Posted on 05/18/2023 11:30:32 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Ralph Lee, the celebrated puppeteer and theater artist who masterminded the Land Shark character on Saturday Night Live, has died at age 87 following a monthslong illness.
The Westbeth Artists Housing and Center for the Arts, where Lee lived, shared the news in a statement. "Ralph Lee, Westbeth Master Puppeteer and founder of the Village Halloween Parade and the Mettawee River Theater Company, among many other accomplishments, passed away on May 12, 2023," the organization wrote. "He was a gentle, beloved figure of immense creative vision in the Westbeth community and the world — which is now a lonelier place without him. Our hearts go to his [wife] Casey and his family."
Born in 1936, Lee began making puppets during his childhood in Middlebury, Vermont. He studied theater and dance in Europe and acted on and off-Broadway in the late '60s and early '70s. Lee also began making masks, props and puppets for various productions during this time, and in 1974, he organized the inaugural Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. He directed the parade until 1985, growing it from a small community event into one of New York's major attractions, drawing an estimated 2 million spectators yearly.
Lee created masks for several of New York's preeminent theater and dance companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera and the New York Ballet. He also became the artistic director of the Mettawee River Theatre Company in 1976, helming dozens of productions in upstate New York and New England each year. Yet Lee is perhaps best known for the Land Shark, which debuted on Saturday Night Live in the fall of 1975 as a response to the Jaws-induced shark hysteria taking the nation by storm.
“Candygram”
I always thought that was Chevy Chase or Bill Murray.
Chevy Chase did the voice.
The voice sounds like Dan Aykroyd.
I would have figured Michael O’Donoghue would have come up with it.
I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines.
Back when SNL was funny...was worth watching.
I showed my ten year old daughter these skits off of youtube a few months ago...
She still laughs about it with me.
I miss this type of humor.
Maybe.
But it wasted all that valuable air time that could have been used to push the left-wing agenda. Thank goodness they don't do that anymore.
he organized the inaugural Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. He directed the parade until 1985, growing it from a small community event into one of New York’s major attractions, drawing an estimated 2 million spectators yearly.
I helped out at the parade one year in the early 1980s. As part of the parade they set up these puppet like things on balconies for the entertainment of the people in the parade. My brother and I were assigned an apt balony on the side street the parade ran down (West 8th or West 10th Street). Ronnie Reagan lived in the building at the time and we had to get secuirty clearance to access the building. And at one point we were told to stay in the apt while he and his girlfriend left just before the parade.
That was from back in the day when SNL actors had talent AND were funny.
Girlfriend?!?!
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