XPost: rec.arts.tv, alt.comics.spider-man, rec.arts.comics.misc
As Young Dan, I was part of the first Sesame Street generation, which
only goes to follow that I was also a devotee of its spinoff, The
Electric Company. Obviously, the highlight of any episode was the
appearance of Spider-Man, who starred in a series of goofy, yet
entertaining, segments. The main thing was that Spidey never spoke.
Instead, kids were encouraged to read his dialogue. The man under the
mask was a dancer and puppeteer named Danny Seagren, who's now 75*.
Writer Mark Edlitz tracked him down and got him to reveal all about
being screendom's first live-action web-slinger. Dig it, True
Believers! - Dan
By MARK EDLITZ
When I was working on my book How to Be a Superhero, which collects 35 interviews I did with actors and actresses who have played superheroes, villains and sidekicks in movies and TV during the past seven decades,
I had hoped to speak with Danny Seagren. Unfortunately, I was unable to
track him down at the time; but this time I had better luck.
So for me, this interview was a welcome opportunity not only to address unfinished business but also to speak with the first actor I saw
playing Spider-Man. And because there was no spoken dialogue in Spidey
Super Stories, this interview also gave me the chance to hear Seagren's
voice for the first time:
Before Nicholas Hammond, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom
Holland, Danny Seagren played the first live-action Spider-Man. From
1974-77, Seagren portrayed the web-slinger on the children's television
show The Electric Company. His version steered clear of Spidey's usual
lineup of ferocious foes, like Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin, and
instead battled child-friendly villains like the Funny Bunny, the
Birthday Bandit and the Prankster.
The light-hearted skits, called Spidey Super Stories, were designed to
appeal to kids. Think Saturday Night Live meets Mister Rogers'
Neighborhood. As the series' predominantly youthful audience was told
by the segments' narrator, Seagren's Spider-Man was not above taking
the "day off from his exhausting and frustrating war against crime [to]
catch the baseball game," where he'd sit in the stands, nonchalantly
wearing his Spidey costume and, incongruously yet charmingly, a Mets
baseball cap. If you caught The Electric Company at just the right age
it served as an affectionate introduction to a beloved character.
The 29 three-to-five-minute segments are fondly remembered for their
catchy theme song, which expresses wonder about Spidey's identity - "Spider-Man, where are you coming from? Spider-Man, nobody knows who
you are" - for the enthusiastic performance by future Oscar-winner
Morgan Freeman in a variety of roles, and for Seagren's athletic and
balletic wall-crawler.
https://youtu.be/gA_Hs9DkmOo
The pun-heavy segments were spun off into a Marvel tie-in comic titled, fittingly, Spidey Super Stories. The comic lasted an impressive eight
years - finishing five years after The Electric Company ceased
production. The cover art was often clever - especially a memorable illustration of Spider-Man triumphantly holding up a light saber, a la
Luke Skywalker, with Dr. Doom serving as a stand-in for Darth Vader.
With the web-slinger back on the big screen in Spider-Man: Homecoming,
it's a welcome opportunity to catch up with the first actor who played
your friendly neighborhood Spidey.
-
Mark Edlitz: How did you come to be the first live-action Spider-Man?
Danny Seagren: I was working at the Muppets at the time. So I knew a
lot of the people working at the Children's Television Workshop, who
were making Sesame Street and The Electric Company. I heard they were
looking for someone to play Spider-Man. Because I had some good
connections, I got myself an audition. But the one person who I didn't
know was the producer of The Electric Company, Andrew Ferguson. I went
in, met with him, he took me down the hall to the music room and said,
"Put the costume on. I'll be back in a couple of minutes."
I put the costume on and I thought I've got to knock his socks off,
somehow. In the room there was a filing cabinet and a desk. I climbed
on top of the filing cabinet. When he came back into the room I jumped
over his shoulder - but not quite over his head - and landed on the
desk in the middle of the room. I don't remember if he screamed but he
said, "Oh my God." I did a few more moves and he said, "You got the
job."
Mark: What was the concept of the Super Spidey segments?
Danny: The Children's Television Workshop got the rights for Spider-Man
from Marvel for nothing; they didn't pay anything for them. They
producers of the show knew they wanted something that kids could relate
to easily. They also knew they wanted to copy the comic-book format. As Spider-Man, I never spoke dialogue. Instead, there would be thought
bubbles with words in them, which would come out of Spider-Man's mouth.
If the kids wanted to follow the story, they had to read the thought
bubbles. It was remedial reading. The target audience was 7- to 10-
year-old kids who never learned to read in the first and second grade.
https://youtu.be/0dNXUNYzjQY
Mark: Was there ever any discussion of having Spider-Man talk?
Danny: He was never meant to talk. There was no Peter Parker. I was a
faceless, silent mime. There was not a lot of job security. They could
put another body in the costume if they got mad at me. But I managed to
hold the job for three years until the show went out of production.
