File puptcrit/puptcrit.0802, message 305


Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:00:55 -0500
From: Mary Horsley <mphorsley-AT-earthlink.net>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] puppeteers for school assemblies and other markets


Like I said, do more plays at museums and theatres so I can take the kids on
a field trip.......

Mary


On 2/8/08 12:10 PM, "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com> wrote:

> Robert Rogers hit a nail on the head, suggesting that (at least some)
> puppeteers/performers for school audiences had been vaudeville performers who
> had to find new markets for their talents as vaudeville disappeared. But there
> are other nails to pound too.There were other places for vaudevillians  to
> perform as well. The best money for some was in radio, movies and ultimately
> TV. Puppet-wise, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy were hugely popular on radio.
> (Since the radio audience could not see him, who cared if you saw Bergen's
> lips moving?)
> 
>  But Tony Sarg's company appeared in school auditoriums and civic auditoriums
> (including The Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California) a decade or 2 BEFORE
> vaudeville died.
> 
>  School assemblies were part of my growing up-experence and we did our own
> puppet shows, and school plays and we watched ex-vaudevillians concert artists
> and speakers do monologues, sing or play musical  instruments, deliver
> lectures, etc. because in those days educators actually recognized the
> educational value of such things. The current crop of educators has too many
> phonies in charge.
> 
> Vaudeville was not the only big market for puppets . Churches offered cultural
> events to the community.  Small and large company picnics or holiday parties
> might feature puppeteers and other entertainers. And puppet shows were used by
> companies as a means of advertising.  Department stores had auditoriums which
> offered a variety of programs including puppet shows, to attract shoppers into
> their buildings. When I was a kid, ALL the major Los Angeles Department Stores
> had at least one puppet show a year: Bullocks Store had Nickanellie Puppets
> EVERY Saturday, Robinsons Store used puppets periodically (Snow White was a
> tie-in with the first release of Disney's version with Wayne Barlow
> marionettes, and the pattern repeated when Disney's "Dumbo" first opened.
> There was a wandering guy dressed as a sailor at Robinsons, followed about by
> a live penguin and every so often he would go to a puppet booth and perform
> Punch & Judy, and sell swazzles after the performance for 10 cents---I could
> never get mine to work right.
> 
> May Company's performance space also presented a Chimpanzee show, Bob Baker
> did a puppet circus at the 5th Street Store which stopped traffic in Los
> Angeles just as Tatterman's marionette Jantzen's Swim Suit fashion show
> stopped traffic in a window show in New York City.
> 
> There are so many examples of puppetry being used in deparment stores, and the
> tradition did not stop all at once. I did a puppet exhibit for the Broadway
> Store in downtown Los Angeles in the 1960s, Nancy Henk performed at Hudsons in
> Detroit in later years too.
> 
> The age of the great department stores in the USA has pretty much passed with
> a few exceptions. Macy's mother store still has Nick Copolla's Christmas show
> I guess (correct me on this one if I am misinformed) (I saw it quite a while
> ago) and I bought a rare Punch & Judy book at that store's book department.
> But most department stores are now a ghost of what they used to be or they are
> completely dead.
> 
> Amusement Parks have offered new venues, but Punch & Judy have long found
> audiences at fairs, and amusement parks in the distant past also.
> 
> My junior high school's head janitor had been a vaudevillian, and for a school
> talent show trod the boards one more time with his (non-puppet) act, giving us
> a taste of the past (which in my opnion is automatically EDUCATIONAL).
> 
> The Chataqua Movement, which brought "edifying presentations" to communities
> coexisted with the vaudeville age. Puppets were presented as well as musical
> programs and lectures. Ditto for community concerts (Daniel Llords'
> marionettes performed for them, as well as the once numerous Women's Clubs.)
> 
> And many librairies continue to support puppets in spite of budget cuts.
> 
> So the markets change continually, yet in some ways stay the same. Museums
> have also provided venues for puppet shows.
> 
> One recurring problem: when one generation of program bookers dies off there
> is usually a lack of continuity, and the old wheels have to be reinvented over
> time by the new people in charge. That is true of museum exhibit bookers too.
> More than once I'd been asked  "What? A PUPPET EXHIBIT in our museum?" and I
> could point out that such things were very popular in the 1930s (in one case
> at the same museum ! ! ! ).
> 
> There used to be more puppets at State and County Fairs, but Nancy Mitchell
> keeps busy on this circuit, Lynn Sliski helped maintain the tradition.
> 
> While things change for puppetry, not always for the better, good stuff does
> not all stop at once. And we get stuck with having to educate those in charge
> of the current markets in order to keep the good stuff.
> 
> ALAN COOK
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: robertrogers-AT-robertrogerspuppets.com
> Sent: Friday, February 8, 2008 5:26 AM
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Subject: [Puptcrit] frustration
> 
> Well, I think that over the past few days, the discussion has gone from
> concern over the shrinking school market to frustration with American
> politics.  We've all made valid points, but what I get from all of it is
> that puppeteers are a very dedicated bunch of people, and that puppetry,
> being more than a job, is something we all take to heart.
> 
> I've always felt (just a hunch) that the school market came about as the
> world of vaudeville faced its demise.  Just think of all those performers
> who had no place to show their skills.  Many took jobs in other fields,
> some found that they could market themselves as providers of cultural
> enrichment.  Now, that avenue of employment is disappearing.
> 
> If we get a Democrat in the White House in 2009, I'm not so sure that the
> pendulum will swing back for arts in education - at least any time soon.
> America is too deep in debt.  And when will people come to their senses
> and realize that political correctness has gone to far?  That issue
> affects puppeteers as well.
> 
> We've got to adapt and find new markets and new audiences.  Perhaps find
> new material, and even change the style in which we express ourselves.
> 
> Oh well, I'd better get off the soapbox and get back to work.
> 
> Take care all,
> 
> Robert Rogers
> 
> 
> 
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