27 Facts About Norman Hetherington

Norman Frederick Hetherington was an Australian artist, cartoonist, puppeteer, and puppet designer.

Norman Hetherington is best remembered as the creator of one of Australia's longest running children's shows, Mr Squiggle.

Norman Hetherington was the son of Frederick Hetherington and Ellen Mary Hetherington.

Norman Hetherington did his primary schooling at Burwood Public School, and secondary schooling at Sydney's Fort Street Boys' High School.

Norman Hetherington studied art, full-time, at East Sydney Technical College, from 1937 to 1938; and, because he had taken a position with one of Sydney's largest advertising agencies, Lintas, he transferred to part-time studies, studying at night from 1939 to 1941.

Norman Hetherington married Margaret "Peggy" Owrid in 1958.

Norman Hetherington joined the CMF in 1941 and enlisted in the AIF in 1942.

Norman Hetherington had attended classes at the National Art School before the war; and once the war was over, he continued his studies attending classes there four nights a week.

When he was only 16, and still a student at Fort Street Boys' High School, Norman Hetherington sold his first cartoon to The Bulletin magazine.

Norman Hetherington continued to contribute to The Bulletin over the next few years and continued to do so whilst he was in the army.

Norman Hetherington 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.

Norman Hetherington worked alongside such artists as Norman Lindsay and Percy Lindsay.

Norman Hetherington went on to use this Clown puppet which he called 'Tipsy' in his early professional puppet shows including his marionette version of 'The Reluctant Dragon at the Mercury Theatre in the St James Hall in Phillip St, Sydney in 1953.

Norman Hetherington went on to develop a repertoire of puppet shows which he performed around Sydney including 'The Enchanted Scarecrow' and 'The Magic Tinderbox'.

Norman Hetherington went on to be President of UNIMA Australia for many years.

Norman Hetherington was working on his own, as The Meryla Marionettes, with a series of shows that were very popular with children.

Norman Hetherington was always keen to demonstrate to his young audiences just how easily puppets could be made.

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 Norman 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.

In 1958, Norman Hetherington created Mr Squiggle, a moon-dwelling marionette 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".

The gentle politeness of Mr Squiggle, and the gentle strength of Norman 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.

Mr Squiggle was joined by other characters devised and performed by Norman Hetherington including Rocket who brought him from the Moon to the studio; Blackboard who held the squiggles while Mr Squiggle transformed them; Bill Steamshovel who loved telling riddles and eating rocks and concrete and later the knock-knock telling Gus the Snail.

When interviewed by Sarah Collerton in 2009, Norman Hetherington told her that "I taught Mr Squiggle to draw and now he draws better than I do".

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, Norman 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.

Norman Hetherington 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.

Norman Hetherington was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1990 "for service to children's television programmes and puppetry".

Norman Hetherington 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.

Norman Hetherington was an avid supporter of the Book Collectors Society of Australia.