Mark: I didn't notice at the time but the special effects were a bit
crude.
Danny: We had very little money for special effects. So they would
insert the web shooting out of Spider-Man's wrist in (post-production).
One day they brought a large web to set. The plan was that I would
pretend to shoot the web, they would have us freeze while shooting the
scene and the prop guy was supposed to come out and throw the web on
the villain, the Sandman. But when they yelled "freeze" the prop guy
came out and threw the web on me and not on the bad guy.
Mark: The prop guy was clearly not versed in even the basics of
Spider-Man lore. How did you come up with Spider-Man's movement?
Danny: I had a number of Spider-Man poses and a distinctive way I would
shoot the web (that resembles an underhand pitch). I was a fan of
Spider-Man and I had seen the animated series, a lot. Plus, I was a professionally trained dancer. So I had some moves and a grace, which
is important because Spider-Man has a grace about him, slinking around.
Before the first show, I had spent some time trying some things to do
with my body so that I would have a repertoire of Spider-Man moves.
Mark: What was the schedule like?
Danny: I don't think I ever did two segments in a week. We only shot
one a week. But we spent a fair amount of time shooting each segment. I
also spent a lot of time in chroma key (a technique used to combine
separate images). Because the Spider-Man suit was blue and red, we used
a green chroma key. It was a big screen that came down to the floor and
across the floor so that they could take the character and set him
anywhere. They had backgrounds of scenes from comic books and they
would put me in them. The lighting had to be perfect because if you had shadows, they would key-out, cause the background to disappear, and it
would look like a shadow across the screen. If that happened, they
would stop and spend quite a bit of time relighting and start again.
Mark: How did you feel in the costume? Did you ever feel silly?
Danny: I never felt silly. I was focused on trying to be a superhero. I
wasn't a muscle man but I worked out and had a good body. I had the
powerful legs of a dancer. I was trim and I went to the gym all the
time. I think that's why they wanted me. I think before they cast me
that they saw some muscle men but they couldn't move.
I always took it seriously. I tried to keep it in mind that I was
powerful and strong. But, at the same time, I was fighting bad guys
like Mr. Measles and the Sitter, who was a guy in drag. The situations
were silly but I tried to rise above them. I had to be a little bit
campy for the whole thing. I really enjoyed doing it. I always looked
forward to the shooting days.
https://youtu.be/-b95Ku-0mok
Mark: Any difficulties while wearing the suit?
Danny: The little netting of the suit that covered the eyes made it
hard to see, especially when the bright TV lights hit it. So sometimes
it was hard to hit my marks.
Mark: How would you describe the tone of the segments?
Danny: It was clearly farce. Most comedy skits are farce.
Mark: How did you approach the part?
Danny: I knew that I had to play it straight against all the farcical
elements. I always try to stay in character. The segments themselves
weren't that long, about 5 minutes or so and they weren't that
complicated.
Mark: You would also do personal appearances in costume?
Danny: Yes, the show had two costumes. An agent approached me, said
that he got the license from Marvel and that he could book me. The show
gave me permission to make appearances. I got the person who made the Spider-Man costumes from the show to make me one. It cost me $300. It
was identical to the ones used on the show.
The agent had a lot of contacts and I started getting a lot of
bookings. The first appearance I did was in Florida. I also did one
with Adam West and Burt Ward, the first of which was in Chicago. They
would go out in their Batman and Robin costumes on the hour and I think
I went out on the half hour. We would do it five or six times in an
evening. The fathers who brought their kids were the right age to be
Batman fans and luckily our show was also very popular.
Nobody knew who I was, but because the character was on the show, I had
a following. I got gigs in Hawaii and all around the country. It was
almost every weekend for a couple of years. I sold a lot of pictures at
the shows and it was an excellent source of income.
Mark: Do any appearances stand out?
Danny: Yes, one in a shopping mall. I had multi-appearances throughout
the day at the same venue. Maybe I'd show up every hour on the hour.
Between appearances I would put my clothes on and walk around the mall.
I was walking around the mall and there was a little girl who might
have been 7 years old and she looked at me and I looked at her and
smiled. She turned to her mother and said, Mommy that's him, that's
Spider-Man! The mother said, no, no, no. I said yes, yes, yes. I was in
street clothes and I thought, how does this girl know? But she somehow
sensed that I was Spider-Man.
Mark: I remember wanting to go to a Spider-Man appearance at a toy
store in New Rochelle (just outside New York City), but for some reason
we arrived late and Spidey was gone. Was that you?
Danny: Possibly, but I don't remember doing toy stores. I would usually
do big malls.
Mark: OK, I feel a little better.
Danny: But there were other people doing Spider-Man who weren't on the
show. Marvel also had their own guys. I also did some appearances with
Marvel. I remember being at LaGuardia Airport. There was another
superhero who was a total joke named Captain Sticky. They wanted to get pictures of Spider-Man with Captain Sticky. But there was a bomb scare
and we had to leave the airport. There we were in the parking lot, me
in my Spider-Man suit waiting for the bomb scare to clear. I felt a
little bit stupid.
