The Professor's Background
A story of origins.
How a puppeteer comes to be.
Charles Taylor has spent six decades perfecting the art of puppetry in its many forms. He began as a young boy.
Will this melon make a puppet?
Blame "Howdy Doody"
A birthday gift of a "Howdy Doody" puppet encouraged him. (Baby boomers will remember this popular childrens' television program but may not know that the Howdy Doody marionette was made by famed puppeteer Velma Dawson in three days for $300.) Our hero was fascinated by the puppet.
Study of the Art
In the summer of 1951, at age 11, he took puppetry lessons at South Gate Park from Barry Campbell. As a teenager, he created puppet shows at school.At age 17, he joined the L.A. Puppet Guild and met Harry Burnett, member of the Yale Puppeteers & a founder of the famed "Turnabout Theater" in Hollywood.
While studying at L.A. City College, he continued to work with Burnett. It was too good to resist, even with a heavy class load. He became the youngest stage manager in Los Angeles at the time.
Apprenticeship
Recognizing a gifted talent, Burnett took him on as an apprentice.
 Charles, Goose & Harry |
 Do these puppets look familiar? |
He mastered the many arts included included in puppetry: sculpture, paint, lighting, writing, acting & directing. He became stage manager at Turnabout, the youngest in Los Angeles.
A famous moose, made for Jay Ward
production of "Bullwinkle".
He worked at the Sunset Cabaret Theater and appeared on the Steve Allen & Merv Griffin shows.
Higher Education
In the meantime, he continued his academic studies, and attained a Masters degree in Fine Arts -- the first in interdisciplinary use of puppets. The Professor is one of the few to hold an advanced degree in puppetry.
"Morning in the Zoo", a Master's Thesis
Academic Honors
- Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
- Dean's list 1974,
Practice, Practice, Practice!
 King & Witch, 1958 |
 Bubble blower clown, 1958 |
 Revue, 1963 (In ostrich suit) |
1965 poster |
3rd grade audience 1975 |
Puppets, Poupee or Poupon? |
1975 |
1975 Cal State Fullerton Fine Arts magazine article |
I'm just a little girl, looking for a little boy |
Key Accomplishments
Stage manager, Turnabout Theater, 1959
Youngest stage manager in Los Angeles.
"An evening with Marion Bell", star of Brigadoon, 1961
Fiona of Brigadoon""
This special Turnabout Theater event, with musical accompaniment by Forman Brown celebrated Ms. Bell's return to the stage after a 10-year absence and featured a marionette show of the hit Broadway musical.
Ali Baba, 1959
Script, music & lyrics by Forman Brown.
Bodies & heads
This harem dancer marionette is said to have inspired Rudy Gernreich's 1964 design of the "topless" look in swimsuits ("monokini") and evening wear. The costume was made of materials donated by Elsa Lanchester.
Mother Goose, 1960
Script, music & lyrics by Forman Brown.
Zippity Zoo, 1965
Hansel & Gretel, 1968
Black Red Riding Hood, 1969
Script, music & lyrics by Forman Brown.
The Professor created this version of the classic fairy tale to appeal to African-American audiences. It was extremely well-received for years, but later ceased to have commercial success and the puppets were re-painted.
Everyman, 1974
An interdisciplinary performance with live actors & puppets.
Morning in the Zoo, 1975
Master's Degree, 1975
Cal State Long Beach, Interdisciplinary Arts with a specialization in puppetry; this was the first degree of its type in the United States.
Punch & Judy, 1978
Circus Marionette Variety, 2008
Awards
- Golden Apple Award 2002
- Human Rights Award 2005
And Teaching
Students at Idyllwild, 1962 |
Workshop on scenery, 1992 |
While the Professor has taught for many years -- including at the college level -- "Professor" is a traditional title for the Punch & Judy puppet-master.
Idylwid Arts Foundation, 1962
Taught puppetry.
Cal State Long Beach, 1972-1982
Taught puppetry here and at other universities.
School teacher, 1963-2008
Long Beach elementary schools.
Influences
Artists develop by learning and absorbing from those who've gone before.
