Norman Frederick Hetherington (29 May 1921 – 6 December 2010) was an Australian artist, teacher, cartoonist (known as "Heth"), puppeteer, and puppet designer. He is best remembered as the creator of one of Australia's longest running children's shows, ''

Mr. Squiggle ''Mr. Squiggle'' (originally also known as ''Mr. Squiggle and Friends'') is an Australian children's television series, and the name of the title character from that ABC show. The show was presented on television in many formats, between its in ...

''. Hetherington was the sole operator and voice of its star performer, the Mr. Squiggle

marionette A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed ...

Family

He was the son of Frederick Hetherington (1883–1951) and Ellen Mary Hetherington (1888–1976) (née Markwell). They were married at

Balmain, New South Wales Balmain is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. It is located on the Balmain peninsula su ...

in 1918, and Norman Frederick Hetherington was born on 29 May 1921 in

Lilyfield Lilyfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lilyfield is located 6 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Lilyfie ...

. He grew up at 35 Meryla Street, Burwood. He did his primary schooling from Burwood Public School (1927–1933), and secondary schooling at Sydney's Fort Street Boys' High School (1934–1937). He studied art, full-time, at East Sydney Technical College (now known as the

National Art School The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts p ...

), from 1937 to 1938; and, because he had taken a position with one of Sydney's largest advertising agencies, Lintas (Lever International Advertising), he transferred to part-time studies, studying at night from 1939 to 1941 (when he enlisted in the army). He married Margaret "Peggy" Owrid (née Purnell) (1923-2022) in 1958. She would later write scripts for episodes of ''

''. They moved to the Sydney suburb of

Mosman Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

in 1960, and Hetherington remained there until his death. The couple's children are

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

(b. 1959), an academic philosopher, and Rebecca (b. 1962), a television presenter (who also co-hosted Mr. Squiggle), and one-time associate producer on radio

2UE 2UE is an all-music radio station in Sydney owned by Nine Entertainment Co and run under a lease agreement by Ace Radio. It currently broadcasts from its studios in Pyrmont, New South Wales. History 1920s 2EU Electrical Utilities applied to the ...

War service

He served with the First Australian Army Entertainment Unit during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, in

Dutch New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea ( nl, Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea, id, Nugini Belanda) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingd ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

, New Britain, and the

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...

. The Entertainment Unit also included actor

Michael Pate Michael Pate OAM (born Edward John Pate; 26 February 1920 – 1 September 2008) was an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer, who also worked in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. Biography Early life Pate was born in Drum ...

, and comedian George Wallace Jr.

Cartoonist

He had attended classes at the National Art School before the war; and once the war was over, he continued his studies, and attended classes there four nights a week. When he was only 15, and still a student at Fort Street Boys' High School, Hetherington sold his first cartoon to '' The Bulletin'' magazine. He contributed to ''The Bulletin'' from time to time over the next few years; and he even continued to do so whilst he was in the army. As a freelance cartoonist he sold work to magazines that included ''Man'', ''Man Junior'', ''Army'', ''Humour'' and ''Quiz'': "His modus operandi was to approach the best-paying magazine first and continue on until he got down to the worst paying with whatever was left of his work". He was discharged from the army in May 1946, and was immediately asked to join the full-time ''Bulletin'' staff; he continued to work for ''The Bulletin'' until 1961 (when all of the staff were sacked by Frank Packer, its new owner). He had worked alongside artists including

Norman Lindsay Norman Alfred William Lindsay (22 February 1879 – 21 November 1969) was an Australian artist, etcher, sculptor, writer, art critic, novelist, cartoonist and amateur boxing, boxer. One of the most prolific and popular Australian artists of his ...

, Ted Scorfield and

Percy Lindsay Percival (Percy) Charles Lindsay (17 September 1870 – 21 September 1952) was an Australian landscape painter, illustrator and cartoonist, born in Creswick, Victoria. Percy was the first child born to Jane Lindsay (née Williams) and Dr Robe ...

Signature

Early in his career, he signed his cartoons and caricatures with "Heth" and the last two digits of the year: a signature of, say, "Heth 42" (see advertisement at right) identifies Hetherington as the artist of the work, and 1942 as the year in which it had been drawn. In the late 1940s, he changed his manner of signing his cartoons; it was no longer written horizontally, and it no longer displayed the year's last two digits. Whilst the signature "Heth" was still exclusively written in capital letters; it now took the form of "^H_E^T_H", rather than "HETH". The letters were now rotated sideways, and the signature was written vertically running down the page from the top-left to the bottom-right (see left); and was read with one's head tilted to the right. Many of those who were not aware of this imagined he was signing his work with (non-rotated) imitations of a number of

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...

