Arthur Novell

In 1976, Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges, and Charles Gordon starred in the feature film “King Kong”.  When it came time to promote the release of the film, Jim Henson was in New York.  As he passed the Empire State Building, he saw a massive 84 foot tall inflatable gorilla attached to the side of the building.  Evidently, Jim turned to whoever he was with and said, ‘find out who came up with that promotional idea – I want to hire them’.  The person behind it was Arthur Novell.

Throughout production on “Muppets Tonight” there was an always cheerful smiling face who was always there, ready to do anything and everything needed to facilitate

In the mid ’90’s I became involved at Tippi Hedren’s Shambala Preserve, a non-profit sanctuary for big cats north of Los Angeles.  One of my first endeavors was to set about shooting a documentary for Shambala to use for fund raising using a top of the line BetaCam SP camera I purchased primarily to document the animals at Shambala.  When it came time to edit the 40 hours of video, I was stuck.  This was years before it was possible to edit on a laptop and I had no access to an edit suite.

Then, a generous friend arranged for me to have access to both the edit suite and a professional editor through his connections at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  That friend was Arthur Novell.

As a seasoned publicist within the entertainment industry, throughout the production of “Muppets Tonight” Arthur acted as the production liaison between guest stars and the show. Though it was a full time job, he still ran his own company while acting as the publicist for the Jim Henson Company.  Not only that, he was always onset bringing bottles of water to us when we were unable to leave the set.  It became a sort of joke that he was out ‘water boy’.

We did extensive promotional work together all over the world throughout my years as Kermit, and became close friends.  He dubbed me the ‘Master of Soundbites’ because he claimed I had such a knack for getting a message across in the midst of improvising with Kermit. 

During the 24 years that I was Ernie on Sesame Street, I would frequently fly to New York for production.  Their was always one person with whom I made time to have a long dinner (usually at Patsy’s Italian Restaurant) to catch up on all things Muppet related. That travel ritual was shared with Arthur Novell.

When I was unceremoniously cast out of the Muppets and needed the knowledge of a top  publicist to navigate the treacherous nature of the entertainment industry press, the one person who was immediately there for me was Arthur Novell. 

On the night Jim died, it was Arthur who Jane called for help.  More than a hired publicist, he nurtured everyone in Jim’s orbit.

For decades, Arthur was a fixture of Jim’s company and beyond. He was filled with savvy and knowledge about all things related to Jim Henson and The Muppets, arguably the most knowledgable person ever where behind the scenes matters were concerned.  Arthur was a primary source of confirmation/falsifiability for me as I developed an integral approach to Jim’s methodologies.  If one needed the verify Jim Henson’s motives, strategies, and subsequent actions, Arthur was the ultimate firsthand authority.

 I received a short email from him on my last birthday saying,

“It’s official

I’m two weeks older than water.

89!

That makes you younger than

Spring time.

Happy Birthday

followed by many more.

Hugs & Love

a”

I am a bit devastated to hear that Arthur passed away on February 19th.  He was a legend, a true master of what he did.  If you are a Muppet fan and have never heard of him, please know that the Muppets would not have been the same without Arthur because none of us, especially Jim, would have been the same either.

He was a giant within the Muppets.  He was my friend.