev. Gordon Barrick officiating.

Burial: will follow in El Paso Township Cemetery. Visitation: from 9:30 to 10 a.m. Monday at the memorial home. Memorials: American Cancer Society. Survivor: sister, Shirley Snyder, Ottumwa, Iowa.

Mary Eleanor Woodruff WASHINGTON Mary Eleanor Woodruff, 89, formerly of Washington, passed away at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday (Sept. 4, 2007) at Apostolic Christian Home, Eureka. Service: 11 a.m. Monday graveside at Hillcrest Memory Gardens, south of Washington, with the Rev.

Bob DeBolt officiating. Mason Funeral Home, Washington, is in charge of arrangements. Memorials: Crossroads United Methodist Church, Washington, or St. Jude Midwest Affiliate. Survivors: one daughter, Carla (John) Mary Eleanor Voros, Morton; Woodruff one sister, Margaret Ziegenhorn, Fairbury; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

BLOOMINGTON- NORMAL Jeffery Swartz Jeffery Swartz BLOOMINGTON Jeffery Mitchell Swartz, 23, of 1321 W. Mulberry Bloomington, died at 5:44 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 5, 2007) at his home. Visitation will be from 1 to 4 p.m.

Saturday at Carmody-Flynn Williamsburg Funeral Home, Bloomington. Interment will Jeffery be private. In Swartz lieu of flowers, donations may Loren EuChatsworth, Wednesday residence. Loren Gillette Loren Gillette may call at MarHome, to 2 p.m. The fami- be made to a charity of the donor's choice.

Jeffery was born Sept. 4, 1984, in Bloomington, the son of William and Julie Ann Miller Mitchell. He is survived by his mother, Julie (Jerry) Swartz, Bloomington; his father, William Mitchell, Bloomington; two half sisters, Jennifer and Gloria; and one half brother, Tanner. Jeffery was employed as an inspector at Flexitech in Bloom- Obituary policy ASSOCIATED PRESS for alarm," he said. Mailer was scheduled to deliver public readings at the University of South Carolina on Sept.

25, and at the University of South Florida on Sept. 27, but those events were canceled, Prickett said. Mailer won his first Pulitzer in 1969 for "Armies of the Night," a nonfiction book about the anti-Vietnam War march on the Pentagon. He won the prize again in 1980 for "The Executioner's Song," about the life and execution of Utah murderer Gary Gilmore. The Pantagraph publishes obituary information submitted from funeral homes; there is no charge for notices of pending funerals or notices of services.

There is a $10 handling fee for standard obituaries, which include the deceased's name, age, city of residence, survivors and details about visitation, services, burial and memorials. Families who want to personalize their loved one's obituary by including more information may use an extended obituary for an additional fee. Extended obituaries are subject to editing for accuracy and style. For more information, please talk to your funeral director. By Linda Deutsch ASSOCIATED PRESS have happened," KenneyBaden said.

Prosecutor Alan Jackson's closing argument Wednesday repeatedly attacked the high profile forensic experts hired by Spector, calling it a "checkbook defense." Kenney-Baden said it was the government that had boundless financial resources to investigate. "They had every forensic EARN MORE! 4.30% 91 Day CD with $5,000 Deposit Call 1-877-899-1913 or stop by today! 2401 E. Washington, Bloomington tate, LANAGAN BANK Member FDIC 743738 Benson, Bloomington, El Paso, Flanagan, and Le Roy -Annual Percentage Yield Rate subject to change without notice. tool available to them as to who fired the gun that night," she said. Spector, 67, is accused of second-degree murder in the death of Clarkson, 40, who died of a gunshot in the foyer of his home around 5 a.m.

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