Bob Baker and His Magical Marionettes

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater was born in 1960 and is considered the longest running puppet theater in America. With an inventory of over 3,000 puppets he has created over the years, Mr. Baker continues to entertain and delight his audience for over 50 years. What makes Mr. Baker's marionettes literally stand out is that he brought them down from the stage and into the audience! With the puppeteer dressed in black, they make the strings dance and weave, bringing the marionettes to life right in front of your eyes. What could be more magical?

Currently in its 54th season, the theater company continues with "Fun with Strings!" which runs every Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm. The puppet show, featuring Jack Frost, the Snow Queen, Chili Dog, The Balloon Clown and over 100 additional marionettes Mr. Baker has created, is "a wondrous journey with many magical stops along the way"!

Bob Baker began to create toy marionettes in 1945 while still a student at Hollywood High School. After high school, Mr. Baker was an apprentice at The George Pal Animation Studio. A year after he started working at the animation studio, Bob was promoted to head animator of Puppetoons which were a series of animated puppet films made in the 30's and 40's.

Although not marionettes, these puppets were created with multiple wooden parts that were interchangeable and were filmed frame by frame. One of my personal favorites is "Tubby the Tuba" 1947 with a tip of the hat to the Hollywood Bowl. George Pal was also a science fiction animator and film producer of "Destination Moon" 1950, "When Worlds Collide" 1951 and most notably for the 1953 film "War of The Worlds".

After WWII, Mr. Baker was an animation supervisor for many of the studios. He was also the puppet master in such notable films as "GI Blues"1960 staring Elvis Presely and "Escape to Witch Mountain" 1977. He helped with special affects in "Bednobs and Broomsticks" 1971 and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" 1977 and his puppetry can be seen in television shows such as "Bewitched", "Faerie Tale Theatre" and "Star Trek". Mr. Baker is also notably the founding member of the Academy of Puppetry and Allied Arts.

Recently Mr. Baker graciously allowed me the opportunity to photograph him and his amazing marionettes at his theater in Echo Park. Below is a photo essay of my visit, one in which I walked away enchanted and delighted.

I'm you're puppet,

Julie Pavlowski Green
March 8, 2014