The art of pulling strings
In 1932, eight-year-old Bob Baker saw a puppet show of the nursery rhyme “Jack Sprat” at the once-venerable Bullock’s department store on Wilshire Boulevard. Baker was instantly hooked, and returned to see the show several times. The performance errors were what interested him the most – it fascinated him to glimpse the mechanics behind the magic.
Baker soon began training as a puppeteer and by high school, he was building his own marionettes and selling them around the world. After graduating, he worked extensively in animation, which led to a friendship with Walt Disney, for whom he created puppets of Mickey and his pals for the newly opened Disneyland. His puppets were also featured in many well-known movies, including A Star is Born, Bedknobs and Broomstricks, Star Trek, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Info
Address 1345 W 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026, +1 213.250.9995, www.bobbakermarionettes.com, bobbakermarionettes@gmail.com | Getting there Paid lot; metered and unmetered street parking | Hours Performance times and dates vary; check website for details.| Tip Around the corner is the tidy Vista Hermosa Natural Park (100 N Toluca Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026), 10.5 acres of trails and meadows, with a view of Downtown LA rising in the background. Please stay alert to the potential realities of an urban park.
Baker died in 1975, but 3,000 of his handmade puppets live on at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. Opened in 1962, it is the oldest puppet theater in America. Each puppet is meticulously designed, existing as a specific character for a specific story, strung to perform the necessary behavior. One of Baker’s most famous shows, Balloon Clown, features “Pierre le Feu,” who grabs on to an air-filled orb. As Pierre floats up, the whimsical music crescendos, until his ride pops, and he plummets to the ground, weeping.
During each performance, the theater remains dark while the dolls are spotlit. The puppeteers, dressed in black, are meant to disappear, allowing the marionettes to have full focus. But, it’s irresistible to glance up at the earnest faces of the puppet masters dancing with their muses. In fact, observing the delicate manipulation of the marionettes creates a charming lack of illusion. The sincerity and wonder of it all offers a welcome respite from the modern world of screens and emojis.
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