From: LaughingEgg-AT-webtv.net (Stephen Weber)
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 09:22:34 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: PUPT: Bil Baird............


Hi Conrad and all,

   The fact that Bil detested Howdy Doody is no secret...and the show's
overwhelming popularity was a major rasberry seed in his wisdom tooth.

I don't think that Bil would have been quite so irked had the Howdy
Doody program been a showcase for really good puppetry..which it
certainly wasn't. The marionette manipulation was undoubtedly the worst
that one would have ever hoped to see...anywhere.   That did not however
prevent the show from touching millions of children.

Howdy Doody certainly outshadowed anything
that Bil and Cora Baird did on television in the fifties...COMMERCIALLY
speaking.... But most definitely NOT artistically.   The reason for
Howdy Doody's exclusion from the "Art of the Puppet" should be
obvious....the book is about the "ART" of puppetry, something for which
the Howdy Doody program 'had scant relish'.



                              Peace,

                         Steve Weber
                The Laughing Egg Studio

      



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