, traditionally written vertically, that needed to be read with one's head tilted to the left.

Puppetry

''Popular Science Monthly''

His interest in marionettes began in 1935 when his father, who was the head carpenter for a major shipping line, gave him a copy of an American magazine called '' Popular Science Monthly'', which contained instructions for making a puppet out of used bicycle inner tubes. In a 1971 interview, he told Marie Toshack that he made his first "professional puppet" in 1952. It was a clown, made specifically for a puppet show called "The Reluctant Dragon", at the old Mercury Theatre. Even in these first shows, critics were remarking on the "wit, whimsy, and lively inventiveness" of his performance with his marionettes, and were very impressed with the skill and craftsmanship with which his puppets had been created. In a 1977 interview, Hetherington explained to Sue Molloy that his interest in marionettes "was the outcome of a professional interest in cartoons, and amateur interest in theatre and a hobby of puppets", remarking that, in his view, "puppets are only three-dimensional cartoons".

Clovelly Puppet Theatre

In the interview he also revealed that his burgeoning puppet hobby had been further developed, after the war, under the guidance of the psychologist, Doris Mary Matheson (1896–1969), who, along with her sister Elsie Grace Rivett (1887–1964), had founded the Children's Library and Crafts Movement in 1934 (which became the Creative Leisure Movement in 1969). Driven by the support, encouragement and guidance of Mrs. Matheson, Hetherington became involved, along with Richard Bradshaw, and Edith Constance Murray (née Blackwell) (1897–1988), with regular performances at the sisters' ''Clovelly Puppet Theatre'' (which they had established in 1949), which staged puppet shows every Saturday, in an old army hut in Burnie Park, Clovelly. Describing it as "a nurturing ground", Hetherington said that this was where and when his puppetry changed from being just a hobby into a lifelong interest.

Meryla Marionettes

During the 1950s, whilst pursuing his own rapidly developing personal interest in puppetry, he created a number of shows with the group he led, the ''Meryla Puppet Group''. He was soon working on his own, as ''The Meryla Marionettes'', with a series of shows that were very popular with children. In November 1957, he was performing on stage for children during Saturday matinees at Sydney cinemas; and performing at three different locations on the one afternoon . Along with ''Igor's Puppets'', the ''Merlya Marionettes'' performed on stage at the children's matinees at ''The Coronet Cinema'', Bondi Junction, ''The Sixways Cinema'', at Bondi, and the ''Randwick Cinema'', at Randwick, on Saturday 23 November 1957; and at ''The Bondi Road Cinema'', at Bondi, ''The Sixways Cinema'', at Bondi, and ''The Woollahra Cinema'', at Woollahra on Saturday 30 November 1957. Hetherington (assisted by Annette MacArthur-Onslow) and his puppets also performed live, on television, on Christmas Day 1957. In the beginning, the shows were often performed at children's libraries. Hetherington was always keen to demonstrate to his young audiences just how easily puppets could be made. From time to time, his own children participated in his performances for the

Australian Theatre for Young People Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) is a not-for-profit national youth theatre company located in Woolloomooloo, New South Wales, Australia. It was founded in 1964 by Eleanor Witcombe. History The first committee was formed in 1964 and c ...

during the school holidays, and also in the shows that he presented at various Department Stores ( Anthony Horden's, Farmer's, Grace Bros., and David Jones, etc.), such as "Enchanted Scarecrow", "The Magic Tinderbox", "The Moon for Supper" and "Nicky's Christmas Snowman".

Puppet designer

His innovative and creative design and construction skills were such that, from time to time, he was also asked to design puppets for others to operate in their own shows.
The photograph of "Smiley" on the front page of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' of Tuesday 2 June 1970
provides a beautiful sense of just how wonderfully skilled Hetherington was in designing and constructing puppets, and the detailed, intricate nature of the mechanical devices and the special sets that he designed for his shows, and just how much children loved them.

Television

Having attended the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

's (ABC) television training school some time prior to the introduction of television to Australia, Hetherington began his television career in 1956, creating '' Nicky and Noodle'' for the ABC, and another series, '' Jolly Gene and His Fun Machine'' for Channel Seven in 1957.

