World Puppetry Festival



The 1980 World Puppetry Festival was held between June 8th and 16th as a joint venture of the Union Internationale de la Marionette (UNIMA) and the Puppeteers of America. Jim Henson helped organize the week-long event at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

To promote the festival, Statler and Waldorf appeared in a series of TV spots from their box in the Muppet Theatre. Two of them end with Statler stating that he hates puppets.

A stage performance featuring Henson and the Muppets with several other famous puppeteers was taped for PBS and aired as ''Here Come the Puppets!

The Smithsonian Institute participated by curating a long-term puppet exhibit initiated by donations such as Edgar Bergen's Charlie McCarthy and Jim Henson's Kermit the Frog.