From Film center's Muppet show brings fairy tale back to life by Barbara Brotman:
Once upon a time, there was an advertising copy writer in New York.
In 1965, she was assigned to write several short industrial films promoting a wrinkle- and stretch-free knit fabric. She decided to write them as parodies -- funny takes on fairy tales or other familiar stories that would reveal the wonders of Pak-nit. She wrote three: "Stretchel and Shrinkel," "Shrinkenstein" and "Rumple Wrinkle Shrinkel Stretchel Stiltzkin."
She hired a creative guy with a beard and a set of puppets to make the films. She traveled to a studio in Washington, D.C., to watch the filming, and as a treat took along her two young daughters. The girls got to meet the puppets, including a smart-alecky frog that played Rumple Wrinkle Shrinkel Stretchel Stiltzkin. The bearded man gave them a piece of the set he had made as a souvenir. It was a hand-painted oven into which a wicked witch shoved twins named Stretchel and Shrinkel, who emerged with their Pak-nit clothing miraculously crisp. The end.
Only not exactly.
The bearded man was Jim Henson. The frog was the future Kermit. The Pak-nit commercials were among the earliest appearances of the Muppets.
The article is considerably longer so click through to read the rest.
Stretchel and Shrinkel is available on YouTube and I've embedded it below.
Rumple Wrinkle Shrinkel Stretchel Stiltzkin is not available on YouTube yet, but the article has a video embedded of it. I think you'll recognize Rumple!
Oh, how I miss Jim Henson, too...I'm thankful his legacy has been carried on by family and friends, but I will always wonder what else he would have accomplished himself.
That commercial alone was magical. Henson was a genius.
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