Massachusetts
Massachusetts “Sesame Street” Performer Also Appeared on “Bozo'
Sesame Street is a mythical, magical place where millions of American pre-schoolers have gathered for decades through television, video, film, books, music and elsewhere. We’ve met countless wonderful souls on Sesame Street, some real, some fictional but all memorable.
Sesame Street, created for public television by Joan Ganz Cooney, Lloyd Morrisett, Jon Stone and Jim Henson, premiered on November 10, 1969.
My colleague Phil Devitt recently wrote about Waltham, Massachusetts native Caroll Spinney, the man behind – and inside – Sesame Street‘s Big Bird character from 1969 to 2018. Phil had the great fortune to interview Spinney in 2014.
The article is a must-read for anyone who spent time alone or with their children watching Sesame Street on television.
READ MORE: Massachusetts Was Home of Humble “Sesame Street” Legend Behind Big Bird
But there is more and I am here to tell you the rest of the story.
Not only did Spinney immortalize Big Bird, but he was also the voice of Sesame Street fan favorite Oscar the Grouch and was the puppeteer who controlled Oscar’s movements.
How’s that for a little Street cred?
86th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
According to his autobiography The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch), during the 1960s, Spinney played several characters on the Boston television version of Bozo’s Big Top, which featured the late Frank Avruch as Bozo.
On Bozo, Spinney performed as several costumed characters including Flip Flop the Rag Doll, Mr. Rabbit, Kookie the Boxing Kangaroo and Mr. Lion.
Spinney also appeared on Boston television on the Judy and Mr. Goggle Show in 1958.
Spinney married twice and had three children. He retired from Sesame Street in 2018 and died a year later in Woodstock, Connecticut. He was 85.
LOOK: Guess the Iconic TV Show Locations
Test your TV home knowledge! We’ve found iconic homes from the ’60s to today. Can you guess which shows they’re from?
Gallery Credit: Stephen Lenz
Famous Television Moms
From the 70s to today, TV moms that made us laugh!
Gallery Credit: KEVIN MILLER
Massachusetts
Swimmer pulled from Houghton’s Pond after search
A teenager was pulled from a pond in Milton, Massachusetts, after he went missing while swimming Saturday night.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said the teenaged male was taken to a Boston area hospital following the incident at Houghton’s Pond. It’s unclear how long the teen was under water, and there was no immediate word on his condition.
State police had said earlier that they responded to the pond shortly after 7 p.m. for a person who entered the water and didn’t resurface. State police divers, detectives, troopers, and the Milton Fire Department were all on scene involved in the search.
The DA’s office is conducting an investigation with state police that remains ongoing. Further information is not being released at this time.
This story will be updated when we learn more
Massachusetts
Mass. man charged with posing as teen, exposing himself to 12-, 13-year-old girls
A Massachusetts man is facing multiple charges for allegedly engaging in inappropriate communications and exposing himself to children.
Orate Kyle Graham, 20, of Bridgewater, was arrested this week on two counts of disseminating obscene material to a minor and one count of accosting or annoying another person.
Bridgewater police said they were made aware Tuesday of allegations involving interactions between several girls age 12 and 13 and an individual known to them only as “Jay.” The individual said he was 17 years old during conversations with the girls through FaceTime and in person.
Through an investigation, police identified “Jay” as Graham, and also found that he had regularly engaged in interactions with the minor victims. During those interactions, he allegedly exposed himself and asked the girls to expose themselves to him.
He was arrested Thursday and taken to the Plymouth County House of Correction, where he was held on $25,000 bail. The case remains under investigation by Bridgewater police and the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office.
Massachusetts
Fisherman reels in white shark off Massachusetts, then snags the hook from its toothy mouth
BILLERICA, Mass. (AP) — Elliot Sudal didn’t need a bigger boat, but he did need to find a way to get a hook out of a shark’s mouth.
Sudal, a veteran angler and boat captain, reeled in the nearly nine-foot shark — also commonly known as a great white shark or a great white — on June 7 on Nantucket. White sharks are a protected species in the U.S. and must be released immediately when accidentally caught.
That presents a nasty problem for a fisherman because the white shark is a formidable apex predator best known for the 1975 movie Jaws, in which Roy Scheider utters the famous line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” upon seeing the big fish. Sudal, who caught the shark while fishing from shore, decided to use his encounter to demonstrate how to respond to such a situation.
Sudal posted a video of himself removing the hook to his social media accounts. In the video, Sudal climbs onto the back of the shark, secures the fish in the surf, and removes the hook from its mouth. By the end of the short video, the shark is back in the water.
White sharks typically have about 300 teeth arranged into five rows, so speed was key.
“Hooks out and back on her way in 15 seconds, not sure how to do it better,” Sudal wrote in an Instagram post that included a video of the shark release.
Sudal is no stranger to sharks, and has caught and tagged hundreds of them over the years. He said in a social media post that this month’s encounter with a white shark was the first time he has ever caught one of them in more than a decade of the work.
Sudal’s practices have sometimes attracted the attention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, such as in 2017, when the agency investigated his handling of a smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species, in Florida. The agency said in 2018 that it sent Sudal a letter “informing him of the Endangered Species Act issues and the safe handling protocol for sawfish.”
White sharks are not listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, but are subject to special federal protections. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers them vulnerable globally.
Sightings of white sharks off New England have ticked up in recent years, and some scientists have pinned that to the greater availability of the seals that they prey on. Dangerous encounters between white sharks and humans are extremely rare, and only a few dozen fatal white shark bites on people have ever been recorded.
___
Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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