Character: Roosevelt Franklin
Hand type: Rod
Builder credits:
Pattern – Wally Wingert, Alex McGee; Alex In Wonderland
Foam head sculpture – Wally Wingert
Mouth plate fabrication – Wally Wingert
Seamstress – Alex McGee; Alex in Wonderland
Shirt design and fabrication – Alex McGee; Alex in Wonderland
Shirt fabric design – Scott Sebring
Additional hair work – Sergio Lopez
Height (including his hair): 21”
When I was 12 I collected Muppet toy puppets, and one of the ones I enjoying using to entertain my kid sister was Roosevelt Franklin. We enjoyed watching his “Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School” vignettes on “Sesame Street” quite a bit, and I enjoyed reenacting those segments live for her in her room.
But after being deemed “controversial” (for some insane reason) the character left the airwaves after only a few seasons. But I’ve always held a great love for the little teacher/student who danced into the classroom to his own, custom riff.
After seeing the 2021 documentary “Street Gang; How We Got To Sesame Street” and hearing the behind-the-scenes story about the ridiculous demise of Mr. Franklin, it renewed my interest in the character.
As a kid I was never aware that the character had any sort of racial attributes; he was simply a puppet. He was just a kid who knew a lot of great stuff, talked really cool and danced into class. At that point in my life I wasn’t even really interested in GOING to class, let alone dancing into class.
Thanks to my pal Scott Sebring, and the on-line fabric printing company called Spoonflower, we landed on the perfect fabric design to replicate Roosevelt’s groovy, striped turtleneck sweater.
Using roughly the same pattern I used to create Prairie Dawn’s head, I began working on him on Christmas Eve of 2021, during my annual “Creative Christmas” celebration.
Unlike any of the recent replicas I built, Roosevelt would need a small device inside his hands that would make his fingers poseable. I wired up contraptions to make bendable fingers bend in several of the replicas I made when I was 19, but I hadn’t done it recently.
My cousin Willy Wingert and I prepare an impromptu puppet show during one of his visits.
This is the Roosevelt Franklin “skeleton” hand fabricated with armature wire and Magic Sculpt putty.