grundoontv
12-20-2010, 12:38 PM
May 16, 1990, a day that will live forever -- 2 great talents, Sammy Davis, Jr., age 64, dead of throat cancer, and Jim Henson, age 53, dead of Septic Shock.
Sammy's death was expected, as he'd been battling throat cancer for over a year; Jim Henson's death, however, caught the entire nation by surprise.
Jim Henson's untimely demise began in the early morning hours of May 15, 1990, just 11 days after his "Arsenio Hall Show" appearance, when he was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, New York for what should have been a simple operation; instead, just 24 hours later, at 1 a.m. ET May 16, 1990, Jim Henson went into Septic Shock; within 30 minutes, he was pronounced dead.
Rather than sue the hospital, Jim's surviving immediate family consisting of wife Jane and 5 grown children--Lisa, Cheryl, Brian, John, and Heather--reached an out-of-court settlement with the hospital.
On a personal note, my uncle Steve knew a man back in the 1970s named Warren Whitside; he was rushed to the hospital one day for brain surgery.
Mr. Whitside's regular doctor was out of town while Whitside recuperated from the surgery, but by the time the substitute doctor got the message, Warren went into Septic Shock--and ultimately died in his prime of life.
In a similar fashion, while Jim Henson recuperated from his operation, the doctors were not monitoring Jim's recuperation, and by the time the New York doctor got the message, it was too late, and Jim died of Septic Shock.
Early obituaries, along with Jim's Internet Movie Database entry, listed his cause of death as "bacterial pneumonia," to make the cause of death sound more natural, but this was eventually proven as a false cause of death.
The week he died, Jim was going to sell his old Muppet characters to The Walt Disney Company (which eventually occurred in February 2004) and make new Muppet characters to make people forget about Kermit.
In late 1991, just before Christmas, Disney bought the distribution rights to the entire Jim Henson Productions library and, between January 1993 and September 1996, released a number of Muppet/Henson projects on VHS--among them "Fraggle Rock," "The Muppet Show," and just about everything else in the Henson library--minus "Sesame Street" and movies made by outside companies, such as "Labyrinth" and "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (both owned by Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment).
After Disney's initial Henson contract expired, ColumbIa/Sony bought distribution rights to the Henson library. In 2003, the year before the Muppets were sold to Disney, HIT Entertainment bought the distribution rights until 2009, when Lions Gate Home Entertainment took over.
Sammy's death was expected, as he'd been battling throat cancer for over a year; Jim Henson's death, however, caught the entire nation by surprise.
Jim Henson's untimely demise began in the early morning hours of May 15, 1990, just 11 days after his "Arsenio Hall Show" appearance, when he was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, New York for what should have been a simple operation; instead, just 24 hours later, at 1 a.m. ET May 16, 1990, Jim Henson went into Septic Shock; within 30 minutes, he was pronounced dead.
Rather than sue the hospital, Jim's surviving immediate family consisting of wife Jane and 5 grown children--Lisa, Cheryl, Brian, John, and Heather--reached an out-of-court settlement with the hospital.
On a personal note, my uncle Steve knew a man back in the 1970s named Warren Whitside; he was rushed to the hospital one day for brain surgery.
Mr. Whitside's regular doctor was out of town while Whitside recuperated from the surgery, but by the time the substitute doctor got the message, Warren went into Septic Shock--and ultimately died in his prime of life.
In a similar fashion, while Jim Henson recuperated from his operation, the doctors were not monitoring Jim's recuperation, and by the time the New York doctor got the message, it was too late, and Jim died of Septic Shock.
Early obituaries, along with Jim's Internet Movie Database entry, listed his cause of death as "bacterial pneumonia," to make the cause of death sound more natural, but this was eventually proven as a false cause of death.
The week he died, Jim was going to sell his old Muppet characters to The Walt Disney Company (which eventually occurred in February 2004) and make new Muppet characters to make people forget about Kermit.
In late 1991, just before Christmas, Disney bought the distribution rights to the entire Jim Henson Productions library and, between January 1993 and September 1996, released a number of Muppet/Henson projects on VHS--among them "Fraggle Rock," "The Muppet Show," and just about everything else in the Henson library--minus "Sesame Street" and movies made by outside companies, such as "Labyrinth" and "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (both owned by Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment).
After Disney's initial Henson contract expired, ColumbIa/Sony bought distribution rights to the Henson library. In 2003, the year before the Muppets were sold to Disney, HIT Entertainment bought the distribution rights until 2009, when Lions Gate Home Entertainment took over.