Tony Sarg
Tony Sarg Poster, 1920
Charles never saw a performance by Anthony Frederick "Tony" Sarg, "America's Puppet Master", who quit performing in 1939 and died in 1942. However, Sarg's success served as an inspiration and Sarg influenced some of the people who influenced Charles.
Sarg was born in Guatemala while his father was German consul there. He married an American citizen and immigrated permanently to America in 1914-1915. He began performing puppet shows professionally in 1917, borrowing heavily from his grandmother's collection of puppets.
In 1928, Sarg designed and his associate, Bill Baird, built the first balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and designed the store's mechanically animated window displays for Christmas.. At the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, his puppets performed for audiences totaling 3 million people.
Sarg was also an illustrator, and Charles used ideas from Sarg's brochure to create his own.
Harry Burnett & Forman Brown
& Turnabout Theater
Burnett & Taylor with rubber puppets
Brown & Burnett were two of the three Yale Puppeteers (The 3rd.was Richard "Roddy" Brandon and they were joined by Dorothy Newman.), who came from Massachusetts to Southern California in the late 1920s. They opened "Teatro Torito" on Los Angeles' Olivera Street in 1930, playing to enthusiastic crowds of Hollywood stars & producers. After a stint in New York, they returned to L.A. and opened Turnabout Theater on La Cienega Boulevard.
"Turnabout" was a unique theater and appropriately named; at one end was a puppet stage at the other, a stage for live actors and entertainers. The seats -- from a trolley car in their prior lives -- were flipped over at intermission to face in the opposite direction. One product of Burnett's genius was the idea to create marionettes caricaturing celebrities in the audience. Harry also appeared on the "live" stage, often performing acts with other top comedians whose scripts, music and lyrics were written by Forman. It was a long and successful run, but Turnabout closed in 1956. For an excellent review, see the Los Angeles Public Library's virtual tour at http://dbase1.lapl.org/turnabout/.
Forman Brown
In 1988, Brown and Burnett were given lifetime achievement awards by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.
Harry Burnett, who died in 1993, taught his protégé the techniques of sculpting puppets and bringing life to them.
Forman Brown helped our young hero by providing scripts, music and lyrics for his early productions. Forman died in 1996, but his work is still being performed.
Bob Bromley
ca1935
Bob Bromley was a friend and mentor to the young puppeteer. Bromley joined the Yale Puppeteers in 1928 to build the Bluebeard and Hansel & Gretel shows designed by Norman Bell Geddes, (father of Barbara Bell Geddes). Bob was the first to present puppets on England's BBC television in 1934-1938. He created the first stripper puppet and was famous in Europe, starring at the great La Scala, Palladium, Moulin Rouge, Folies Bergere and Lido. Charles has many stories to relate about Bob.
In the 1930s, Bromley was one of the first (if not the very first) to develop the "cabaret style" of puppetry, in which the puppeteer is visible. A benefit of this style is opening puppetry to more venues.
He was the Los Angeles director of the Federal Puppet Theater, a part of the Federal Theater Project under the first Roosevelt Administration. It ran until 1939, being based first on Wilshire Blvd. near Western Ave. and then the Beaux Arts building at 8th & Beacon. A playground show also toured in a converted Army truck. Among the shows produced were Petrouchka, Don Quixote, Captain Kidd, and a varieties show. A production of Pinocchio used mostly live actors, but the toyshop sequence was an extravaganza of vaudeville, circus, marionettes and music.
Another famous L.A. puppeteer, Bob Baker, claimed Petrouchka was the most beautiful puppet show he'd seen produced and claimed that Walt Disney sent artists and technicians to study it while developing "Fantasia".
Burr Tillstrom
Burr & Ollie
Burr showed an early talent for puppetry, having lived near Tony Sarg's sister as a young man. Burr was hired as a stand in for early television to check lights, cameras etc. — a young puppeteer was cheaper to hire than many actors. At the right place at the right time, Burr was in on the beginning of television and his natural adlibbing created his show. Thus, TV history was made in the form of "Kukla, Fran and Ollie". Charles & Burr were friends and shared ideas .... See more at http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/kuklapolitans/tillstrom_biography_1956.html.