Between February 1989 and May 1990, there were three significant deaths in the Sesame Street world. The first was
Joe Raposo, a
significant musician for Sesame Street and Electric Company. The last was
Jim Henson,
mourned by Big Bird,
remembered by Frank Oz, and
celebrated in
song by
many (from the
St. John's Memorial,
detailed here). The second person to die in this time period was
Northern Calloway,
Sesame Street's David. Unlike
Joe and
Jim, there were no
television tribute to Northern's life and career on
Sesame Street or
Broadway. Instead, David,
once a young, cool, urban guy, who was studying to be a lawyer while working at Mr. Hooper's storeand the initial romantic interest of Maria,
left the show through a letter, read by Gordon. The story behind David is told below the fold.
Born on January 22, 1948, in New York City, Northern grew up in Harlem. He was involved in stage shows through school, attending
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts and Performing Arts, where he was a classmate of
Sonia Manzano, who would become
Maria on Sesame Street. In 1966, two days after graduating from high school, he joined the Lincoln Center Repertory Company. In 1970,
Calloway starred in
The Me Nobody Knows, a musical about complex, introspective children in poor neighborhoods of New York City.
Northern and Sonia were hired to Sesame Street around the same time, both
appearing in 1971 with four other new human cast members. Northern and Sonia started getting close on the set, so
David and Maria became a pair on the show (Google books), creating the first interracial couple on children's television. Northern also had a puppet,
Same Sound Brown, a similar character to the former puppet
Roosevelt Franklin (
previously).
In 1980, while staying with a friend in Nashville, Tennessee,
Northern Calloway had a mental breakdown, attacking his friend, then running into the neighborhood with only a t-shirt on, breaking a car window and vandalizing a house. When police found him, he appeared to try to eat grass, and when finally restrained, he shouted "I'm David of Sesame Street and they're trying to kill me." Luckily for Calloway,
the story never got much coverage, and he was allowed to return to Sesame Street (Google books). But Calloway was then on lithium for his rarely discussed bipolar disorder, which sedated him, and he put on weight. Around the same period, he was also doing cocaine, making him even less reliable on set. He was still a cast member, but with fewer and smaller parts in the following years.
In the earlier days on Sesame Street, Calloway's character
David was studying law while working at Mr. Hooper's store, until
Mr. Hooper died (as the actor,
Will Lee, died of a heart attack, at the age of 74). The episode was significant for Sesame Street, as it directly addressed death in the context of the children's show (key clips, in order:
Intro / Forgetful Jones forgets why he's happy /
Fuzzy and Blue (and Orange!), with Grover, Herry, Cookie Monster and Frazzle /
Big Bird's "Just Because" Walk /
A boy visits the hospital to see his mother's new baby /
Big Bird Listens to the Adults /
Bert feels sad and angry about losing his paper clips /
Big Bird draws his grown-up friends, and comes to terms with death Mr. Hooper's death /
end credits). Mr. Hooper left the store to David, who became the full-time caretaker of the store.
Then another in-show dynamic changed. Instead of Maria and David, it was Maria and Luis, and the new couple
got married as
a season finale in 1988. The
next season ends with another big event for Luis and Maria:
their first baby (
part 2). It was Northern's last season with the show. He disappeared from Sesame Street, written off in the
fifth episode of the 21st season, saying goodbye in a letter, as he moved to his grandmother's farm.
In real life, Norther disappeared, too. The cause of his death had not been determined
when his short New York times obituary ran, and
a story about a struggle with stomach cancer gained some ground. But as noted in the comments of that last link, a more complete history has been put together,
as told in Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street (Google books). Held in
Stony Lodge Hospital in New York, the police were called on January 9, 1990, to help after Calloway struck a staff physician. "Agitated and troubled," Calloway fought restraint, and when he was finally subdued, he went into a seizure and went to the ground. Two weeks shy of his 42nd birthday, he went into cardiac arrest, and was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The official report said he died of
exhaustive psychosis,
more commonly refereed to as excited delirium syndrome (EDS).
He had been a cast member on Sesame Street for 14 years, as marked in numerous clips and
appearances on a small collection of Sesame Street records.
More clips:
*
It Feels Good When You Sing a Song (
circa 1970s)
*
Luis and David in the wrong settings (circa 1970s)
*
David disco skates around Central Park (circa 1970s)
*
Jasper Johnson's J Walk (circa 1970s)
*
David gets three wishes, with Maria the genie (
1973)
*
What's The Name Of That Song? (
1974)
*
David, Maria, Luis and Bob, dressed as scarecrows, sing a song about the knee, the ankle, and the shoulder (
1975)
*
Hooper's Store's 25th anniversary (
1976)
*
Buffy gives Cody a Bath (
1977)
*
Gimme Five!, with "The Lovers of Five" (consisting of Gordon, Bob, David, and Luis) (
1978)
*
Oscar & David on a farm (1984)
*
Hey Nonny Nonny, with Bob, David and Olivia (
1985)
*
David the Boxer, and Luis his manager, look for the right gloves (
1986)
*
Professor David lectures about trees (
1988)
*
A Tribute to Northern Calloway (
David reads The Night Before Christmas, with some changes)
Another two tributes, of sorts:
1.
Elmo traded his binky for
Baby David, a doll named in memory of Northern Calloway's character.
2.
Hell Oh, by
Cage, from
a free EP from 2009, in which he (Chris Palko) recalls his
time at Stony Lodge, and seeing Northern Calloway in the same facility.
Cool name too. ( Northern , not David. Not that there's anything wrong with David.)
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:48 PM on December 12, 2011