Everything I Need to Know I Learned from The Letter People Sep 2, 2025

When you mention "The Letter People" to a 50-year-old who experienced them as a child, their eyes widen with excitement. Here's why... Pre-dating "Sesame Street," teacher Elayne Reiss-Weimann devised a way for her severely struggling students to learn the basic elements of reading. The result, with aid from her co-teacher Rita Friedman, was The Letter People - a national phenomenon throughout the 1970s and 80s in kindergarten & first grade classrooms. Kids fell madly in love with the inflatable characters — The Huggables — whom they believed were alive. It invented techniques that are used by other reading programs to this day! Watch this amazing story told by Elayne, original publisher Dr. Bernard Kauderer, and others who brought the program to life & turned it into a pop culture sensation.