Mr. Squiggle

In 1958, Hetherington created ''

'', a moon-dwelling

with a pencil for a nose, and the character first appeared on the Children's TV Club on ABC TV, as ''Mister Jolly Squiggle by "Heth"''. Hetherington was granted the copyright (No. 8027) for Mr. Squiggle in 1962; and his application stated that he had first created "Mr. Squiggle" on 1 August 1958). The marionette had a very heavy head, and it was always manipulated by and voiced by Hetherington himself as the sole operator. Since the images were drawn upside down, Hetherington would lie above the set in the rafters above looking down at the drawing whilst operating the marionette. The gentle politeness of Mr. Squiggle, and the gentle strength of Hetherington's well-modulated voice was immediately attractive to children, at a time when most of the other Australian TV channels had violent, raucous, and brash ventriloquist acts associated with their children's shows. Exploiting the "fusion" of his skills as both puppeteer and cartoonist, he used the tip of the pencil that formed the puppet's nose to convert "squiggles" that had been sent in to the television station by young viewers into full-realised drawings and cartoons. Most significantly, given all of the mechanics of his marionette's performance, all of these "squiggle" conversions by Mr. Squiggle were always performed with the original children's drawing up-side down. When asked, in 2009, in one of the "''Moment in Time''" segments of the ABC TV programme '' Can We Help?'', on behalf of a viewer, Miriam Webster, whether Mr. Squiggle had lead in his pencil or whether it was "something more extraterrestrial", Norman Hetherington replied: "It started off with a very large felt pen, a very thick felt pen; but, in Studio 23, we were very close to the lights, and the heat would dry up the felt, and it wasn't very good, so we graduated to crayon, and then to oil chalk, and then ochalk." Initially intended as a temporary fill-in, the show ran on ABC for 40 years, Mr. Squiggle's first appearance on ABC TV was on 1 July 1959, and he drew his last picture on ABC TV on 9 July 1999. When interviewed by Sarah Collerton in 2009, Hetherington told her that "I taught Mr. Squiggle to draw and now he draws better than I do". In May 1999, Mr. Squiggle was honoured by Australia Post with his own 45-cent postage stamp.

Smiley's Good Teeth Puppet Theatre

In March 1962, the ''Dental Health Education and Research Foundation'' was established at the University of Sydney to promote the philosophy and practice of preventive dentistry and, in particular, communicate positive dental health messages to the general population. Preliminary studies had convinced the Foundation that "dental health literature of a hand-out nature was virtually useless unless it was used to supplement information or knowledge already passed on to the recipient by a dentist or some other authoritative person". Moreover, it was soon found that the presence of Dental Health Educators in primary schools, instructing children up to 12 years in such things as diet,

oral hygiene Oral hygiene is the practice of keeping one's mouth clean and free of disease and other problems (e.g. bad breath) by regular brushing of the teeth (dental hygiene) and cleaning between the teeth. It is important that oral hygiene be carried out ...

and plaque control, was not as effective as anticipated. In 1967, Hetherington was consulted by the Foundation; and, with the initial notion of strongly augmenting the work of the Dental Health Educators, he was responsible for establishing the "Smiley's Good Teeth Puppet Theatre", starring a new puppet, ''Smiley'' ("a little boy who gets toothache because he has not looked after his teeth properly"),Anon, (1969). that delivered performances based on a script that had been produced in collaboration with the Foundation, that featured all of its desired preventive dentistry messages. The first performance—which, it had been decided by that time, would run "in parallel with" (rather than "as part of") the dental health educator programme—was in February 1968, with the specific target of the younger, primary school children. The shows were performed with two puppeteers, with the assistant operating Smiley, and Hetherington everything else. The show, and its associated ''Good Teeth Club''—to which Hetherington, having emerged from behind the puppet stage, would invite the delighted children to join at the end of each of his performances (Anon, 1970)—was immensely popular with the school children immediately it began its operation. The Foundation was overjoyed to discover that evaluations showed that, even after six months, the children could remember 70% of the dental health messages associated with the show (Woolley, 1980). In 1970, as part of a weekend workshop conducted by the Australian Dental Association and the ''Dental Health Education and Research Foundation'' at Sydney University, Hetherington demonstrated his work to the assembled dentists, by allowing them to observe him deliver an entire performance to a group of children from Newtown North Primary School. They were all greatly impressed with his work. Smiley's Good Teeth Puppet Theatre operated from 1968 to 1985, and, although it began in suburban Sydney, it was making trips into the country by late 1969. As time passed, Hetherington became less involved in the actual delivery of the performances and often hired other puppeteers to perform the shows. For the four years his son Stephen studied at Sydney University (i.e., from 1977 to 1980), Stephen worked part-time on the show as a puppeteer and was, also, the person who spoke to the children before and after each show. The other puppeteer who teamed with Stephen was Pam Sahm, who operated Smiley.

