File puptcrit/puptcrit.0907, message 60


From: "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:02:07 GMT
Subject: [Puptcrit] Yale Puppeteers: where are the puppets now?




Harry Burnett had what must have been hundreds of puppets. When Turnabout Theater closed in the mid 1950s, many things were stored at Jungleland in Thousand Oaks, California in a large moving van that you could see while driving on the highway. It looked like a billboard, with the JUNGLELAND name painted in large letters on the van's side..

Some local kids broke into the van. Puppets and valuable photo documentation (lots of negatives) were scattered along railroad tracks. Antique Italian hand puppets "were found" and taken to a local antique store. Puppeteer Susan French bought them there. See her book, "Presenting Marionettes" published by Reinhold as part of a "how-to" series of art books---photos are in the book.

Eventually Susan returned the antique hand puppets to Harry. (I recognized the puppets when she showed them to me).

Later the Yale group sold them.
I wish there had been a more orderly disposal of the Yale Puppet & Art holdings.

A 1930s portrait puppet of Gretta Garbo may have ended up in a San Francisco shop which was closed when I passed by its windows.

Before the US Dollar dropped suddenly in value, Harry, Forman & Roddy decided to retire to Europe  and sold off lots of stuff.Much of it at insanely cheap prices. Roddy sold many marionettes from past productions at around $20 to $35 each to local  puppeteers and fans of the Turnabout. On weekends at a closed gas station in the vicinity of La Cienega Blvd & Melrose Avenue, Roddy priced puppets as low as $3 each (I missed out on that). There were some marvelous old Sicilian Puppets in armor which Roddy sold to an antique shop on La Cienega Blvd which later ended up in a restaurant in San Francisco as decor. Those had been purchased during an early trip to Europe in the 1920s when Harry acqired posters of the Yambo troupe (Italy)--I now have one Yambo poster and Bob Baker has a duplicate--the poster image once decorated the curtain of the Yale Theater on Olvera Street in 1930!
Bob Baker also has a French movie poster for "I Am Suzanne" which featured marionettes by the Yale Puppeteers and the Piccoli Theater (Milan/Rome, Italy) in the 1930s which he got from Roddy Brandon.

Charles Taylor managed to preserve some Neopolitan creche figures Harry brought back from that same 1920s trip.

Well, some of the history is preserved in Forman Brown's books, "Punch's Progress", and "Small Wonders" which incorporates and expands on "Punch's Progress". A novel, "Better Angel" by Richard Meeker and published by Greenburg (same publisher for a Tony Sarg book) in New York, was later reprinted first as a paperback with a garish color cover, and then by Allyson (spelling?) Books, and found a new generation of readers---even got written up in the Los Angeles Times, when it came to public attention that Richard Meeker was a pen name for Forman Brown---and there is a thinly-veiled biographical aspect to the novel set in the time frame of that 1920s trip to Europe.

When "Better Angel" was republished, it was I who told Forman his book was back in print. He did a few book signings and at this late date, got interviwed by the Los Angeles Times.

Between the theft at Jungleland and various sell-offs before the later trip to Europe, a lot of stuff was widely scattered.

Many of the marionettes were poorly stored (1960s) in their Hollywood garage before being sold.

I was able to buy a number of figures from as many of the shows as I could manage on a measley income,  including a portrait of Helen Hayes as Queen Victoria (Movie: "The Mudlark"). But basically stuff was scattered to the winds. Roddy Brandon was the Business Manager but he could have managed a lot better. A hell of a lot better.

When the trio (Harry, Roddy & Forman) realized that they could not afford to remain in Europe, they came back to Los Angeles. Fortunately they still had some good examples of Turnabout marionettes which were displayed in their rented home on El Centro Street in Hollywood, along with many, many historic photos of movie stars and celebrities.

The Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry had many meetings in that house. Forman & Harry put on private performances in the living room which felt a bit like a theater, with a platform on the south side where Forman's piano was. Elsa Lanchester and Michael Feinstein might show up.

So some of the old glory lingered.

Today, the Los Angeles Public Library has many of the old photos and remaining marionettes which had been in Turnabout House. The Universiy of Texas in Austin acquired many important papers.

But I wish things had been kept together in Hollywood.

