BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Puppetry in America (phase 1 of 2)

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Puppetry in America (phase 1 of 2):

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Description of Pictures: Puppetry in America
December 13, 2013 – March 26, 2014 (new closing date)
Howdy Doody and Kermit are only two of the beloved and familiar puppets in the museum's collection. Learn about the history and variety of puppets from marionettes and hand puppets to shadow puppets and ventriloquist figures, and learn about the role of significant puppets in American culture. Other highlights include Oscar the Grouch, ventriloquist's puppet Charlie McCarthy, and Cosmo Allegretti’s Bunny Rabbit and Mister Moose from Captain Kangaroo.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIAHPU_131214_005.JPG: Puppets on Stage: Puppetry is one of the oldest types of performance art in America. The earliest traditions were imitations of old world forms brought to this country by immigrants from Italy, France, and Great Britain. Itinerant 18th- and 19th-century American puppeteers constructed puppets and stages for portability as they moved from town to town, performing anywhere from formal theaters to the spontaneous atmospheres of taverns, city street corners, and fairs. By the early 20th century, audiences would travel to established vaudeville stages to see puppets of all kinds that prompted both laughter and tears.
2. SIAHPU_131214_012.JPG: SHADOW PUPPETS Shadow puppetry is an ancient art form that originated in Asian cultures. A flexible, two-dimentional cutout figure is controlled by rods, performing behind a backlit translucent screen. By skillful manipulation, the unseen pupeteer magically brings to life the shadows cast on the screen byt eh puppet and light source. Lion shadow puppet, about 1850: Early Chinese shadow puppets were made of paper. Later, animal hide was used, for increased durability and detail. The puppet master created the design by piercing the leather. This mid-19th-century figure appears to be a hybrid of a lion and a qiln (a mythical unicorn beast). Shadow puppetry continues today throughout the world, particularly in shows such as the 1997 smash Broadway hit The Lion King.
3. SIAHPU_131214_022.JPG: HAND PUPPETS: Usually made of cloth, a hand puppet is a flexible, glove-like structure. The puppeteer inserts a hand and manipulates the figure by moving fingers and wrist. This method can be traced to prehistoric times, when storytellers used their hands to make shadows to illustrate their tales. It evolved evolved into the use of highly sophisticated objects of wood, plastic, paint, and fabric. Punch and Judy, about 1890: Two traditional hand puppets are the quarreling duo of Punch and Judy, rooted in the knockabout traditions of the 17th-century Italian commedia dell'arte and the 18th-century British theater. Intended largely for adult audiences, their shows were criticized for comic violence. This puppet set was crafted by the Reverend W. E. Hitchcock of Massachusetts, an itinerant minister/showman. He inverted the bawdy stories and used the figures to present plays preaching proper moral behavior.
4. SIAHPU_131214_030.JPG: ROD PUPPETS: A rod puppet has external wooden sticks or wire rods attached, allowing the puppeteer to manipulate its movements. Some puppets, notably those created by Jim Henson, combine both hand and rod manipulation. Slugger Ryan, about 1970: Slugger Ryan, a honky-tonk musician, was inspired by pop music and jazz composer Hoagy Carmichael and created by Bil Baird. Slugger Ryan first appeared in the late 1930s in the stage shows at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Master puppeteer Baird sculpted hundreds of puppets for live theater, film, and television during his long career. He is perhaps best known for creating the marionettes for "The Lonely Goatherd" sequence in the 1965 film The Sound of Music.
5. SIAHPU_131214_043.JPG: FINGER PUPPETS: Animated simply by wiggling, a finger puppet is a sheath of cloth, paper, or rubber that fits over a single finger. It normally has no moving parts such as arms or legs. This form is generally used for toys. Pinokio and Pinokiann, about 1938: The finger puppets Pinokio and Pinokiann are constructed of wood and fabric to resemble a boy and girl in traditional Dutch costume. Puppeteer and entrepreneur Hazelle Hedges Rollins made them. She created the only puppet factory in the United States and one of the largest in the world.
6. SIAHPU_131214_054.JPG: PAPER PUPPETS: Intended as inexpensive children's toys, paper puppets are either cutout figures mounted on sticks or decorated paper bags. Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, about 1935: These paper puppets of fairy tale characters Red Riding Hood and the Wolf are cutout color prints mounted on cardboard. They are manipulated by a cardboard stick extending through a slot at the bottom of the puppet.
7. SIAHPU_131214_057.JPG: MARIONETTES: Marionettes are manipulated from above the stage using wires or strings usually attached to a horizontal control bar, often called an airplane control because of its shape. A usually unseen puppeteer operates the bar. The French term dates from around 1600 and translates as "little Mary," in recognition of the Virgin Mary, one of the first figures used as a stringed puppet in church morality plays. Perez and Martina, 1942: Philadelphia artists Frank and Elizabeth Haines took up puppetry in the early 1930s and created hundreds of marionettes. One play they developed was inspired by a Puerto Rican folktale about the romance of a mouse and a cockroach. The Haines also devised a supporting cast that includes the grim-faced Se�ora Duenna Beetle -- Martina's maidservant-guardian -- and the elegantly attired M'sieu Frog.
8. SIAHPU_131214_074.JPG: Puppetry in America: The art of puppetry relies on the harmonious relationship of a puppet, a puppeteer's imaginative manipulation, and an audience whose willing suspension of disbelief allows it to accept the puppet's actions as "real." American puppetry is unique. It's many styles and techniques combine ancient and immigrant traditions, homegrown innovations, and the influences of electronic media.
