Born in the Netherlands as Margaretha Zelle in 1876, her lavish childhood fell apart when her father declared bankruptcy in 1889. Her parents divorced and her mother died not long afterwards. Margaretha was sent to live with a godfather.

Eighteen and ready for change, Margaretha Zelle answered an ad in a newspaper. A Dutch Army Captain was looking for a wife. As you may be able to predict, the marriage didn’t work out well. Zelle was swept away to Java where her new husband, 20 years her senior, proceeded to reveal alcoholic and abusive tendencies. She found solace in studying Indonesian traditions and by joining a local dance group. 

After a few more turbulent years in Indonesia, the couple returned to Europe where a divorce was finalized. Margaretha then moved to Paris, and rose to fame as an exotic dancer, taking the name Mata Hari. 

Mata Hari’s fame as a dancer made her a favorite entertainer in Europe and led to her recruitment as a spy for the Allies during WWI. Ultimately and unfortunately, Mata Hari got caught in the crosshairs of WWI espionage. Naïve and out of her element, she was not fully prepared to be a spy. As paranoia set in on the side of the French, the Allies convicted her double-crossing and Mata Hari was executed. She remains a controversial casualty of WWI. 

Today is the birthday of Kermit Love, American puppeteer and costume designer. We have Kermit Love to thank for Sesame Street residents Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster. 

Born in 1916 in New Jersey, Kermit Love was raised by his grandparents after the death of his mother at age three. His grandparents first introduced him to puppets when he was a child, and they were big fans of radio programs. In his teens, a horsing accident confined Kermit Love to bed, and to fill his time, he began drawing characters to fit the voices on the radio program. 

Kermit Love was a young man during the Great Depression and found work through the New Deal Works Progress Administration as a mask maker in a theater department. From there he entered into the tight-knit world of the Theater. 

Kermit Love found his next job in a ballet costume department in New York City under the tutelage of ballet costume designer Barbara Karinska. Karinska would turn Love’s sketches for costumes into reality for the stage and with her blessing he traveled to Europe, working as a costume designer in Paris and then London, before heading back to the States in 1962. 

Back in New York City, Love found himself in a perfect partnership with big-time choreographer George Balanchine and former ballerina Twyla Tharp both of whom he worked with for many years. 

A friend of Love’s introduced him to Jim Henson. Jim Henson and his Muppets, including Kermit the Frog, had already taken off, but he needed help on a new project: Sesame Street. 

Henson had some drawings ready for a new gaggle of motion puppets but it was Love who helped bring them to life. Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, and Mr. Snuffleupagus were all the handy work of Love. Kermit Love in fact accompanied Big Bird on a few tours and made a few appearances as Willy the Hot Dog Vendor on Sesame Street. 

Kermit Love enjoyed a long tenure as a designer, passing away in 2008 at 91.

Emily Dickinson

 

They shut me up in Prose –

As when a little Girl

They put me in the Closet –

Because they liked me “still” –

 

Still! Could themself have peeped –

And seen my Brain–go round –

They might as wise have lodged a Bird

For Treason–in the Pound –

 

Himself has but to will

And easy as a Star

Look down upon Captivity –

And laugh– No more have I –