Vincent Egan

Last updated

Vincent E. Egan
Born1942 (1942)
Died(2016-12-01)December 1, 2016 (aged 73-74)
Occupations
  • Businessman
  • entertainment company founder
TitleFounder of the Event and Arena Marketing Conference and
VEE Corporation

Vincent E. Egan was an executive and entertainment company founder. Egan founded VEE Corporation for the Sesame Street Live touring shows. He was a founder of the Event and Arena Marketing Conference. [1] By 2009, Vincent had been married and divorced twice. [2]

Contents

Life

Vincent E. Egan was raised in north Minneapolis. As a young adult, he worked for GM as a district sales manager primarily in Montana. [3] In 1970, he returned to Minnesota and bought a Dayton farm on 2.5 acres. [2] He kept the farm despite taking a job in Chicago in 1970. The job he took was as a marketer with the Ice Follies, which had a show segment with the Sesame Street Muppets. He was elevated through the ranks until he was vice president of marketing and operations. [3] [2] However, in 1978, he was fired after a disagreement with his boss thus returned to his Dayton farm. He looked for a job as a shoe salesman to no avail. [2]

After months of unemployment, in the late 1979 and 1980, Egan focused on the idea of family entertainment. As at the time, there were only three touring family shows, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and two ice shows, Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice. [3] He based it off his time working for the Ice Follies which had a segment with those Sesame Street Muppets. Egan approached Jim Henson's company and Children's Television Workshop, who were interested. Egan refinanced his home mortgage for $25 thousand in additional funding and found an equity investor. [2] With the funding for his corporation that he started on March 14, 1980, [4] VEE Corporation was able to sign a licensing agreement with the Children's Television Workshop for the characters. [3]

The first Sesame Street Live show opened in September 1980 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota for a five-day run. That show was successful. The following shows in five locations had lackluster attendance costing VEE the profits made in Bloomington. Egan figured that the marketing material was confusing people in those markets as what type of show was not specified. He overhauled the script and marketing while getting his creditors to wait for payments. That Christmas, the show went on to play for four weeks at Madison Square Garden's 4,000-seat Felt Forum in New York City before an audience of 100,000 people. [2] Egan was able to expand to Henson's Muppets tours in the mid-1980s and other show. [5]

Around 2000, Egan purchased the equity fund's stake in the corporation. [2] On April 1, 2015, Blue Star Media, LLC purchased VEE Corporation with Egan continuing on as a consultant. [6] On December 1, 2016, Vincent E. Egan died. [1]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Henson</span> American puppeteer (1936–1990)

James Maury Henson was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating Fraggle Rock (1983–1987) and as the director of The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986). He was born in Greenville, Mississippi, and raised in both Leland, Mississippi, and University Park, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kermit the Frog</span> Muppet character

Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit is the pragmatic everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably as the showrunner and host of the sketch comedy television series The Muppet Show and a featured role on Sesame Street, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects until 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Muppets</span> Puppet characters created by Jim Henson

The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompasses television, film, music, and other media associated with the characters. Originally owned by the Jim Henson Company for nearly five decades, the franchise was purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2004.

<i>The Muppet Show</i> Variety television show (1976–81)

The Muppet Show is a sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and starring the Muppets. The series originated as two pilot episodes produced by Henson for ABC in 1974 and 1975. While neither episode was moved forward as a series and other networks in the United States rejected Henson's proposals, British producer Lew Grade expressed enthusiasm for the project and agreed to co-produce The Muppet Show for the British channel ATV. Five seasons, totalling 120 episodes, were broadcast on ATV and other ITV franchises in the United Kingdom and in first-run syndication in the United States from 1976 to 1981. The programme was produced and recorded at the ATV Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscar the Grouch</span> Muppet character on the television program Sesame Street

Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character created by Jim Henson and Jon Stone for the PBS/HBO children's television program Sesame Street. He has a green body, no visible nose, and lives in a trash can. Oscar's favorite thing is trash, as evidenced by the song "I Love Trash", with a running theme being his collection of seemingly useless items. Although the term "Grouch" aptly describes Oscar's misanthropic interaction with the other characters, it also refers to his species. The character was originally performed by Caroll Spinney from the show's first episode until Spinney's retirement in 2018. Eric Jacobson began understudying for the character in 2015, and officially took on the full role after Spinney's retirement in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Bird</span> Sesame Street character

Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the long-running children's television show Sesame Street. An eight-foot two-inch (249 cm) tall bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skate, ice skate, dance, swim, sing, write poetry, draw, and ride a unicycle. Despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as one long word, pondering what it could mean. He would refer to grocer Mr. Hooper as "Mr. Looper", among other mispronunciations. He lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and right next to Oscar the Grouch's trash can. He also has a teddy bear named Radar. In Season 46, Big Bird's large nest is now sitting within a small, furnished maple tree, and is no longer hidden by used construction doors.

Sesame Street Live is a live touring show based on the children's television show Sesame Street produced by Feld Entertainment under license of Sesame Workshop.