9. SIAHPU_131214_081.JPG: VENTRILOQUIST PUPPETS: Ventriloquist puppets can take a number of forms, such as a hand puppet or a stuffed creature; the type we know best is a large doll. All have a "conversation" with the puppeteer, achieved by the latter's ability to alter his speech, making it appear to come from the mouth of the puppet. This is the art of "throwing one's voice." Charlie McCarthy, 1936: Edgar Bergen and his wooden alter ego Charlie McCarthy, created in 1922, achieved wild popularity through their radio appearances. Fashioned as a newsboy, McCarthy changed to a bon vivant, inspired by Esky, the cartoon symbol of Esquire magazine. Bergen played straight man to McCarthy's antics. Superbly marketed through commercial products, McCarthy and Bergen were popular with audiences of all ages.
10. SIAHPU_131214_091.JPG: MARIONETTES: Marionettes are manipulated from above the stage using wires or strings usually attached to a horizontal control bar, often called an airplane control because of its shape. A usually unseen puppeteer operates the bar. The French term dates from around 1600 and translates as "little Mary," in recognition of the Virgin Mary, one of the first figures used as a stringed puppet in church morality plays. Howdy Doody, 1949: From 1947 to 1960, The Howdy Doody Show was the leading children's TV program. The creator of Howdy Doody, "Buffalo" Bob Smith, first performed him as a radio voice; Frank Paris transformed the voice into a TV puppet. In 1948, Paris left the show in a dispute about merchandising rights. Velma Dawson created a new Howdy Doody. Rufus and Margo Rose built this marionette with parts from the Dawson puppet.
11. SIAHPU_131214_110.JPG: HAND PUPPETS: Usually made of cloth, a hand puppet is a flexible, glove-like structure. The puppeteer inserts a hand and manipulates the figure by moving fingers and wrist. This method can be traced to prehistoric times, when storytellers used their hands to make shadows to illustrate their tales. It evolved evolved into the use of highly sophisticated objects of wood, plastic, paint, and fabric. Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit, 1955: The mischievous Bunny Rabbit and goofy Mr. Moose were created by puppeteer Cosmo Allegretti for the children's TV series Captain Kangaroo (1955-84). Bob Keeshan created the show and starred as the title character. The Captain engaged the puppets in conversations aimed at teaching moral lessons to young viewers. The talks were staged with the Captain standing in front of a large rectangular counter and puppeteer Allegretti crouching behind it to operate the puppets.
12. SIAHPU_131214_121.JPG: Sam and Friends, 1955: Jim Henson's earliest puppets appeared on Sam and Friends, a five-minute television show seen in Washington, D.C., from 1955 and 1962. This group had the first version of Kermit, then a lizard-like creature. The cast also included Sam, Icky Gunk, Harry the Hipster, Yorick, Chicken Liver, Professor Madcliffe, Mushmellon, Moldy Hay, and Pierre the French Rat (the oldest surviving Muppet). Prairie Dawn, 1971: Sweet-faced Prairie Dawn is a hand-rod puppet created by Jim Henson for the innovative children's educational television series Sesame Street. She is a precocious, piano-playing seven-year-old who loves to write and direct school pageants featuring her Muppet friends. The antics of Prairie Dawn and other Muppet figures are key to the enduring popularity of Sesame Street.
13. SIAHPU_131214_124.JPG: Prairie Dawn, 1971: Sweet-faced Prairie Dawn is a hand-rod puppet created by Jim Henson for the innovative children's educational television series Sesame Street. She is a precocious, piano-playing seven-year-old who loves to write and direct school pageants featuring her Muppet friends. The antics of Prairie Dawn and other Muppet figures are key to the enduring popularity of Sesame Street. HAND-ROD PUPPETS: Hand-rod puppets are animated from below the stage or the lens of the television camera. The puppeteer inserts one hand into the puppet's body, controlling its head. The other hand manipulates rods attached to the puppet's hands. Large puppets may require two people, one to operate the puppet's head and body and a rod attached to its arm, and another puppeteer to operate the other arm.
14. SIAHPU_131214_171.JPG: STOP-MOTION PUPPETS: Stop-motion puppets are three-dimensional figures made of either carved wood and plastic or a clay substance molded on a wire shape. The puppeteer poses and re-poses the puppets in progressive phases of movement and documents each movement on a single frame of film. The film is then projected at the correct speed, creating the illusion of animation. Corpse Bride, 2005: The use of stop-motion puppets in films is given a glorious turn in producer-director Tim Burton's 2005 Corpse Bride, a gently macabre Victorian fairy tale. Graham G. Maiden and the British firm Mackinnon and Saunders transformed Burton's vision into intricate puppets made of metal, silicone, and fabric. The supporting characters shown here are a male and female zombie, Widow Munch, and Green Grocer.
15. SIAHPU_131214_174.JPG: Tubby the Tuba, 1947: Of George Pal's nearly fifty Puppetoon film shorts, one of the most famous is the 1947 Tubby the Tuba, a fantasy about the instruments in a symphony orchestra. This Tubby the Tuba puppet is paired with a wise frog that counsels Tubby. They are surrounded by a trio of miniature stringed instruments.
16. SIAHPU_131214_181.JPG: Puppets on Radio, Film, and Television: Beginning in the 1930s, new media provided wider audiences for America's most well-known puppeteers and puppets. New techniques were developed to match the immediacy afforded by the microphone and camera. Edgar Bergen and his puppet Charlie McCarthy entered American homes via radio broadcasts. George Pal pioneered a groundbreaking system of stop-motion puppetry on film. Jim Henson's techniques grew out of his fascination with the technology of television; he achieved intimacy by freeing his characters from the confines of the traditional puppet stage and animating them through his experiments with the focus of the TV camera and TV monitor.
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