Mr. Mean Dude said he will just lounge about now that he’s no longer needed.

The witch-turned-Scrooge-like character at one time starred for Sadecky’s Puppets. Owners Michael and Jay Sadecky have decided to retire and close the Tarentum-based business after 39 years.

They’ve entertained at schools, churches, festivals, shopping malls, birthday parties, company events, fire halls, parks and numerous other events, bringing the hand-operated puppets to life.

But Mr. Mean Dude and his friends are out of a job.

After 24,000 performances, the stage sits empty.

“When I first thought about retiring, I was very melancholy,” said Michael Sadecky, of New Kensington. “It was hard to come to terms with it, but it’s time.”

Sadecky said the business has run its course. With schools closed in 2020 and part of this year because of the pandemic, and some of them cutting funding for events such as puppet shows, things are changing.

For sale

The Sadeckys decided to sell most of their 300 puppets, staging and lighting. Prices start at $25 and can be purchased through livepuppets.com.

They own the building on East Fifth Avenue. The business started in the basements of their homes.

Michael, Jay, their brother, Rick, and sister, Kathy McNally, other family members and employees worked to deliver a message with each show.

At the company’s peak in the early 1990s, they produced 1,200 shows a year in 21 states.

They learned how to make puppets — using similar materials to Jim Henson’s Muppets — and kept a card of each puppet’s name, when it was made and other details. They updated the staging and lighting.

Themes included bullying, the importance of reading and valuing friendships.

“I want people to remember happy things and being able to laugh,” Michael Sadecky said. “We wanted to build something the community could embrace. We wanted to share positive messages. We tried to do our best to present a product that stood out — something you couldn’t get anywhere else.”

Going to be missed

It certainly was unique, said Rev. Philip Beck, pastor at First United Presbyterian Church in Tarentum. He hired Sadecky’s Puppets for 15 years for church events, including February 2020, right before the pandemic.

“We were always super delighted to have them,” said Beck, who has been pastor for 20 years. “It is so sad their run is over. We were grateful for them. They always put so much effort into their shows.”

Their performances had important life messages and were about respect and caring, Beck said. He said there was something for both children and adults to enjoy.

Sadecky said they tried to offer authentic shows, from incorporating Chinese dialogue in one and using Morse code in another, often including pop culture references.

Audio for the shows was pre-recorded … and in the early days — on cassette tapes. Most were 30 to 40 minutes. Puppet names included Thomas Edison, Robin Hood, Tiger Lilly, Clara Blue Nosed Mom, Peter Pan Hook and, of course, Mr. Mean Dude.

Show schedules were recorded by hand before later being computerized.

They’ve accumulated hundreds of wardrobe changes for the puppets, some they made, some they bought new, and others purchased at thrift stores.

“My first love is music and I enjoyed incorporating music into the shows,” Sadecky said. “We love seeing the kids’ responses. We always tried to put a message out there for them about being better citizens. We wanted to teach them something.”

Local appreciation

Beck said those lessons were invaluable. And even though he can get puppet shows online, they’ll never be as good as Sadecky’s Puppets because there’s nothing like a live show. It is also important to support local businesses, he said.

“They are very good at what they do,” Beck said. “No one realizes how much work goes on behind the scenes to produce these shows.”

Carrie Fox, Tarentum councilwoman at large, said it’s tough to lose a local business.

“We value every business in Tarentum,” Fox said. “They were a long-standing business. Each and every one brings something different to the table. It is sad to see them go.”

It’s nostalgic

Jay Sadecky, who lives in Florida, said he wants people to recall shows in a nostalgic way.

“Many kids who saw our shows are grown now with kids of their own and still remember their school assembly experiences,” said Sadecky, who wrote the scripts.

“When I started writing, I was an inexperienced writer, and sometimes it showed,” he said. “But after writing 5,000 pages of script, I became a writer. If you do something long enough, you get good at it.”

Michael Sadecky said his brother’s scripts carried the shows.

Jay Sadecky said some of the favorite lines he wrote were for Mr. Mean Dude, because “his speech drips with sarcasm.”

“Mr. Mean Dude is not for sale, and is staying with me … for sentimental reasons,” said Michael, who took Mr. Mean Dude to a family wedding in Maryland.

Mr. Mean Dude said (through Michael Sadecky) he has seen a lot of changes in his time as a puppet.

“I used to be carried around in a garbage bag and then a wooden box,” the puppet said. “Now they use a suitcase which has wheels and it is better.

“But I still have to hang upside down.”

The puppet said Michael Sadecky is his favorite.

“He gave me the spotlight, literally,” the puppet said. “On behalf of the puppets we would like to thank all of you for your patronage. We appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. When no one is here we puppets are involved in mischievous doings after dark.

“Since we don’t have any more shows, I am going to lie around and do nothing.”

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