History of <i>Sesame Street</i>

The preschool educational television program Sesame Street was first aired on public television stations on November 10, 1969, and reached its 53rd season in 2022. The history of Sesame Street has reflected changing attitudes to developmental psychology, early childhood education, and cultural diversity. Featuring Jim Henson's Muppets, animation, live shorts, humor and celebrity appearances, it was the first television program of its kind to base its content and production values on laboratory and formative research, and the first to include a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes". Initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy and high ratings. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, Sesame Street was broadcast in over 120 countries, and 20 independent international versions had been produced. It has won eleven Grammys and over 150 Emmys in its history—more than any other children's show.

Martin P. Robinson is an American puppeteer who works for the Jim Henson Company. He is best known for his work on Sesame Street, having performed the characters of Telly Monster, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Oscar the Grouch's pet worm Slimey, Oscar's niece Irvine, Buster the Horse, and Shelley the Turtle for 40 years. He also designed, built, and performed the Audrey II puppets for Little Shop of Horrors. Robinson performed the characters Riff the Cat and Clef the dad on Allegra's Window, and was an animatronic puppeteer for Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He was responsible for training the puppeteers on Sesame Tree, and performed the Cat in the Hat in the second season of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Whitmire</span> American puppeteer

Steven Lawrence Whitmire is an American puppeteer, known primarily for his work on The Muppets and Sesame Street. Beginning his involvement with the Muppets in 1978, Whitmire inherited the roles of Ernie and Kermit the Frog after Jim Henson's death in 1990; he performed the characters until 2014 and 2016, respectively. As part of the Muppet cast, he has appeared in multiple feature films and television series, performing a variety of characters on The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock and during such occupations has been employed by The Jim Henson Company, Sesame Workshop, and The Muppets Studio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Jim Henson Company</span> American entertainment company

The Jim Henson Company is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is known for its innovations in the field of puppetry, particularly through the creation of Kermit the Frog and the Muppets characters.

VStar Entertainment Group is a family entertainment production company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It produced Sesame Street Live, a live touring stage show based on the television series. It has also produced stage shows based on Dragon Tales, The Muppets and Muppet Babies, Bear in the Big Blue House, Curious George, Barney & Friends and PAW Patrol.

<i>Play with Me Sesame</i> 2002 American childrens television series

Play with Me Sesame is an American children's television series, created by Sesame Workshop and Nickelodeon for their former joint venture Noggin. It is a spin-off of Sesame Street hosted by Ernie, Bert, Prairie Dawn, and Grover. The series' backgrounds and animated elements were made by Nickelodeon Digital in New York City. Nickelodeon and Sesame developed the show to expand on Sesame Street by directly encouraging young viewers to interact with the characters. To do this, they combined classic Sesame Street sketches with new segments, where the hosts invite preschoolers to join them in games.

Matthew James Vogel is an American puppeteer, actor and director. Vogel has worked for Sesame Workshop and The Muppets Studio. He has performed for the Muppets, Sesame Street, and Oobi. He has been the performer of Kermit the Frog since 2017 and the full-time performer of Big Bird since 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Jacobson</span> American puppeteer

Eric Jacobson is an American puppeteer and actor. He is best known for his involvement with the Muppets, performing Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle for The Muppets Studio, as well as Sesame Street characters Bert, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and Guy Smiley—all roles that he inherited from the characters' original performers, Frank Oz, Caroll Spinney, and Jim Henson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Rudman</span> American puppeteer

David Rudman is an American puppeteer, actor, puppet builder, writer, director, and producer known for his involvement with the Muppets and Sesame Street. Rudman currently performs the roles of Scooter, Janice, and Beaker for The Muppets Studio, which were all originated by Richard Hunt, as well as Cookie Monster and Baby Bear on Sesame Street.

Adapted live stage tours are theatrical or stadium productions, based on directly or indirectly on licensed properties.

Michael Earl was an American puppeteer. A four-time Emmy Award-winner whose credits include Mr. Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street (1978–1981) and Dr. Ticktock in Ticktock Minutes, a musical series of PSA's on PBS he also co-created, scripted and wrote lyrics for that garnered 11 Southern Regional Emmys, a 1998 National Emmy for Best Public Service Announcements, a Gabriel Award, two Parents' Choice Awards and numerous other honors. Earl performed the original Shrek character in a motion-capture development test film for DreamWorks and puppeteered lead characters in Paramount Pictures' Team America: World Police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feld Entertainment</span> American live show production company

Feld Entertainment Inc. is an American live show production company which owns a number of traveling shows. The company began with the soon-to-return Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus then expanded into additional live events, including Disney on Ice, Monster Jam, Monster Energy AMA Supercross, and Sesame Street Live. The company is family owned.

The American children's television series Sesame Street is known for its extensive merchandising. Licensees include a variety of companies which manufacture books, magazines, video/audio media, and toys using the characters and themes of Sesame Street.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Entertainment industry leader behind 'Sesame Street Live' passes away at 74". KMSP. December 1, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 St. Anthony, Neal (December 28, 2009). "Bringing Muppets to 'Live'". Star Tribune. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hopps, Megan (December 6, 2016). "Dayton resident, creator of Sesame Street Live, dies at 74". Sun Press. ECM Publishers, Inc. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  4. ↑ Nakashima, Rebecca (April 6, 2016). "VStar Finds New CEO". Venues Today. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  5. ↑ "A Guide to the VEE Corporation Archives". lib.utexas.edu. Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  6. ↑ Deckard, Linda (April 7, 2015). "Hello Sanjay, New Owner of VEE". Venues Today. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.