We are saddened to learn of of the passing of former Muppet workshop supervisor Caroly Wilcox.
Caroly began her career with the Muppets in 1969 in the New York Muppet Workshop as work on Sesame Street began. She also occasionally worked as a puppeteer (assisting on Ernie in such skits as "First and Last") and also made occasional cameos as the school bus driver.
Wilcox became the workshop supervisor for the Sesame Street Muppets, and remained in that post until her retirement in 1990.
Her sketch for a little red monster in 1979 would eventually become a little known character named Elmo.
She was also a key designer/builder for The Muppet Show and movies, notably directing the creation of a special Miss Piggy puppet for use in the underwater scenes in The Great Muppet Caper.
In many cases, her task involved the practical side, adding annotations to help translate character sketches by Jim Henson into physical puppets, noting how a performer should operate a character, and even coordinating the options for shooting the parachute drop in Great Muppet Caper.
Sesame Street: designed Elmo, built Two-Headed Monster, The Martians
The Ed Sullivan Show: built The Snowths (with Don Sahlin)
Saturday Night Live: built Scred
The Muppet Show: built Mildred Huxtetter, The Snowths, Sopwith the Camel, Doglion, Betsy Bird (with Cheryl Blaylock)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas: built Harvey, Will Possum, muskrats,
John Denver & the Muppets: A Christmas Together: Lead designer/builder for Nativity Muppets
Fraggle Rock: Muppet designer, built Gobo Fraggle with Tim Miller.
Follow That Bird: built Miss Finch
Back in May Caroly joined a discussion with Bonnie Erickson, and Rollie Krewson for the Museum of the Moving Image "Crafting the Creatures and Characters of Jim Henson’s World" which you can watch below:
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