Rare Footage of Big Bird Meeting Mayor Kyle Testerman From 1973! (Lost Media)

Here’s rare footage of Big Bird meeting Mayor Kyle Testerman, as the two chatted, Testerman signed an official document making Big Bird an honorary citizen of Knoxville back in 1973. This was posted by Vimeo user TAMIS in August 3, 2017. The description mentions Knoxville, as the cast of Sesame Street visits the city in 1973. From the WSJK Public Television Collection at TAMIS. But this footage only includes Big Bird and no other cast so it’s possible there’s more footage of the Sesame Street cast at Knoxville.
In a 2019 article about Caroll Spinney the puppeteer of Big Bird, it mentions that Big Bird visited Knoxville with some of his "Sesame Street" friends in March 1973 for two free performances at the Stokely Athletic Center and around the time of those performances, the Knoxville News Sentinel ran a story about Caroll Spinney and his work inside the costume.
So there’s possibly more material of the Sesame Street cast in Knoxville that was filmed but haven’t surfaced anywhere online. So for now this seems the only available footage of one of the Sesame Characters making an appearance at Knoxville, Tennessee in 1973. But anyway, enjoy this rare piece of Sesame Street history.
Sources: muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Kyle_T...
archive.ph/2024.02.27-155821/...
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#lostmedia #sesamestreet

[@roadrunnercoyote2263]

I do hear Loretta Long as Susan in the background...

[@mannygomez5213]

big bird was a little shorter back then

[@MelBlanc222]

Such an awesome clip! Do you think you can track down when Big Bird sang "Go To Sleep, Little Children" from the 1996 PBS pledge drive special Kathie Lee Gifford's Lullabies for Little Ones. ty! I know there is other footage online of him singing that song, but it would be cool to see it from that special

[@raretendo6879]

Well there’s one existing recording of the special that’s available online but it doesn’t feature Big Bird. m.czcams.com/video/3hbXc2rYryE/video.html
By doing research, the special aired on August 22, 1996, and it aired again on March 29, 1997 according to these old tv schedules. books.google.com/books?id=WnUYAQAAIAAJ&q=Lullabies+for+little+ones+pbs+1996&dq=Lullabies+for+little+ones+pbs+1996&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiLrOrrspiGAxU15MkDHVOHCWUQ6AF6BAgKEAM#Kathie archives.kdl.org/The%20Lowell%20Ledger/1997/03_March/03-26-1997.pdf
So in order for this special to be found there has to be a vhs recording from pbs that aired on those two dates, I haven’t had any luck of finding any other recording of it. So maybe with more awareness of it’s existence, it can likely get found. The muppet wiki page mentions Shari Lewis, Lamb Chop, and Barney did performances on the special, so maybe it can get found by fans of those franchises. But for now that special remains lost.

[@rohailhashmi8050]

I hope out to lunch Grover and Jean marsh cartoon special big bird in austraillia big bird festival 1996. comes soon