Puppet Shows

When we were young kids we sometimes made our own fun and used our imagination to keep entertained.  Of course we were influenced by what we saw on TV although that was limited.  I remember mainly cowboy shows (Lone Ranger, Sky King, Roy Rogers, etc.), Our Gang (Little Rascals) or Captain Midnight one of the first science fiction TV shows.

We found many ways to entertain ourselves and one stimulated our imagination more than others.  Frank, Reinhard and myself used to put on puppet shows.  We built a stage with curtains (had some help from parents).   The puppets we used were string puppets: 1 Pirate, 2 Sailors, 2 Maid Marion's, which I now store in my wine cellar. 

String puppets for those that don’t know are also called Marionettes, which are suspended and controlled by stings, attached to the legs, arms, hands and feet of the puppet to give them movement.  Before I had a wine cellar I would hang the puppets in my sons (Patrick) closet over the clothes rod.  I did this to keep the strings from getting tangled but there is a funny side story, which I have to tell you.  Mimi (my wife) sometimes watched our nephew Andy when he was a toddler, well one day Andy (age 4) was playing in our son's (Pat) room when he came running out in a panic exclaiming that there were little people hanging in the closet.  Mimi tried to calm him by telling him they were puppets but all Andy could see were little people.  So instead Mimi took this opportunity to teach a valuable lesson to Andy, saying "That's what happens to little kids that don’t mind".  Andy seemed to avoid that closet from that time on and he was always a good kid at our house.  Was that wrong?   Dr. Suess could learn a thing or two from that story. 

When we were doing puppet shows my friends and I would let my chicken (Peep Peep) the baby chick (see my story about Peep Peep the City Chicken)  flounder around on stage with the puppets.  Well, maybe not floundering that wound be a fish but roaming around on stage. Maybe that would now be against animal rights laws. 

We had no experience with choreographing. We always played “Won’t you come home Bill Bailey” by Jimmy Durante and Eddie Jackson (33 Record) until it got broken.  I think all our shows were free but it didn’t matter because we had fun.  I also had a Jerry Mahoney Ventriloquist Puppet, which I still have today as well.  I played with it so much my parents told me it caused me to mumble all the time.  I guess I never got the hang of throwing your voice, I just learned the art of mumbling.

I still get together with my old buddies around 3 times a year and play poker at Frank’s house.  Last time we got together for poker Frank said he had a surprise for me.  He clicked on the stereo and he had the song “ Bill Bailey” by Jimmy Durante and Eddie Jackson, playing which he bought off of ITunes the funny thing is that I had also downloaded Jimmie Durante’s “Bill Bailey” from ITunes the month before. That just shows I'm not the only one that misses those simple but fun times.

One more thing when my kids (Maureen & Pat) were young (6 & 3), I made a puppet stage for them to play with their hand puppets.  The billboard on the stage was Marno & Patrak which was Pat's pronunciation.  They enjoyed playing puppets as much as I enjoyed making the stage for them plus it gave a small boost to their imagination.