The World Northern Calloway Created

Last night I watched Street Gang, a documentary about the early years of Sesame Street. There was Bob. Susan and Gordon, Maria, and Luis were all interviewed. Carroll Spinney was interviewed, before his death. I knew Will Lee (Mr. Hooper) wasn’t there physically but in spirit. So was Alaina Reed, who played Gordon’s sister. Jim Henson too. Out of habit, I looked for another cast member, one gone for almost thirty years. I didn’t see David.

His real name was Northern Calloway. Calloway wasn’t one of the original cast members. He joined in 1971, right after his success on Broadway with the musical The Me Nobody Knows. David was the hip guy on the Street, the one with great clothes (multi-colored shirts, jeans hats, and natty turtlenecks) He was going to college but helped out at Hooper’s Store. He had his eye on a new girl on the street, a girl with long black hair and a pretty smile. Her name was Maria. Sonia Manzano who played Maria for forty-five years later said that people would tell her David and Maria were their first favorite couple, their first “shipping.” They also broke new ground: David was African American. Maria was Hispanic. This was a Street that took chances. It was teaching children their ABCs, but also people of different colors could love one another.

Calloway kept his Broadway career going by replacing Ben Vereen in the hit Pippin, a role he would also play in the London cast as well. He came up with ideas for two picture books, then as David did a Sesame Street album called David, Daydreamin’ on a Rainy Day. He co-wrote several of the songs. Whenever I saw David I was delighted. David was always in a good mood, calm and ready to help when needed. He could make birdseed milkshakes for Big Bird. He could do it all.

I didn’t know Northern Calloway had died until the 30th anniversary. Instantly I thought; wait, David died?? Technically, no. David went and helped his grandmother on her farm. Did they have a goodbye episode for him? No. What happened? At the time Google was in its infancy and I didn’t come up with very much. It wasn’t until years later I found out what happened.

In Fall, 1980, Calloway was in Tennesee, staying with a woman and performing there. One night he beat her up with an iron on the head and the chest. Jet magazine reported that he then ran down the streets naked, smashing windows and then invaded a house. When the police finally caught up with him, he yelled “I’m David from Sesame Street and they’re trying to kill me.” He was taken to a hospital.

I never saw the story. I have no idea why. It was a busy news year with the election, maybe David having a breakdown wasn’t big news. What surprised me was he wasn’t fired. If this happened today, no way would that had happened. There would’ve been a hashtag #canceldavidsesamestreet. He was diagnosed as bipolar, or as it was called back then, manic depressive. He came back to the show. Executive Producer Dulcey Singer made Calloway promise he would take lithium. However, he also took something else: cocaine.

Watching the 80’s episodes and seeing Calloway’s David is hard. He was bloated most of the time, due to the medications he was taking. Plus he lost his love interest; he and Maria broke up off-screen, and she became involved with Luis. A wedding was planned. Calloway was gutted when he found out that he wasn’t going to be Maria’s intended. One of the last times we see David is at Maria’s wedding. He is sitting with the others, his thoughts heard in song: “Isn’t it funny? I’ve seen her each day of my life. She’s becoming-become, Luis’ new wife. I’m not used to thinking of her as anyone’s wife.” Around the same time period, he went to Allison Bartlett’s (who played teenager Gina) high school and proposed marriage. He bit the music coordinator of the show. Dulcey Singer had tried to avoid firing Calloway. She didn’t think you should fire someone simply because they were ill. But by 1989, she had no choice. This was when David moved to his grandmother’s farm.

Early 1990, Calloway was in a psychiatric hospital in New York state where he attacked a doctor. The police were called and there was an ugly confrontation. Suddenly, Calloway had a seizure and fell to the floor. By the time he arrived at a hospital, he was dead. The cause was excited delirium syndrome. He was forty-one years old.

Hearing about Calloway died broke my heart. There were so many unanswered questions, mostly why? Why did it have to get so ugly, so awful? Why did he, to paraphrase the lyrics of the song he sang on Broadway, throw the world he made away?

I don’t know. I’ll never know. People have critiqued the show for not having David die as they did with Mr. Hooper. I don’t blame them, they had a terrible year (in 1990 Jim Henson died as well) and how in the world would they have explained David’s death to Big Bird? I’m in my late forties and I have a hard time understanding how Calloway died.

But he made his presence known. There never would’ve been a Mixedish TV show-or oddly Olivia Pope and President Fitzgerald-if there hadn’t been a David and Maria. Dean Forrester on Gilmore Girls wasn’t the first guy who noticed a pretty girl who reads; Maria would read on her fire escape while David worked at the store.

So when I watched Street Gang and thought about him being missing, he wasn’t. Anytime someone sang, he was there.

He helped create that world.