Actor

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Norman Frederick Hetherington (29 May 1921 – 6 December 2010) was an Australian artist, cartoonist (known as "Heth"), puppeteer, and puppet designer.

He is best remembered as the creator of one of Australia's longest running children's shows, Mr. Squiggle. Hetherington was the sole operator and voice of its star performer, the Mr. Squiggle marionette.

Family

He was the son of Frederick Hetherington (1883–1951) and Ellen Mary Hetherington (1888–1976) (née Markwell). They were married at Balmain, New South Wales in 1918, and Norman Frederick Hetherington was born on 29 May 1921 in Lilyfield.

He grew up at 35 Meryla Street, Burwood. He did his primary schooling at Burwood Public School (1927–1933), and secondary schooling at Sydney's Fort Street Boys' High School (1934–1937). He studied art, full-time, at East Sydney Technical College (now known as the National Art School), from 1937 to 1938; and, because he had taken a position with one of Sydney's largest advertising agencies, Lintas (Lever International Advertising), he transferred to part-time studies, studying at night from 1939 to 1941 (when he enlisted in the army).

He married Margaret "Peggy" Owrid (née Purnell) (1923-2022) in 1958. She would later write scripts for episodes of Mr. Squiggle. They moved to the Sydney suburb of Mosman in 1960, and Hetherington remained there until his death.

The couple's children are Stephen (b.1959), an academic philosopher, and Rebecca (b.1962), a television presenter who also hosted Mr. Squiggle & Friends from 1989 until 1999.

War service

He joined the CMF in 1941 and enlisted in the AIF in 1942. He was then transferred to the 2nd Division Concert Party – later called no. 4 Detachment, 1st Australian Army Entertainment Unit when his lightning sketch and performing abilities were recognised.

He service with the First Australian Army Entertainment Unit during World War II, took him to Dutch New Guinea, New Guinea, New Britain, and the Torres Strait Islands. The Entertainment Unit also included actor Michael Pate, and comedian George Wallace Jr.

Cartoonist

He 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, Hetherington sold his first cartoon to The Bulletin magazine. He continued to contribute to The Bulletin over the next few years and continued to do so whilst he was in the army.

As a freelance cartoonist he also sold work to magazines that included Man, Man Junior, Army, Humour and Quiz: "His modus operandi was to approach the best-paying magazine first and continue on until he got down to the worst paying with whatever was left of his work".

He 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 (when all of the staff were sacked by Frank Packer, its new owner). He worked alongside such artists as Norman Lindsay and Percy Lindsay.

Signature

Early in his career, he signed his cartoons and caricatures with "Heth" and the last two digits of the year: a signature of, say, "Heth 42" (see advertisement at right) identifies Hetherington as the artist of the work, and 1942 as the year in which it had been drawn.

In the late 1940s, he changed his manner of signing his cartoons; it was no longer written horizontally, and it no longer displayed the year's last two digits. Whilst the signature "Heth" was still exclusively written in capital letters; it now took the form of "HETH", rather than "HETH". The letters were now rotated sideways, and the signature was written vertically running down the page from the top-left to the bottom-right (see left); and was read with one's head tilted to the right.

Many of those who were not aware of this imagined he was signing his work with (non-rotated) imitations of a number of Chinese characters, traditionally written vertically, that needed to be read with one's head tilted to the left.

Popular Science Monthly

His interest in marionettes began in 1935 when his father, who was the head carpenter for a major shipping line, gave him a copy of an American magazine called Popular Science Monthly, which contained instructions for making a puppet out of used bicycle inner tubes.

He first made this Clown puppet and used it in a 1950 Methodist Order of Knights production of 'The Reluctant Dragon', one of the many productions which he devised, wrote and designed for the Burwood Chapter of which he was a member.

He 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.

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

Even in these first shows, critics were remarking on the "wit, whimsy, and lively inventiveness" of his performance with his marionettes, and were very impressed with the skill and craftsmanship with which his puppets had been created.

In a 1977 interview, Hetherington explained to Sue Molloy that his interest in marionettes "was the outcome of a professional interest in cartoons, and amateur interest in theatre and a hobby of puppets", remarking that, in his view, "puppets are only three-dimensional cartoons".

Clovelly Puppet Theatre

In 1952 he gained a little early experience working with marionettes under the direction of Edith Constance Murray (née Blackwell) (1897–1988), at the Clovelly Puppet Theatre, administered by the Children's Library and Crafts Movement which later became the Creative Leisure Movement. The puppet theatre was in a former army hut donated by Randwick Council and erected by local volunteers in 1948. Describing it as "a nurturing ground", Hetherington said that this was where and when his puppetry changed from being just a hobby into a lifelong interest.

At that time he joined the Puppetry Guild of NSW, of which Edith Murray was secretary for many years. The Guild usually met then in the Library and Crafts Movement's centre in Rochford Street, Erskineville, and in 1953 Norman impressed members with excellent marionettes of a contortionist and a dissecting skeleton.

In 1954 he did a marionette production of “The Magic Tinderbox” in which he made use of a technique used in a nineteenth century trick puppet, “The Grand Turk”, to transform the King; his legs became frogs, his arms owls and his body became a fat purple pig. The famous English glove-puppeteer and author, Walter Wilkinson (1888-1970) was guest at a performance in the puppet theatre at the Movement's centre at Bradfield Park, now East Lindfield.

When the Australian section of UNIMA (the international association of puppeteers) was formed in 1970, following groundwork done by Edith Murray, Hetherington was the obvious choice for President, while Murray was Secretary. Hetherington also went on to be President of UNIMA Australia (Union Internationale de la Marionnette, of the International Puppetry Association) for many years.

Meryla Marionettes

During the 1950s, whilst pursuing his own rapidly developing personal interest in puppetry, he created a number of shows with the group he led, the Meryla Puppet Group. He was soon working on his own, as The Meryla Marionettes, with a series of shows that were very popular with children.

In November 1957, he was performing on stage for children during Saturday matinees at Sydney cinemas; and performing at three different locations on the one afternoon. Along with Igor's Puppets, the Merlya Marionettes performed on stage at the children's matinees at The Coronet Cinema, Bondi Junction, The Sixways Cinema, at Bondi, and the Randwick Cinema, at Randwick, on Saturday 23 November 1957; and at The Bondi Road Cinema, at Bondi…