Bruce & Claire Newton (continued): Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame ~ Celebrating Lives of Achievement.

While the exterior is a dignified dark gray, stepping inside the front door was like entering the beating heart of an old-fashioned rose. Walls, floors, ceilings, rugs, curtains, bathrooms, bedding, towels and just about everything else shimmered and glowed in bright shades of red. Not to be outdone by their home, the couple also dressed exclusively, head-to-toe, in red, black and white.

The Newtons welcomed thousands of people in for tours, greeting senior citizen bus tours, their joy in sharing boundless.

In one of many threads of connection among members of the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame, an attic rafter in their house held an early “autograph” of fellow Hall-of-Famer, television journalist John Drury. As a boy, Drury lived just down the street from the house on West Park, which at that time was occupied by another family. He used to play basketball in the attic and signed his name there on some forgotten occasion.

After retiring from television in 1976 the Newtons began a second career with their own company, West Park Productions, putting on telepuppet revues. They made thousands of appearances throughout the Chicago area with Garfield Goose and other telepuppets from their long career. Bruce drove a specially-modified van they called the Royal Pressmobile, with Garfield and Claire enjoying the view and waving to the crowds from a dome atop the roof.

Theatrical but down-to-earth, exuberant but kind, highly accomplished but always ready for the next challenge, these articulate pioneers of the early years of television never lost the warmth, creativity, energy and charisma that carried them from their simple childhood puppet plays to the television studios of Chicago and thence into the hearts of countless Midwesterners.