I need to pull together some threads of a story which leads to a conclusion in the Second Bar Mitzvah for Aaron 2 - that’s me – for I have built a full-size marionette of myself at age 13, A 1 – and therein lies a tale.

In the 1930’s there was no television.  We had books to read, movies and live entertainment, of course, and some of this was devoted to children and stories that interested them. Puppetry, implicit in the story of Pinocchio, was a classic and there were many puppeteers and shows that were available in schools and particularly in good weather in parks and along boardwalks at the seashore.  Somewhere during that time I became interested in carving puppet parts and putting them together to make shows copying what was popular.  I did not know of the established puppetry companies that had existed for many years – basically traveling shows that would appear like circuses with advance people putting up posters advertising the place and date and the featured plays.  One of the most popular kinds of puppets would be those who aped the movie stars of the day and particularly the dancers and singers who had become icons for the public thirsting for entertainment.

I knew about the arts of puppetry for they are not particularly hard to discern if you are interested in jointed and animated dolls and – puppets.  However, I did not actively do anything about learning more about puppetry until a magazine article in Woman’s Day (cost $.05) back in 1950 after I had graduated from Rutgers and was looking for a job as a teacher of high school history.  This was not to be because there were no openings even for a Rutgers Honors Graduate unless I would be willing to take a job on the elementary school level, take some courses in elementary education and get provisional certification to become a teacher in a 4 room schoolhouse in Skillman, N.J. which was the home of the State Village for Epileptics.  That is another story in itself.

Now, Woman’s Day of that day had practical articles for stay at home moms but one issue had a story by Bil Baird on how to make a marionette if you sent 25 cents to the address listed in the magazine.  I could afford the cost and was interested and sent for the article.  In due time it arrived when I was teaching (it was now 1951 for I had spent my first year after graduation working as a Library Assistant in Rutgers Library and then for a time as an Assistant Librarian cataloging the collection in the Management and Labor Dept. library. (That, too, is another story).  So, I was teaching at the State Village and there were periodic sicknesses that prevented the students from leaving their bungalows and I was left without much to do.  So, I studied the article on marionettes and decided to make one. I ended up making two for I had the use of the School’s unused workshop classroom. That was the beginning of my love for building puppets. (Continued)