Publications
Student Reports - The Yale Puppeteers (Harry Burnett,
Forman Brown, Richard ‘Roddy’ Brandon)
The Yale Puppeteers
by Moe Pomerantz
student paper for
Trends in Contemporary American Puppet Theater
University of Connecticut
1997
In the year 1919 Tony Sarg, the venerable marionettist who influenced
so many of the early American born puppeteers, enthralled yet
another two young men. It happened one afternoon in Ann Arbor.(1)
Harry Burnett and Forman Brown, second cousins as well as roommates
at the University of Michigan, were seeing a form of entertainment
that neither one had had the opportunity to experience before.
Sarg's production of "The Rose and the Ring" in the
university's Natural Science Building so impressed the shy Burnett
that instead of going backstage to simply ask the puppeteers how
it was done, he endeavored to create a working puppet on his own.
The crude marionette, fashioned from a lump of wax and without
hands or feet, had an old tennis racket as a controller.(2) Nicknamed
"Hamlet" this early puppet was the first of literally
thousands that Burnett would design and build for the small troupe
that would eventually become known as the Yale Puppeteers.
From the humble beginnings of "Hamlet" the team of Burnett,
Brown, and Richard (Roddy) Brandon, who joined the team in New
Haven around 1926, created a vital brand of puppetry that flourished
on the road and in various permanent locations for fifty years.
Burnett designed, built, and directed most of their shows, Brown
wrote the lines, lyrics and scores, and Brandon booked the shows
and handled many of the business affairs of the troupe. They all,
however, performed the puppets. While a few other puppeteers worked
with the company for short stints here and there, these three
men were the true forces behind the success of the operation.
Before Burnett decided to attend the Yale School
of Drama (from whence came the name of the Yale Puppeteers in
1927), (3) he and Forman spent several summer vacations touring
their rag-tag little shows all over the countryside immediately
surrounding Ann Arbor. Their bookings became so far reaching that
it became necessary for them to purchase a vehicle in which to
tour overnight. Before this purchase the troupe had to lug all
of their equipment onto the busses which traveled between towns.(4)
One can only imagine the difficulties this method of transportation
must have caused the puppeteers. The summer tours in resort venues
were quite successful and word soon got around that the variety
shows the "Puppeteers from the University of Michigan"
performed were filled with wit and sophisticated humor definitely
not just for the kids. Burnett's talents as a puppeteer were soon
recognized by other puppet companies as well, and during two successive
years he was offered employment with a large touring marionette
company. This company played legitimate theatres, auditoriums,
and opera houses from Mississippi west to Denver, but their shows
were not up to Burnett's artistic sensibilities. Still, it was
money and valuable experience. (5)
During the mid 1920's Forman Brown tried to deny
his inevitable fate to be a puppeteer. He accepted teaching positions
in Michigan and North Carolina and participated in the troupe
only through the written sketches he provided to Burnett. He also
traveled to Europe. Upon his return to the States he related the
sites of his trip to Burnett who became intrigued by the variety
of puppet theatre available to Europeans. A trip of his own ensued
and he returned chock full of inspiration and new ideas for productions.
One idea of particular importance was that of commissioning a
premiere Broadway designer of the time, Norman Bel Geddes, to
design the puppets and sets for a Yale Puppeteers production of
"Bluebeard" and "Hansel and Gretel." This
may have been the first time in America that a designer of such
stature designed for the puppet stage. It seemed a great idea
in the planning stages, but the puppeteers realized after attempting
to mount the shows that while Geddes designed beautiful sets and
puppets for them, they were simply not able to function in a puppet
play. The sets, while elaborate and beautiful to look at, were
more like miniatures for the live theatre with no real attention
paid to how the puppets must be operated within them. Moreover
the stage became complicated and heavy -- unsuitable for the touring
that was planned, in fact already booked. The sets would not even
fit into the anemic one ton truck they had purchased for the tour.
The puppeteers finally resorted to discarding unnecessary pieces
of the set a little at a time along the roadside as they toured
throughout New England. As Forman Brown writes, "The whole
sorry venture ... taught us that the puppet show must be the product
of the puppet artist, not of the stage artist or any other."(6)
Burnett, Brown, and Brandon decided after a disappointing
Florida tour that perhaps a stint in California would do them
some good. The year was 1929 and after some initial resistance
from adult audiences they were able to "break in" with
a new show "My Man Friday." The show and Burnett's so
called puppet portraits of the local movie stars became an immediate
hit and their studio/theatre in Hollywood, dubbed Club Guignol,
quickly became a popular hang out for the celebrity crowd. They
performed to full houses of twenty five on the weekends and toured
the suburbs and gave puppet making lessons during the week. Soon
however, a nosy neighbor who was not appreciative of the activities
of the puppeteers, complained loudly and long enough to the zoning
board, and the Club Guignol was forced to close down. This turned
out to be quite fortunate because it opened the way for the Puppeteers
to move their theatre to a renovated historic building on Olvera
Street in Los Angeles in 1930. This playhouse could seat eighty
instead of twenty five and it was to become known as "Teatro
Torito," or theatre of the little bull after the bullfight
scene that adorned the olio curtain.(7) It was here at the Teatro
Torito that the custom of collecting their more famous patrons'
signatures on a wall of the theatre began.
