File puptcrit/puptcrit.0905, message 221


From: "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Fri, 15 May 2009 22:36:49 GMT
Subject: [Puptcrit] What Are You Fighting For?


Farrah Fawcett's fight against cancer is on film. Reports are that the film successfully captures her courage & determination to last as long as possible, and that effort is aided by the support of loving friends.

Her story is unique in that her privacy was invaded by tacky tabloids. That was an extra challenge. She reminds us that we are all vulnerable and that none of us gets out of life alive.

Advance report on her film is that she looks at the camera (at us) and asks "What are you (we) fighting for?"

Well, one thing puptcritters are fighting for in Western cultures is RESPECT for puppetry. It continues to be an uphill fight in spite of raging successes like pioneering TV shows (Kukla & Ollie, the Muppet Show, etc) and Broadway's ""Lion King". We have to be prepared to refight the same battle for existence that ohers have.

When the Second Los Angeles Olympics were ending, puppeteer Frank Paris was dying.

It fell to me to look after him the last 3 months, and it could get pretty exhausting
but I got sustained by Frank's courage, and by cards, letters, phone calls and in-person visit to Frank by members of the puppet community from round the United States. After all, we are in this life, TOGETHER.

The only disappointment was Sky Highchief.

I needed to get to the market to buy food for Frank. Sky offered to come to Frank's house so I could do that errand.

At the market, there happened to be an unusually long check-out line. Usually that is supremely annoying, but this time it meant all I could do is wait (do nothing) and it gave me a moment of rest, which I needed.

On my return to Frank's home, Sky was gone, Frank was  in tears. Sky had told him that he "should hurry up and die and make room for younger talent". I later learned that Sky swiped marionettes from the garage which he shipped to Gary Busk in Texas. On the recent Antiques Road Show visit to Gary's home, "Butch the Dog", which Frank used in his final performances, was briefly visible in the background. In Frank's later years I would hand that puppet to Frank from stage wings.

It took me an hour or two to calm poor Frank down. The support of the larger puppet community throughout Frank's illness underlined the fact that WE were fortunate to experience Frank's puppetry talents. He truly knew that a lot of people admired his work, and valued his artistry. His life had meaning for others. The support from decent, caring puppeteers made it possible to clear that evil air left by Sky Highcihef before Frank drifted into a coma, and in a few days he was gone, but he was able to go with a sense of peace.

When Sky died, having begun his mornings wih a glass of Black Velvet Whiskey which he was ordering by the case, he was found on the hall floor in a pool of blood. The State of California assumed that he died without a Will and appointed a couple of ladies to inventory the Estate. They spent a lot of time flipping through a book of polaroids of Sky's naked sexual conquests, oohing and aahing in shocked tones. 

Sky's funeral was postponed until Gary Busk could come from Texas. Deep freeze refrigeration makes such delays possible 

A Will turned up, turning the house over to a friend of Sky's. They had an Entente Agreement, that whoever outlasted the other would get the real estate. The performance puppets from "Hooray For Hollywood" which Sky had performed in a revolving Restaurant at Highland and Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood, went to Pady Blackwood, and smaller puppets went to Gary. I cannot say that Sky had any close puppet friends in California. Distance helped mainain any friendships Sky had.. Pady found Sky to be "amusing", but those who lived near him found it best to avoid him. It is a sad and meaningless life he led.

Here was someone with talent who wasted much of his life resenting other people with talent. He did drugs & booze to excess. And when he chose, he could be very evil---he frightened or intimidated a lot of people, including the executor of Frank's Estate.

One New York puppeteer commented that the world was a better place without Sky---and I guess it really was.

Hic Jacet Sky.

I hope the rest of us continue to fight to make the world better than we found it..


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