Beauty and the Beast

Mississippi Educational Television · December 19, 1973

"'Beauty and the Beast'--a half-hour color presentation--is a retelling of the classical story featuring puppets designed and built by the creative staff at the Mississippi Center for Educational Television. "The costumes are authentic middle ages style and all music was originally composed for the production. Each puppet is manipulated from below by a single person. This means that the sets were five feet off the floor and the puppeteer stood below the set with one hand controlling the head and the other hand holding the rods to control the arm movements. A tremendous amount of coordination was necessary. For example, the storm sequence required precision coordination of 11 people. "The story 'Beauty and the Beast'--which is based on the original Slovak folk tale 'The Threerose'--emphasizes the inner qualities of man as opposed to his external appearance. "The production attempts to create a new image and provide evidence that puppetry is a serious art form."--1973 Peabody Awards entry form.