Mark: How did the appearances work?
Danny: If I were in a shopping mall I might, for example, appear at
1:30, 3:00 and 5. I would go out and talk for a few minutes and give a
quick backstory about Spider-Man for those who didn't know it. I would
go to Marvel's offices and read back issues of Spider-Man so I could
answer the audience's questions because I was getting a lot of
questions that I didn't know the answer to. I would go to their
library, which was rather incomplete at the time and read through their
back issues.
Each appearance was always a little different. Sometimes it was at a
state fair, sometimes it was at a car show. I did a couple of strip
malls where there were empty stores and they wanted to get excitement
about the strip mall. But it didn't matter to me what it was because
all the appearances paid the same. Maybe the car shows paid a little
bit more, but it was fun to do.
I was always in the costume and at the end of each appearance I would
go back to the dressing room and change out of the costume and put on
my street clothes. Sometimes, there were kids hanging outside the
dressing room. If there were, I would pretend that I was talking to a
guy playing Spider-Man and I would say, "OK, I'm going to get you a
sandwich and I'll be back in about 20-minutes."
Mark: Where is the costume now?
Danny: It's in my office.
Mark: How does it look?
Danny: It looks faded. It's about 40 years old. I do comic-book
conventions now and I do not wear the costume but I bring it with me. I
have several pictures that I autograph and sign for $10 apiece.
https://youtu.be/GEbhDduB1ow
Mark: Were you concerned about typecasting?
Danny: Fortunately or unfortunately, it didn't affect my career at all.
Nobody knew who I was.
Mark: Your segment was successful enough that it had a spin-off comic.
Danny: Yes, it was called Spidey Super Stories and they gave me a free subscription to it. I don't know where they are now but I'm sure they
have value. After the initial production, the show ran for about six or
seven more years. (Note: The show ran from 1971 to 1977, then went into
reruns until 1985. It popped up again years later on cable.)
Mark: In preparation for talking with you, I rewatched the episodes and
it looked like Morgan Freeman was having a great time in these fairly
silly sketches.
Danny: From Morgan Freeman to Rita Moreno, it was a very talented cast.
When I got there, they had been working on The Electric Company for
three years, so they were very familiar with how the show worked. All
the people were good to work with and they were very nice to me. Morgan
was into it. He was not just walking his way through it. Before he was
an actor, he was in the Air Force and then he was in the chorus of
Hello, Dolly! with Pearl Bailey, which ran on Broadway. He worked on
Electric Company and Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival
took notice of him. Then he was cast in Driving Miss Daisy, first the
play and then the film, and then his career took off from there. (Note:
Around the time of the play in the late '80s, Freeman was in the movie
Street Smart and earned his first Oscar nomination.)
https://youtu.be/mIaqH1lKiNc
Mark: Did you meet Stan Lee?
Danny: I met Stan Lee a couple of times. The first time I met him was
at a reception at the Rainbow Room (at 30 Rockefeller Center). I don't
remember what the occasion was but there were Spider-Man posters there. Somebody introduced him to me and said, "Stan, do you know who this
is?" Stan replied, "Is that the new Captain America?" Then I was
introduced as the new Spider-Man and he was quite gracious. I don't
remember if I asked him any questions about Spider-Man because I was so intimidated by him. Even back then, he was a superstar.
Mark: One Muppet story please.
Danny: I played Big Bird in 1969 on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was to
promote Sesame Street, which was a new show at the time and they were
trying to get all the publicity they could. Caroll Spinney has played
Big Bird forever. If I talk about Big Bird, I always talk about Caroll.
But there was a dance number and Caroll wasn't really a dancer. Jim
Henson said, "I think Danny should do it." So, I did.
After the number, Ed Sullivan said, "Come here. Come here." So, I
walked over with the girls who played the Bird Watchers in the dance
number. I bent down to give a little bow and I accidentally pecked him
on the head. He said, "OK, girls take him out before I give him the
bird." I did that show probably five or six times, it was always fun.
It was live for about 35 million people. With Ed Sullivan, I started at
the top and worked my way down.
Seagren in 2015, from comicartfans.com. Note the costume on the left.
Mark: What does it mean to you to be the first Spider-Man?
Danny: Well, for a long time it didn't mean much. After the show ended,
I went on and I did Captain Kangaroo for a few years and that was
working with puppets. It was on my resume but it wasn't on the top. But
years later, people started tracking me down and I started to do comic conventions. It can be kind of flattering when people take the trouble
to track me down. When I do comic conventions, I meet people who are in
their late 40s who are big fans of the show. They really remember the
show and they say that I was their favorite character. That's very
flattering. Your call is very flattering. Who doesn't like to talk
about themselves? (Laughs). It's a very nice feeling.
--
Watching Democrats come up with schemes to "catch Trump" is like
watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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