Ernie Coombs is Mr Dress-up

Mr. Dressup was a Canadian children's television series which was produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1967 to 1996. (The title was also presented as Mr. Dress Up or Mr. Dress-Up in media and spin-off merchandise.)

The series starred Ernie Coombs (an American who later became a Canadian citizen) as Mr. Dressup, a character who had started on the earlier series Butternut Square. The show aired every weekday morning, and each day Mr. Dressup would lead children through a series of songs, stories, arts, crafts and imagination games, with the help of his friends Casey and Finnegan, a child and a dog who lived in a treehouse in the back yard. Judith Lawrence was the puppeteer who brought Casey and Finnegan, along with other occasional puppet visitors like Alligator Al and Aunt Bird, to life. While Casey is often thought to be a boy, the puppet's gender was never officially stated. However, in at least one episode, Mr. Dressup can be heard referring to Casey as "he".Mr. Dressup Tickle Trunk Treasures (Blue) DVD (ISBN 1-55259-227-8) from CBC Home Video The reason behind this was so that children of either sex could identify with the puppet. The set for the show included the inside of Mr. Dressup's house, with scenes shot in the living room, kitchen, and a kind of play room that included the Tickle Trunk (where costumes used in make-believe skits were stored) and a long counter where Casey and Finnegan often appeared. Sometimes, the action moved outside to Casey and Finnegan's treehouse.

Mr. Dressup's most famous segment featured his Tickle Trunk, from which he would get a costume. It might be an animal costume, or a policeman's or fireman's uniform, or some other outfit in which he could dress up and play whatever role was suggested by the costume. Occasionally, the Tickle Trunk would not open, in which case Mr. Dressup sang a song which ended in him tickling the lock, hence its name. The trunk appeared to be magic as it always had the right costumes, in the right sizes, neatly folded at the top of the piles of costumes. Occasionally Mr. Dressup would need to make an accessory for his costume, such as a hat, which would lead to a craft.

Mr. Dressup would usually create some kind of drawing or craft and sing a song with the puppets, such as "Down by the Bay". On occasion, Mr. Dressup would also read a book or show a short documentary to the audience. The films were usually silent and Mr. Dressup would narrate in order to explain events. He would frequently draw pictures on his drawing board to either tell a short story or to play a game with one of his visitors. He would frequently encourage children to try the craft at home or to sing along with the songs.

In later years, Judith Lawrence chose to retire from the show. Rather than cast a new puppeteer in the roles of Casey and Finnegan a team of new puppeteers were brought in, including Karen Valleau (Chester the Crow), Nina Keogh (Truffles), Jani Lauzon (Granny), Cheryl Wagner, and later, Ruth Danziger (Annie), Jim Parker (Alex) and Bob Dermer (Lorenzo the Raccoon). The new characters would visit Mr. Dressup, and over time, became the lead characters, as Casey and Finnegan appeared less and less in the show until they quit appearing altogether. This was done gradually so children wouldn't notice the absence of Lawrence's beloved Casey and Finnegan characters upon her retirement. When Casey and Finnegan stopped appearing on the show it was explained on screen that Casey and Finnegan were now attending kindergarten. With the addition of new characters, new sets were also added including the community centre and the trading post.

The final episode of Mr. Dressup was taped on February 14, 1996. Coombs spent most of the next few years touring college campuses giving talks about his time on the show (his target audience being students who grew up with his series), before he died of a stroke on September 18, 2001, in Toronto, Ontario at the age of 73.

Rebroadcasts of the series continued for a decade after it ended, until the CBC announced that it was taking Mr. Dressup out of its weekday morning lineup and moving it to Sunday mornings effective July 3, 2006. The final repeat telecast aired on September 3, 2006. The CBC plans on continuing to release select episodes on DVD.[http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/06/14/mr-dressup.html]

Due to the long run of the series, several generations of Canadian children, as well as kids growing up in northern regions of the United States which received the CBC signal, grew up watching Mr. Dressup and his adventures. Ernie Coombs and the character of Mr. Dressup have become strong Canadian icons and a part of Canadian pop culture.

Ernest "Ernie" Coombs, CM (November 26, 1927 - September 18, 2001) was a children's entertainer, best known for the long-running Canadian television series Mr. Dressup.

Ernest Coombs was born in Lewiston, Maine, and pursued a career in children's entertainment after attending North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth, Maine. As an understudy to Fred Rogers, he travelled to Canada in 1963 to work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on an early version of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Rogers moved back to the United States the following year, but Coombs decided to stay in Canada, joining a new show called Butternut Square. Butternut Square ran from 1964 to 1967.

After Butternut Square ended, Coombs developed Mr. Dressup, which became one of English Canadas longest-running and most beloved children's programs. As Mr. Dressup, he presented arts and crafts, songs, stories and games for children with his friends Casey and Finnegan, a child and a dog who lived in a treehouse in Mr. Dressup's back yard. Casey wasn't given a unisex name intentionally, but it was a serendipitous choice because the character's childlike voice left Casey's gender ambiguous. Over the years, when viewers would ask Coombs whether Casey was a boy or a girl, he would ask, "What do you think?" However the questioner responded, he would say, "You're right!"

Later in the series, when the show's principal puppeteer, Judith Lawrence, retired, Casey and Finnegan were replaced by a small cast of anthropomorphic animal puppets. Coombs believed very strongly in gentle, wholesome children's programming that encouraged kids to use their creativity and imagination. In each episode, Mr. Dressup would dress up (hence his name) in a costume from his Tickle Trunk, and lead children in an imagination game. Many times his puppets would also appear in costume as well.

Coombs was granted Canadian citizenship in 1994. The series continued production until its final taping in February 1996, when Coombs retired. The same year, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada. Repeats continued to be shown on CBC Television until they were discontinued in 2006.

After retirement, Coombs continued to work as an entertainer, playing roles in Ross Petty's Christmas productions of Peter Pan, Cinderella and Aladdin, and acted as a spokesman for children's charities.

Coombs also did a travelling stage show called "Tales from the Tickle Trunk." In this show he would share stories about the making of the Mr. Dressup show, as well as the origins, and fates, of some of the characters.

Coombs lived with his family in the Toronto suburb of Pickering. His wife Marlene ran an exclusive day care in downtown Toronto, called the Butternut Nursery School, until she was killed in a freak traffic accident in 1992; she was walking on the sidewalk of Yonge Street in Toronto, when the driver of the vehicle that hit her, had a seizure and the vehicle went out of control, jumped the curb and struck her.

Coombs suffered a stroke on September 10, 2001, and died on September 18, 2001 in Toronto, Ontario at the age of 73.