Editor’s Note: This story originally was published May 8, 2018. Tom Hanks will star as Mr. Rogers in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” which is scheduled to open in theaters this Thanksgiving. Watch the trailer above.
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The United States Postal Service recently released a stamp featuring children’s show legend Mister Rogers.
The photo used for the stamp was taken by a graduate of Thomas More Prep-Marian, Walter Seng.
Seng, 74, who now lives in Arizona and has retired from photography, spent over a decade creating promotional images for Fred Rodger’s “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Seng, TMP class of 1961, said he made some lifelong friends at TMP and still keeps in touch with some of his classmates.
Seng drew and painted from the time he was young. He learned to paint from his grandfather, but he fell in love with photography at Carnegie Mellon University, when he attended his first black and white photo exhibition.
“The spirit of those images really drove home to my particular personality and my psyche. It picked me. I didn’t pick it,” he said.
Seng attend TMP as a residential student because his uncle was a priest and teacher at the school. However, he was from Pittsburgh, where “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” was filmed, and Seng became connected with the show there.
Seng began taking marketing photos for the show in 1972 and worked with Rogers through the 1980s.
Seng was notified by the USPS about the stamp more than two years before its release March 23. However, he had to keep the release a secret.
The USPS receives more than 20,000 applications each year for new stamp designs and picks only a handful for publication. The photo that was chosen for the stamp features Rogers in a red sweater with one of the puppets from the show, King Friday.
Seng said the photo was one of a number of publicity photos that was taken in about 1985 to showcase Rogers with all the neighborhood puppets and props, including Queen Sara Saturday, X the Owl and Daniel Striped Tiger. All the puppets lived in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, and children were transported there via a trolley. The show aired nationally from 1968 to 2001.
For those with younger children, Daniel Tiger now has his own animated series on PBS.
Rogers was known for starting the show by donning a sweater and putting on his sneakers as he sang, “Won’t You be My Neighbor,” one of many songs Rogers composed for the show. Besides composing for the show, Rogers also voiced most of the puppets. Seng said there was a reason behind the sneakers. When he first starting working on TV, he found sneakers made less noise when he was walking backstage during filming.
Seng said Fred Rogers the man was much like his TV persona — kind and professional. Rumors Rogers was a former marine are not true. He was actually a minister, who found his calling in TV and working with children.
Rogers also had a sense of humor, which Seng said helped the two work together. Soon after Seng started taking photos for the show, he was set to take a series of photos with Rogers on various emotions, including love and anger.
For the love photo with King Friday and Queen Saturday, he placed a pencil under King Friday’s robe. Rogers came in and laughed and said, “Why King Friday, aren’t we feeling amorous today?”
“It was really what connected us in terms of irony and humor,” Seng said.
Seng described Rogers as a genuinely warm, approachable, considerate, kind person.
“He was quiet in spirit and really strong in intellect,” Seng said. “He was a brilliant person.”
Rogers also had a knack for listening.
“Fred was one of the best listeners on the planet,” Seng said. “When you spoke to him, he wanted you to talk, not him. It was very disarming because people when they are talking to someone, they are thinking about what they are going to say next. Fred thinks about what you are going to say next. It puts it on you to carry a lengthy and well-thought-out conversation with him. He draws out the best in you that way.”
Rogers throughly researched his shows and tackled tough topics for kids, including anger, divorce and death.
Seng said Walters was very responsive to the children who watched the show. A blind girl who listened to the show sent a letter in saying she was concerned Rogers was not feeding his fish. When he fed the fish on the show after that, he talked about it so she would know he was taking care of the fish and sometimes mentioned her name. Rogers also worked with children off screen and frequently visited a nearby school for disabled children.
In addition to getting to work with Rogers, Seng was often brought in to take photographs of visiting celebrities. One of his favorite celebs was Wynton Marsalis, who brought his whole family to the set. Others included Yo-Yo Ma, Big Bird and Peggy Fleming. For the visit from Olympic gold medalist, Seng photographed Fleming and Rogers skating at the Pittsburg Civic Arena.
The favorite project he did with Rogers was a book titled “Who Am I?” The story was about an African-American girl who wore hearing aids. The book taught children to embrace differences. They shot photographs of the girl playing and jumping rope. Another photo depicted the girl whispering something into a friend’s ear and then him whispering something into her ear.
Seng said Rogers was a good subject.
“He once said to me, ‘Walt, you are the only photographer that I give myself to.’ I said, ‘That is a good compliment. Don’t make me cry. I won’t be able to shoot.'”
Rogers died in of stomach cancer in 2003, but Seng said he thinks he would have appreciated the Postal Service honoring him with a stamp.
Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan dedicated the stamp honoring Fred Rogers where it all began 50 years ago — WQED’s Fred Rogers Studio in Pittsburgh.
“Mister Rogers and his Neighborhood of Make-Believe made the ups and downs of life easier to understand for the youngest members of our society,” said Brennan in a USPS press release. “In ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ children learned, in a safe space, how to be a friend and create relationships. He shaped generations with his kindness and compassion. It’s why we honor him today.”
Seng continued to work commercially and artistically after he stopped photographing Fred Rogers.
“I liked photographing people on the street,” he said. “I always had my camera with me.”
Seng, who was an avid biker, said his favorite image is a picture of four bikers under Mount Rushmore.
“It was a coincidence. It helped me believe in God once again,” he said. “That there could be four guys — a Mexican, an Indian, an Irishman and a Norwegian — just like the faces of the presidents and they were bikers. I thought about doing a shot just like that, but thought it would take months to find the right models and there they were. They were all there. They were friends right there at the base of the mountain waiting for my camera.”
He said the best part of being a photographer was meeting people.
“I could work with a homeless guy sitting by a garbage can and an executive making millions a year and have a rapport with all of those people. That is why I got along with Fred so well. It was not about me, and it was not about him. It was about the process. It was about getting the best out of both of us without wearing it as a label on your chest to do a good job. I loved it. I loved photography.”