Cincinnaticum

Talk To The Hand

“Somebody said no to $10,000. On principle.
That’s puppeteer Larry Smith…Seems a producer from shock jock Howard Stern’s show offered $10,000 and all expenses to come to New York [with the puppets]…'I said no'…'It didn’t feel right,' Smith said. 'Not after all these years playing to children.'"
--Cincinnati Enquirer, Jim Knippenberg, March 26, 2001


'Uncle' Al Lewis

“Smith can barely remember a day when he wasn’t a puppeteer…As a freshman in high school he was earning the princely sum of $3 a show, appearing on WHIO’s Tic Toc Toy Shop. By the time he graduated and came to Cincinnati [1957] to work for 'Uncle' Al Lewis at WCPO, he had as much on-air experience as some adult performers.”
--Cincinnati Magazine, Linda Vaccariello, April, 1999

Images: larrysmithpuppets.com; WCPO