Lenny, the One Hit Wonder

February 7, 2022 6:52 AM

Lenny Lipton is a Cornell physics graduate in the class of 1962. He is "recognized as the father of the electronic stereoscopic display industry," and "was the lead inventor of the current state-of-the-art technologies that enable today's theatrical filmmakers to project their feature films in 3D." He holds over 50 patents, including whizbang-sounding inventions such as "electrostereoscopic eyewear," "synthetic panoramagram," and "autostereoscopic lenticular screen." His inventions have been used by NASA and its contractors on the Mars rover and the Hubble Space Telescope. Lipton was also a prolific filmmaker in his younger days: from 1965-75 he made 25 short films. His filmography is now a part of the Pacific Film Archive at the Berkeley Art Museum. Lipton was also a successful author, having written several books about filmmaking technique including "The Super 8 Book," "Independent Filmmaking," "Lipton on Filmmaking," and a 2021 release about the history of cinema technology. But to the world outside of 3-D tech and independent film (I guess that's pretty much the whole world when you round down), Lipton is most famous as a songwriter. This is true even though he wrote only one song in his life, and did so inadvertently.

While a 19-year-old undergrad at Cornell in the spring of 1959, Lipton made plans to have dinner with his friend Lenny Edelstein. Having some time to kill before then, Lipton stopped by the Cornell library. He picked up a book of poems by Ogden Nash, and read his 1936 work "The Tale of Custard the Dragon." The poem is about a girl named Belinda who lives with a small menagerie of pets, including a little dragon named Custard. In the poem, a pirate attacks the house and Custard eats him.

After reading the poem, Lipton continued on to his friend's house, thinking about Custard (and, according to the frequently copy-pasted story, about his own reluctant transition to adulthood). When he found that his friend wasn't home, Lipton let himself in (this was the 50s in upstate New York) and decided to write his own poem. He used the typewriter of his friend's roommate Peter, and knocked out the verses in just a few minutes. Satisfied with his effort, he left the poem in the typewriter when he finished.

That would have been the end of the story, but as fate would have it Lenny Edelstein's roommate was Peter Yarrow, Cornell class of 1959. Peter was into folk music, and upon finding the poem in his typewriter he set the verse to music and began performing it. Just shortly after graduation from Cornell, Yarrow moved to New York City, where he met his future bandmates Noel "Paul" Stookey and Mary Travers. They called themselves Peter, Paul, and Mary and enjoyed almost instant success on the folk scene. In January 1963, the group released their second album. Among the tracks on that record was the song based on Lipton's poem: "Puff, the Magic Dragon." Prior to the release of the song, Yarrow tracked down Lipton to let him know about his poem's unexpected life, and gave him a songwriting credit for the lyrics.

"Puff" was the third single from the record, and it was a major hit. It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the "easy listening" chart (it was the first of three #1 records for the group on that chart). It has been a steady hit with kids and hippies since then, and was adapted into several animated programs in the 1970s.

Given the prolific career Lipton has enjoyed, perhaps "Puff"'s biggest legacy is all of the technological achievement that it has funded. In a blog post 45 years later, Lipton reflected on his poem, and noted with thanks that "Puff was my financier. Puff funded my work in electronic stereoscopic displays...He never grilled me at a board meeting, he never lectured me about having to make a profit, he never told me that I had to cut out projects I loved...Puff’s been a generous, forgiving and kindly investor – one who has never stopped giving."

[Inspired by/overlaps this 2012 post by zarq]

posted by AgentRocket (18 comments total)

Perhaps the first record I ever spun.
posted by thelonius at 7:05 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

I can't wait to root through all the links, but AgentRocket, the way you spun out this story, from the FPP through the "more inside," already makes this a Best of Metafilter. Doing the slow-clap thing here at my desk. Well done!
posted by martin q blank at 7:05 AM on February 7, 2022 [17 favorites]

(also, Mrs. Blank likes to tell the story of how she fell for me when she saw my eyes tear up-- OK, fine, I was crying-- when PP&M played this at a concert back in the early 90s. So we can add "inspired a MeFite's marriage" to Lenny's many and more notable achievements. Thanks, Lenny!)
posted by martin q blank at 7:15 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

AgentRocket, this is an absolutely fantastic post.

I knew nothing about Lipton, and learning about all his filmmaking inventions and writings, and the whole story behind the song, gives me great joy.

Thank you so much for writing this version of this great story, and for sharing it with all of us!
posted by kristi at 7:18 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thanks for putting the spotlight on the writer of this song. But let's not forget that the singer who popularized it was convicted of (and admitted to) molesting a child, though he's never paid any consequences.

The song need not be tarnished by the singer.
posted by rikschell at 7:51 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

Flagged as fantastic! Thank you so much for putting it together.

This song has made me cry since I was a child and I once thought I'd grow out of it but the older I get, the harder it hits. Thanks, Mr. Lipton!
posted by kimberussell at 7:56 AM on February 7, 2022

I'm curious as to the tone of the Dorothy Kilgallen article, whether it leaned more jokey or drug-scare. It seems petty to insult the way she looks just because she misinterpreted the song.
posted by pinothefrog at 8:00 AM on February 7, 2022

My entire career has involved working on, or making content for, 3d displays of one kind or another (or at very least, content that makes 2d displays feel more 3d). Of course I heard this song as a kid. How the heck did I never know these two things were related?! Great post.
posted by Alterscape at 8:11 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

I have always disliked this song, but this was a fantastic and fascinating post.
posted by JanetLand at 8:19 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have always disliked this song

Well what was your Fischer-Price 45 jam? Snoopy vs Red Baron?
posted by thelonius at 8:56 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

"Are you a pothead, Fokker?"

Excellent post, AgentRocket. Rock on.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:08 AM on February 7, 2022

Fantastic post. Thank you!
posted by quintessence at 9:36 AM on February 7, 2022

Well what was your Fischer-Price 45 jam? Snoopy vs Red Baron?

HOW DID YOU KNOW??? [high-fives]
posted by JanetLand at 9:39 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

Autostereoscopic lenticular screen sounds like a disease syndrome in between Large Marge and No. 1 Bug-Eyed Lady in David Letterman's Top Ten Stupid Human Tricks.
posted by y2karl at 10:18 AM on February 7, 2022

I still cry during Puff the Magic Dragon. (Partly because my first cat was named Puff.)
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 10:52 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

This is an excellent post.
posted by rorgy at 1:01 PM on February 7, 2022

I have a distinct memory of singing this in kindergarten in 1969 — probably one of my first memories of a non-nursery song. That, and Do-Re-Mi.

Just thinking about the song conjures up multiple sense memories and a feeling of a long-ago past.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:49 PM on February 7, 2022

I was impressed by 3D cinema technology exactly once in my life. It was the first time I experienced it.

I think I was eight.
posted by panama joe at 8:49 PM on February 8, 2022