Last week I appreciated (tearfully, I’ll admit), an article that Mental Floss published about Mister Rogers. In addition to some very sweet and sad reflections, I very much enjoyed their collection of facts about Fred Rogers and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Here are some highlights:
“I used to cry to myself when I was alone,” he said. “And I would cry through my fingers and make up songs on the piano.” As he grew up, he decided to always look past the surface of people to the “essential invisible” within them.
He was a vegetarian who told people, “I don’t want to eat anything that has a mother.”
“I got into television because I saw people throwing pies in each other’s faces,” he said. “And that’s such demeaning behavior. And if there’s anything that bothers me, it’s one person demeaning another.”
Jazz pianist Johnny Costa, who was the Neighborhood’s Musical Director from 1968 til his death in 1996, performed every song live in the studio during tapings.
In a now-famous clip from 1969, Rogers appeared before United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications chair John Pastore to advocate for increased support of public broadcasting in the face of then-President Nixon’s 50 percent reduction. After six minutes of thoughtful testimony advocating for the value of commercial-free television for children, the typically gruff senator replied, “I think it’s wonderful. Looks like you earned the $20 million.”
NPR Correspondent Susan Stamberg often called on Mister Rogers to explain “hideous and horrible” tragedies like the 1986 explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.
Journalist Linda Ellerbee modeled her 1991 Nick News premiere on Mister Rogers’ values. “I wanted to incorporate the things I learned from Mister Rogers,” she said. The first being “Respect your audience.” The second was “Assume they’re just as bright as you are, they’re just younger, and shorter.”
Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/49559/46-things-i-learned-making-mister-rogers-me#ixzz2OfxZGmX9
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