Baird, Bil and Cora

Baird, Bil and Cora
born Aug. 15, 1904, Grand Island, Neb., U.S.
died March 18, 1987, New York, N.Y.

born Jan. 26, 1912, New York City
died Dec. 6, 1967, New York City

U.S. puppeteers.

Bil Baird (originally William Britton Baird) worked under the puppeteer Tony Sarg for five years then produced his own puppet shows from the mid 1930s. He and Cora Eisenberg married in 1937 and began to create original puppets, scenery, and music for their shows. They produced a series of television shows in the 1950s and opened their own marionette theatre in New York in 1966. Bil wrote The Art of the Puppet (1965) and trained puppeteers such as Jim Henson.

* * *

▪ American puppeteers
original names  William Britton Baird  and  Cora Eisenberg 
Respectively,
 
born Aug. 15, 1904, Grand Island, Neb., U.S.
died March 18, 1987, New York City
born Jan. 26, 1912, New York City
died Dec. 6, 1967, New York City

      puppeteers who led the 20th-century revival of puppet theatre in the United States.

      Bil Baird began building and using puppets as a child. After graduating from the State University of Iowa in 1926, he studied stage design at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and then worked for five years under the noted American puppeteer Tony Sarg. He traveled on the road giving puppet performances and in the mid-1930s began producing his own independent puppet shows. He married Cora Eisenberg, who had acted under the name of Cora Burlar, in 1937. In the following years, they made their own puppets, built scenery, wrote scripts, and composed the music for their puppet shows.

      From the 1940s on the Bairds achieved nationwide attention with their work. Their hand- or wire-operated puppets appeared in several full-length Broadway theatricals and musicals and on the Bairds' own television shows in the early 1950s. The Bairds opened their own marionette theatre, the Bil Baird Theatre, in New York City in 1966.

      A few of their creations became classic puppet figures: Bubbles La Rue, the marionette striptease dancer; the singing frogs; Snarky Parker, the master of ceremonies; and Heathcliff, the talking horse. Bil Baird trained a generation of younger puppeteers, including the creator of the Muppets, Jim Henson (Henson, Jim), and many of Henson's associates. He was also the author of The Art of the Puppet (1965), a classic exposition of the field.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Baird — [berd] John Logie [lō′gē] 1888 1946; Scot. inventor & television pioneer * * * (1888–1946) a Scottish inventor who is remembered mainly for his work on early forms of television in the 1920s and 1930s. The BBC began using Baird’s system in 1929,… …   Universalium

  • Mason City — a city in N Iowa. 30,144. * * * ▪ Iowa, United States       city, seat (1855) of Cerro Gordo county, northern Iowa, U.S., along the Winnebago River, about 120 miles (195 km) north of Des Moines. The area was inhabited by Winnebago (Ho Chunk) and… …   Universalium

  • Jim Henson — For other uses of Henson , see: Henson. Infobox Celebrity name=Jim Henson caption= Jim Henson at the 1989 Emmy Awards. birth date=birth date|mf=yes|1936|9|24|mf=y birth place=Greenville, Mississippi death date=death date and… …   Wikipedia

  • SHEVELOVE, BURT — (1915–1982), U.S. theater writer. Born in Newark, N.J., Shevelove graduated from Brown University and earned a master s degree in theater from Yale. After serving as a volunteer ambulance driver in World War II, he started his theatrical career… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Marionette — This article is about the type of puppet. For other uses, see Marionette (disambiguation). Marionette from Tiller family marionette company, 1870s 1890s …   Wikipedia

  • The Sound of Music (film) — The Sound of Music Original poster by Howard Terpning Directed by Robert Wise Produced b …   Wikipedia

  • Puppetry — is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. [ Puppetry and Puppets/Eileen Blumenthal/Thames Hudson/2005/ISBN 13 978 0 500 51226 5]… …   Wikipedia

  • Flahooley — Infobox Musical name= Flahooley subtitle= caption= Capitol Records Album Cover for Flahooley music= Sammy Fain lyrics= E. Y. Harburg book= E. Y. Harburg Fred Saidy basis= productions= 1951 Broadway 1998 Off Off Broadway awards= Flahooley is a… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”