Handiwork

their daily grind. They yearn for something else, something more fulfilling than what they were trained to do, like Robert Norman. Robert was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. In His father was a opener while his mother worked as a waitress. Robert loved animals, and when faced with an injured squirrel or a snake, he wouldn't hesitate to take them in and nurse them back to health. He once kept a baby alligator in his bathtub until it was healthy enough

to release back into the wild. Robert dropped out of school once he reached the ninth grade and went to work with his father as a carpenter. A mishap with one of his tools, though, resulted in the partial loss of his left index finger, but the injury didn't keep him from joining the Air Force when he was eighteen. Robert served as a medical records technician and was even stationed at Ailson Air Force Base in Alaska. His time

there seemed to transform him to living in Florida. He had never seen mountains or snow before, and the majesty of the Alaskan landscape stayed with him for the rest of his life, but he eventually realized the military just wasn't for him for one. Aside from his duties as a records technician, Robert also served as a basic training instructor, the guy whose job it was to yell at new

recruits about making their beds or cleaning the latrines. He hated it, and he swore if he ever left the military he would never raise his voice toward another person again. But instead of dwelling on the negative, Robert channeled his energy into something more creative. When he found out that the Anchorage USO Club was holding art classes, he decided to attend one. However, despite his newfound love of painting. He took issue with the way his instructors taught him.

They were more interested in abstract art rather than showing students how to paint what they saw around them. The way he put it, they tell you what makes a tree, but they wouldn't tell you how to paint a tree. Robert eventually got a job as a bartender, but he continued to pursue his art. While bartending, he came across a television program hosted by a German painter named Bill Alexander.

Now Alexander worked in oil, using an old technique known as wet on wet, in which he would apply wet paint on top of wet paint instead of letting the different layers dry first. Unlike the other methods that took hours to complete, this technique allowed him to finish a paint teen in just half an hour. Robert adopted Alexander's style for himself and began painting on his lunch breaks. Some of his earliest landscapes were painting on old gold mining pans, which he was able to complete in a

matter of minutes. He then sold them for twenty five dollars a piece, before moving on to canvases. Robert eventually sold so many paintings that he out earned his Air Force salary. After twenty years in the service, he retired in nineteen eighty one with the rank of Master sergeant. He left Alaska for the warm sands of his home state of Florida, where he connected with his TV teacher

Bill Alexander. Alexander hired him to work with his art supply company as an instructor and traveling salesman, and sometime during his travels, Robert met a woman naming net Kowalski who also attended one of his classes and gave him some advice. She believed that he could do much better working on his own rather than for someone else, so Annette, along with Robert and his wife, put their money together

to build a new company. It almost didn't re vibe, but Robert managed to turn things around with a television show of his own, which launched on PBS. Through it, Robert breathed life into thousands of blank canvasses over eleven years, from happy little trees to happy little mountains. Robert Norman Ross, simply Bob Ross the viewers of the Joy of Painting, was the quiet artist with the perfect perm and he was true to his word too. After leaving the Air Force,

he almost never raised his voice against another person. But the military wasn't all that bad after all. It helped him find his true passion. I guess you could call that a happy accident. Necessity is the mother of invention. When we want to see change in our own lives, we tend to make it happen for ourselves rather than wait for someone else to come along and do it for us. And even if someone beats us to it, that doesn't mean we can't try and do it better

than them. Those who come first often become the rungs on the ladder for the people climbing up. James Moray was not the first in his field, nor would he be the last, but in his short time on Earth, he changed the game for everyone by doing things his way. James was born in Greenville, Mississippi, in nineteen thirty six. His mother and father raised him in Mississippi until the late forties when they moved north to Maryland. James had a simple childhood, but it turned upside down once the

family bought their first television set. It was a life changing moment for young James. As he came face to face with the people in programs that would influence him for the rest of his life. He gravitated toward performers who entertained with their hands and used funny voices to create different characters, in other words, ventriloquists, people like Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy. James began following in their footsteps from a young age, performing shows for his

clubs out Troop with homemade puppets. As he got older, he branched out into other mediums. His teenage years, for example, were spent in his school's theater department building sets. He even drew a comic strip for his high school yearbook. And it was during his senior year when James was given a great opportunity. His local television station had come

up with an idea for a new show. It would be produced by kids four kids, with young people acting as on air talent and as the puppeteers behind the scenes. He didn't quite know what he was doing just yet, but he got a job building and creating puppets for the show. Sadly, it only lasted for two episodes before getting pulled, but James had learned a lot while working on it. He'd also made important industry connections that would

come in handy later in life. He eventually graduated high school and moved on to college, attending the University of Maryland, where he studied graphic arts, textiles, and home economics. However, while many college students take their time in finding out what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives, James fell into his future pretty quickly. It all started with a single class. He enrolled in a puppetry class where he met a senior named Jane Nevill, a young

woman who would eventually become his wife. The two became fast friends and got to work on a project for local television affiliate w r C TV. James came up with lots of ideas for the show, ideas that went on to define how televised puppet shows would be performed for generations to come. Unlike the Wooden Charlie McCarthy dummies of his use, he made his puppets out of foam. He also oriented the camera so that the puppets and

the sets were the only things in the frame. This way, it looked like the characters were moving on their own while the puppeteers were crouched down out of the shot to preserve the illusion. He called his show Sam and Friends, a character's program about a human puppet named Sam and his many companions like Harry the Hipster, Professor Madcliffe, and a curious green lizard. This lizard was instructed from an

old coat that had belonged to James's mother. He'd cut it up and stitched it back together, giving this creature a kind of tube shaped body with a pointed, expressive mouth. His eyes were made from two halves of a ping pong ball attached on top. He didn't know it at the time, but James's character was going to leap off the screen and into the hearts of children and adults around the world. You see. He originally started out as a generic lizard, but over time the creature evolved, as

most creatures do. Subsequent iterations added a pointy color around his neck, and the pale green of the coat was replaced with the fabric of a more verdant hue. He also changed species. The character was now clearly labeled as being a frog. So what two things did James Murray Henson keep from his original design. First there were the friendly white ping pong ball eyes and second the characters

soon to be iconic name Kermit the Frog. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World

of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,