So for now, no-one knows where a lot of the stuff went.


HTML VERSION:

Harry Burnett had what must have been hundreds of puppets. When Turnabout Theater closed in the mid 1950s, many things were stored at Jungleland in Thousand Oaks, California in a large moving van that you could see while driving on the highway. It looked like a billboard, with the JUNGLELAND name painted in large letters on the van's side..

Some local kids broke into the van. Puppets and valuable photo documentation (lots of negatives) were scattered along railroad tracks. Antique Italian hand puppets "were found" and taken to a local antique store. Puppeteer Susan French bought them there. See her book, "Presenting Marionettes" published by Reinhold as part of a "how-to" series of art books---photos are in the book.

Eventually Susan returned the antique hand puppets to Harry. (I recognized the puppets when she showed them to me).

Later the Yale group sold them.
I wish there had been a more orderly disposal of the Yale Puppet & Art holdings.

A 1930s portrait puppet of Gretta Garbo may have ended up in a San Francisco shop which was closed when I passed by its windows.

Before the US Dollar dropped suddenly in value, Harry, Forman & Roddy decided to retire to Europe  and sold off lots of stuff.Much of it at insanely cheap prices. Roddy sold many marionettes from past productions at around $20 to $35 each to local  puppeteers and fans of the Turnabout. On weekends at a closed gas station in the vicinity of La Cienega Blvd & Melrose Avenue, Roddy priced puppets as low as $3 each (I missed out on that). There were some marvelous old Sicilian Puppets in armor which Roddy sold to an antique shop on La Cienega Blvd which later ended up in a restaurant in San Francisco as decor. Those had been purchased during an early trip to Europe in the 1920s when Harry acqired posters of the Yambo troupe (Italy)--I now have one Yambo poster and Bob Baker has a duplicate--the poster image once decorated the curtain of the Yale Theater on Olvera Street in 1930!
Bob Baker also has a French movie poster for "I Am Suzanne" which featured marionettes by the Yale Puppeteers and the Piccoli Theater (Milan/Rome, Italy) in the 1930s which he got from Roddy Brandon.

Charles Taylor managed to preserve some Neopolitan creche figures Harry brought back from that same 1920s trip.

Well, some of the history is preserved in Forman Brown's books, "Punch's Progress", and "Small Wonders" which incorporates and expands on "Punch's Progress". A novel, "Better Angel" by Richard Meeker and published by Greenburg (same publisher for a Tony Sarg book) in New York, was later reprinted first as a paperback with a garish color cover, and then by Allyson (spelling?) Books, and found a new generation of readers---even got written up in the Los Angeles Times, when it came to public attention that Richard Meeker was a pen name for Forman Brown---and there is a thinly-veiled biographical aspect to the novel set in the time frame of that 1920s trip to Europe.

When "Better Angel" was republished, it was I who told Forman his book was back in print. He did a few book signings and at this late date, got interviwed by the Los Angeles Times.

Between the theft at Jungleland and various sell-offs before the later trip to Europe, a lot of stuff was widely scattered.

Many of the marionettes were poorly stored (1960s) in their Hollywood garage before being sold.

I was able to buy a number of figures from as many of the shows as I could manage on a measley income,  including a portrait of Helen Hayes as Queen Victoria (Movie: "The Mudlark"). But basically stuff was scattered to the winds. Roddy Brandon was the Business Manager but he could have managed a lot better. A hell of a lot better.

When the trio (Harry, Roddy & Forman) realized that they could not afford to remain in Europe, they came back to Los Angeles. Fortunately they still had some good examples of Turnabout marionettes which were displayed in their rented home on El Centro Street in Hollywood, along with many, many historic photos of movie stars and celebrities.

The Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry had many meetings in that house. Forman & Harry put on private performances in the living room which felt a bit like a theater, with a platform on the south side where Forman's piano was. Elsa Lanchester and Michael Feinstein might show up.

So some of the old glory lingered.

Today, the Los Angeles Public Library has many of the old photos and remaining marionettes which had been in Turnabout House. The Universiy of Texas in Austin acquired many important papers.

But I wish things had been kept together in Hollywood.

So for now, no-one knows where a lot of the stuff went.
_______________________________________________
List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit
Archives: http://www.driftline.org



   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005