Sid Krofft

Sid Krofft, born Cydus Yolas on July 30, 1929, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is a puppeteer, television creator, and writer who appeared on Broadway in 1949, with credits including Howdy, Mr. Ice of 1950. Of Greek and Hungarian descent, Krofft built a career that spanned vaudeville, Broadway, circus performance, and decades of American children's television, most of it developed alongside his younger brother Marty, born April 9, 1937, who died on November 25, 2023.

Krofft's father, Peter, was a clock salesman who relocated the family from Canada to Providence, Rhode Island, and eventually to New York City. As a teenager in the 1940s, Sid developed a one-man puppet show that he performed regularly at burlesque venues. A nightclub promoter from the Catskills helped him formalize the act under the name Sydney Snitkovsk, to which Krofft added an extra F, expanding it into the billing "The Unusual Artistry of Sid Krofft," a show that subsequently toured internationally. During a Paris engagement, his father accompanied him on tour while Marty remained in New York, where the younger brother began staging his own performances using Sid's puppets. Krofft also worked in vaudeville and performed as a featured player with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. For years the brothers claimed to represent the fifth generation of puppeteers in their family, though they disclosed in 2008 that a publicist had invented that detail in the 1940s.

By the 1950s the two brothers were collaborating, and in 1957 they developed Les Poupées de Paris, a puppet production aimed at adult audiences. Their early television exposure came in 1965 when they appeared on the premiere episode of The Dean Martin Show. They subsequently designed characters and sets for Hanna-Barbera's The Banana Splits, which aired on NBC from 1968 to 1970, before launching their own producing career in 1969 with the children's series H.R. Pufnstuf. That series established the visual and narrative approach that would define their work: large-scale colorful puppetry, elaborate set design, low-budget special effects, and stories centered on children drawn into fantastical alternate worlds.

Through their production company Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures, the brothers created a substantial body of children's television programming concentrated in the 1970s. Their productions included The Bugaloos in 1970, Lidsville in 1971, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters from 1973 to 1975, Land of the Lost from 1974 to 1976, The Lost Saucer in 1975, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl in 1976, and Wonderbug from 1976 to 1978. In 1976, a developer engaged the Kroffts to create an indoor amusement park called The World of Sid and Marty Krofft within the Omni International complex in downtown Atlanta. The park closed after six months due to low attendance; the building was later converted into the CNN headquarters and renamed the CNN Center. The brothers also produced prime-time variety programming and, in later years, the political puppet satire D.C. Follies in 1987 and Pryor's Place in 1984. A later original series, Mutt & Stuff, aired on Nickelodeon from 2015 to 2017.

In 2018, Sid and Marty Krofft received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmy Awards. In 2020, they were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to television. In May 2022, they participated in the first Krofft Kon, a fan convention held in Orinda, California, attended by actors from their television series. In January 2023, Sid Krofft filed a lawsuit against his brother Marty and the Krofft companies, alleging that nearly $500,000 owed to him as part of a buyout of his business interests had not been paid. Marty Krofft died of kidney failure in Los Angeles on November 25, 2023, at the age of 86.