Richard Hunt

Richard Hunt-who joined the Sesame Street troupe in 1970-quickly proved himself to be a versatile performer with strong musical and vocal talents. Jane Hunt, Richard's mother, remembers exactly how Richard reacted when he first auditioned for Jim.
"Richard had come into New York to see Gus Allegretti, who performed the Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit characters on The Captain Kangaroo Show. Gus knew the family, and he was one of the reasons that Richard had gotten interested in puppets. Plus, people had been giving Richard puppets all his life, and by the time he was in high school, Richard was doing puppet shows for all of my friends' children. So Richard decided he'd ask Gus for a job.
"When Richard spoke to Gus that day, it turned out that Gus couldn't use him. But Richard had been watching Sesame Street, and he realized there might be an opportunity there. So he went to a phone booth, called Henson Assciates, and asked them, cold, if they were hiring puppeteers.
"Amazingly, Jim was auditioning people that very day. So Richard went over to 67th Street. He was ushered into a room, and there were Frank and Jim and Jerry [Nelson] and a box full of puppets. 'They threw a puppet at me and said sit down,' Richard later reported to me. 'It was incredible. We just all talked together! We knew right away we had the same sense of humor....And I think they liked me!...'"

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