The Unseen Photos of Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

by Trevor Crafts, Eli Attie (Preface by), Michael Davis (Foreword by), Sonia Manzano (Afterword), David Attie (Photographer)

Overview

A behind-the-scenes tribute to the revolutionary children’s show that changed television forever.

This official companion to the acclaimed documentary Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street takes readers deep inside the creation of the most influential children’s program in history.

Featuring more than 150 never-before-seen photographs by celebrated photographer David Attie, this stunning volume captures the magic, grit, and genius of the show’s earliest days.

What’s Inside:

• Rare Archival Images: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Caroll Spinney, Loretta Long, Bob McGrath, and the original cast and crew at work.
• Exclusive Interviews: Insights from creators Joan Ganz Cooney, Lloyd Morrisett, Jon Stone, and the pioneering artists who brought Sesame Street to life.
• Cultural Context: How the values of the civil rights movement—equality, education, inclusion—shaped a groundbreaking show that reached millions.
• Legacy of Innovation: The story of how a rebellious group of educators and visionaries transformed children’s television into a tool for social change.

Why You’ll Love It:

• A visual time capsule of Sesame Street’s first season.
• A must-have for fans of Jim Henson, Muppets, and pop culture history.
• A tribute to creativity and activism, celebrating over fifty years of impact.

Perfect for collectors, photography lovers, and anyone who grew up asking, “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419758409
Publisher:	Abrams
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Trevor Crafts is an award–winning producer whose works include Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street and Lantern City, based on his own BOOM! Studios comic-book series. He is the CEO of Macrocosm Entertainment and lives in Weston, Connecticut. 

David Attie was a highly prolific commercial and fine-art photographer from the late 1950s until his passing in the 1980s. In March 1970, he photographed the very first season of Sesame Street for Amerika, a Russian-language magazine distributed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Attie’s work is in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, and is represented by Getty Images and by Keith De Lellis Gallery in New York City.

Eli Attie is an Emmy-winning TV writer and producer whose credits include long stints on The West Wing and House, and more recently, Billions. He previously served as Vice President Al Gore’s chief White House and campaign speechwriter through Gore’s concession of the 2000 presidential election, which he and Gore wrote together.

Michael Davis was a senior editor and family television columnist for TV Guide from 1998 to 2007. A Neiman Fellow, he has also worked for the Baltimore Sun and Chicago Sun-Times. He is the author of Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street (Penguin, 2008).

Sonia Manzano is a mainland Puerto Rican, raised in the Bronx. After starring in Broadway show "Godspell" she went on to create the role of Maria on Sesame Street, for which she received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award in 2016. Scholastic recently announced a four-book deal with Manzano. The first novel, Coming Up Cuban, will publish in 2022. Currently she is working on Alma's Way, an animated series with Fred Rogers Productions that will air on PBS. Sonia lives in New York City with her husband.