The Burr-lin Wall

​I wrote about this piece of outstanding TV historical past again in 2014, and it stays considered one of my favorites.  Although there’s some background music in it, it isn’t about music in any respect, however it should nonetheless slot in completely for Vacation Music Fest, primarily on the Fest half.  Again in my preliminary posting on this web site about Kukla, Fran and Ollie, I wrote about how the present’s good creator, puppeteer Burr Tillstrom received a further Emmy Award that was not concerned with KF&O, however for his work on his personal.  It was for one of many “hand ballets” that he carried out now and again for the satirical information sequence, That Was the Week That Was.  

That Was the Week That Was was a wise, pointed, very sharp British sketch-comedy present which was introduced over to the U.S. within the early Sixties.  Amongst different issues, it launched to American audiences one of many authentic British solid members, David Frost.  It is also the present that launched Tom Lehrer to most People.  He wrote periodic songs for the sequence, after which recorded them for his now-classic hit album, That Was the Yr That Was.

And it additionally introduced Burr Tillstrom into the nationwide highlight in a method individuals hadn’t seen or anticipated.

His hand ballets have been little vignettes that did not use any puppets in any respect, however merely Tillstrom’s naked arms, utilizing them alone to evoke some story within the information he needed to get throughout.  It was performed with nice artistry, usually movingly.  And considered one of them so inventive and shifting that it received him an Emmy Award.

In 1963, two years after the Berlin Wall had been erected, a really temporary concession was made.  The Wall would open for the Christmas vacation and permit these within the West to journey into East Berlin and go to household and family members, needing to return a number of days later.

That is what Burr Tillstrom did a hand ballet about shortly after.  And —

— I discovered the video of it!  It is among the favourite movies I have been capable of finding.  I am thrilled.

The standard of the video is a little bit tough, particularly initially, however it’s advantageous.  And finally, as you watch — one good artist utilizing solely his arms — the standard of the video will not matter one whit.  

And if anybody ever wonders the place the humanity of Kukla, Fran and Ollie got here from, to deliver such life into puppets, now you will know.

After I posted this one 12 months, I acquired a perturbed observe from a reader who discovered nothing worthwhile in regards to the video, and took me to job for losing his time.  Within the spirit of the season, I’ll once more chorus from something advert hominen in return.  I’ll simply say that I really feel fully comfy in recognizing the legend of this piece, and anything is an comprehensible matter of private style.  Wherever which will lie.  I say this understanding that it isn’t simply my opinion on this, but in addition the opinion of the members of the Tv Academy who voted Tillstrom the Emmy Award.

However to be honest, I assume I ought to add a disclaimer.  If anybody would not like outdated black-and-white video or simply taking a look at arms for 3 minutes, or politics and historical past, or quiet, considerate, emotional storytelling with the sparsest of motion or jokes, centered as a substitute on pure artistry, I get it, and so by all means keep away from this.

For everybody else, right here it’s.  The video calls it “Burr Tillstrom’s ‘Berlin Wall.'”  For me, I consider it as “The Burr-lin Wall”.
​