“Forgotten Hollywood”- The Puppet Master is Gone…

Posted on November 29, 2014 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

   Bob Baker was a puppeteer whose marionettes have entertained thousands of children and adults worldwide for more than 70 years. The Bob Baker Marionettes have performed around the globe (even on Navy ships and submarines), with an inventory of three thousand puppets.

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   Baker (above) trained with several different Los Angeles-based companies before giving his first professional performance for director Mervyn Leroy. While attending Hollywood High School, he began manufacturing toy marionettes that sold both in Europe and the United States. After graduation he became an apprentice at the George Pal Animation Studios.

   His puppetry was featured in the 1944 Bluebeard, A Star is Born, G.I. Blues, Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His work also appeared on television in Bewitched, Star Trek, and Land of the GiantsBaker was also instrumental in championing union membership for puppeteers. As a result, Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA now recognize puppeteers as actors with a special skill.

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   The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, founded by Baker and Alton Wood in 1963, is the oldest children’s theater company in Los Angeles. In June 2009, the theater was designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The company has no plans to stop presenting shows. The theater is currently performing its holiday production of The Nutcracker through early 2015, and has two road companies plus a solo traveling show.

   Bob Baker was 90.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 29th, 2014 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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