Javanese Shadow Puppet Theatre

Given his wide range of appropriate skills and experience, Hetherington was invited to work with a group of undergraduate students (ranging from second to fourth year) from the (then) Department of Indonesian and Malayan Studies at the University of Sydney, over the entire three-term year of 1980, in the task of preparing them for a performance of " Irawan Rabi", or "Irwan's Wedding", as it had been adapted for a western audience by James R. Brandon, in the manner of the traditional Javanese shadow puppet theatre (or wayang kulit). (Day, 1981). He was asked to assist them to acquire an understanding of shadow puppet design, train them in the appropriate techniques of puppet manipulation, guide them into a smooth performance, as well as transferring an understanding of puppetry stagecraft (Day, 1981). Apart from the extensive training he delivered to the students, and the advice that he gave to the entire company on puppetry stagecraft, he was also a very important participant in the joint construction of the final script, the musical improvisations used during the performance, and the comic routines that were woven throughout the entire performance. (Day, 1981.) The eventual performance, the culmination of the entire year's project/course, was performed by six of the students, along with "eight-metre-high puppets made from plywood", a "life-size monster with expendable heads" and a "foam-rubber monkey".

Awards

Hetherington and his wife received several honours and awards, including the

Penguin Award The Penguin Award is an annual award given for excellence in broadcasting by the Television Society of Australia. It was founded in 1954. The award trophy depicts an ear listening to a television tube, but strongly resembles a penguin, hence the ...

in 1984, and again in 1989, from the Television Society of Australia "for their outstanding contribution to children's television in Australia". He was awarded a

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in 1990 "for service to children's television programmes and puppetry". In 2005, he was presented with the Dean's Award for Excellence in Art, Design and Education (

College of Fine Arts The School of Fine Arts or College of Fine Arts is the official name or part of the name of several schools of fine arts, often as an academic part of a larger university. These include: The Americas North America *Alabama School of Fin ...

, UNSW), for contribution to the media. In 1989 the Australian Cartoonists' Association presented Hetherington with a signed artist's smock; it awarded him a life membership in 2008; and n 14 November 2009the association presented him with the coveted Stanley Award for his outstanding contribution to Australian cartooning at the Stanley Awards ceremony in Sydney. He received a standing ovation at the presentation where many fellow cartoonists acknowledged that they were encouraged to pick up a pencil by virtue of being able to watch Mr. Squiggle's antics on television each week.

Death

After a long illness, Hetherington died on 6 December 2010 in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

, Sydney. At his funeral, the eulogy was delivered by Richard Bradshaw.

Tributes

Many artists, cartoonists, and puppeteers have acknowledged their debt to Norman Hetherington and his work, including: * Christine Assange, Australian puppeteer. * Peter Broelman, Australian editorial cartoonist, caricaturist and illustrator. * Chris "Roy" Taylor, Herald-Sun cartoonis

* Annette MacArthur-Onslow, author, illustrator of children's books, and one-time assistant to Hetherington (e.g., on Christmas Day 1957). * Ross McCaughey, Australian cartoonist and book illustrator. * Spare Parts Puppet Theatrebr>
* Hilary Talbot, Australian puppeteer and puppet designe

* Ben Wood (illustrator), Ben Wood, Australian book and magazine illustrato

Sophie Diao's Google Doodle

In 2014,

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

paid tribute to Hetherington, on his 93rd birthday, with a

Google Doodle A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...

, that had been created by the Google Doodle artist Sophie Diao.

Hetherington's works

Author

* "Heth", ''Army Daze by Heth: From Civvy to Commando in 40 Easy Laughs'', Pinnacle Press (Magpie Series), (Sydney), 1945. * Hetherington, N., ''Puppets of Australia'', Australian Council for the Arts, (Sydney), 1974. * Hetherington, N. & Hetherington, M., ''Mr. Squiggle and the Great Moon Robbery'', Australian Broadcasting Commission, (Sydney), 1980. * Hetherington, N. & Hetherington, M., ''Hand Shadows'', Angus & Robertson, (North Ryde), 1988. * Hetherington, N. & Hetherington, M., ''Mr. Squiggle and the Preposterous Purple Crocodile'', ABC Enterprises, (Sydney), 1992.

Illustrator

* Blair, D. (ed.), ''Blown to Blazes and Other Works of J. B. Blair'', David Blair, (Sydney), 2007. * Gardiner, S., ''Reflections'', Wentworth Books, (Surry Hills), 1979. * Hetherington, M., ''Mr. Squiggle and the Preposterous Purple Crocodile'', ABC Enterprises, (Sydney), 1992. * Hosking, C., ''Old Tales in a New Land: Some European Customs and Legends'', Angus and Robertson, (Sydney), 1957. * Pate, M., ''An Entertaining War'', Dreamweaver Books, (Sydney), 1986."Heth" provided the dust-jacket cover's illustration. Norman Hetherington was an avid supporter of the Book Collectors Society of Australia. In his memory, one of his cartoons appears on the back cover of the society journal ''Biblionews''.