The Teatro Torito was an unqualified success. Never
before in America had a strictly commercial puppet theatre managed
to support itself so well without touring. So it was a surprise
to many when after two years the Yale Puppeteers decided that
they were tired of the routine and closed up shop on Olvera Street.
Back east they went to try a similar feat in New England. In June
of 1931 a barn in New Hampshire was converted to a theatre and
the shows began. Unfortunately the depth of the Depression in
1931 was so great that the attendance at the Tally-Ho Theatre
was greatly diminished from their expectations. In September the
puppeteers packed up and moved to Manhattan where they assumed
it would be easy to locate a space to set up a permanent theatre.
Of course things were somewhat bumpier than expected and there
was a great deal of bureaucratic red tape and political maneuvering
to be done in order to secure a location. Finally the right strings
were pulled and The Puppet Show, was able to open its doors on
West Forty-sixth Street on December 6, 1932. While the audiences
were as enthusiastic as ever, the houses were often not as full
as the puppeteers were used to and great efforts had to be made
to advertise constantly. Eventually favorable reviews and word
of mouth began to fill the theatre with happy crowds.(8)
During the summer off season the company received
a telegram from the Hollywood studio, Fox, inquiring as to whether
the Yale Puppeteers would be willing to construct the puppets
for the film "I Am Suzanne." The Italian puppet company
Teatro de Piccoli had originally been hired to do all of the building
themselves, but had insisted on a lengthy construction schedule
that the studio did not want to follow. The Yale Puppeteers accepted
the offer to assist with the production and while Burnett and
Brandon built 200 puppets for the film, Forman Brown worked on
the music.(9) Once filming was completed they performed in their
old Teatro Torito for several months before returning to NY to
occupy yet another space in an old church on East Fortieth Street
just east of Lexington Avenue.(10)
Over the next few years the puppeteers had their
hands in a number of projects. Forman Brown began to write special
material for other shows including radio, and the company developed
a musical revue called "It's A Small World," which opened
at the Lyceum Theater in New York.(11)
Eventually the confines of the marionette theatre
began to seem too limiting, and the puppeteers hit upon the idea
of combining puppet theatre and live performers in the same theatre.(12)
They teamed up with Dorothy Neumann to open up the Turnabout Theatre
on July 10, 1941 in Los Angeles. The Turnabout was so called because
of its unique set up with a stage at either end of the house.
A marionette show would begin the presentation on one stage and
then at intermission, while the audience had coffee and refreshments
on the patio, the backs of the streetcar benches on which the
patrons sat would be flipped so the audience would face the other
stage for the second half. On this second stage a live actor production
would take place. There were 184 seats in the theatre on La Cienega
Boulevard and they were constantly filled. The theatre played
six performances a week, fifty weeks a year, and grossed around
$140,000 a year.(13) The theatre building cost ten thousand dollars
to construct and in the first ten months this was paid back to
the building's owner in rent money alone.(14) Even today these
numbers are incredible.
It is obvious that the old fans and friends the
Yale Puppeteers nurtured in their earlier stints in Los Angeles
returned to partake in more fun at the new theatre. In addition
there were plenty of new attendees. The Wall of the Stars returned
with them to the Turnabout, and after 4,535 performances by the
time the theatre closed in 1956, many more signatures were added.
According to the puppeteers, the advent of television in the 1950's
may have had something to do with the drop in attendance at the
theatre in the few years before it closed. Even so, the Yale Puppeteers
did open successful revivals of the Turnabout in the late 1950's
and early 1960's in San Francisco, La Jolla, and Los Angeles.
The Yale Puppeteers were able to provide the necessary
mixture of design artistry, music, business acumen , and creative
wit to be successful in a field where so many are not. Their ability
to find a market and have the tenacity to stick with and believe
in their abilities as performers should be an inspiration to us
all - - not only puppeteers, but to any individual who is driven
by the desire to make their living doing only what they love,
without compromise.
Endnotes
1 The National Capitol Puppetry Guild Calendar,
March 1983
2 Small Wonder, p- 4
3 The Puppeteers, p. 30
4 Small Wonder, p. 8
5 ibid, p. 28
6 Small Wonder, pp. 57 - 66
7 ibid, P. 119
8 Small Wonder, p. 154
9 The Puppeteers, p. 31
10 Small Wonder, p- 172
11 The Puppetry Journal, vol.48 -2, p. 13
12 Small Wonder, p. 183
13 The Puppetry Journal, vol-2- 5,p-6
14 The Puppetry Journal, vol.48 -2, p. 13
References
1. Small Wonder - The Story of the Yale Puppeteers
and the Turnabout Theatre, Forman Brown, The Scarecrow Press,
1980.
2. The Puppetry Journal, vol.2, no.5, The Puppeteers of America
3. The Puppetry Journal, vol.48, no.2, The Puppeteers of America
4. The Puppeteers, Ted Salter, The Puppetry Journal, 1983
5. The National Capitol Puppetry Guild Calendar, 1983
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