Every so often, someone references “marionettes” in connection with Saline. [1]
Passing note of our “Bixby Marionettes Trust” was made during a City Council meeting earlier this summer. Without fanfare, the mayor has given leadership to developing a couple of display cases to highlight locally-produced string puppets at the Saline Area School District building. Saline Journal touched on the historical legacy of Meredith Bixby last week. [2,3]
In an under-appreciated, no longer much viewed segment produced by WXYT in Detroit, Mr Bixby summaried the genre of which he remains such an integral part. [4]
I like to think I’ve given thousands of children a basis for judging entertainment. In these days of often their seeing cheap, junky things, I think I’ve given the children something that they like, that has artistic merit, and it helps ’em to judge future things against that standard.
The Smithsonian has called puppetry as “one of the oldest types of performance art in America.” It came as transplant to the United States through immigrants from Italy, France, and Great Britain. Beginning in the eighteeen century, shows commonly traveled from town to town, thus driving development of characters, props, and sets which were easily setup and taken down. By the twentieth century, such efforts had become a mainstay of vaudeville. [5,6]
Although certainly not inappropriate to refer to these characters as puppets, marionettes are a very specific type of puppet.
In a simple marionette, the strings are attached in nine places: To each leg, hand, shoulder, and ear and at the base of the spine. By adding strings, more sensitive control of movement is achieved. … this type of puppet was not fully developed until the mid-19th century ….
An artisan by the name of Geahk Burchill was featured in a modern video that very nicely covered the process of taking a specific figure from concept to realiziation. In large measure, his tools and techniques could tie to the earliest day of marionette fabrication, and they would resonate with the tactical approaches of our own Mr Bixby. Another practitioner, Kevin Frisch, dove into the exacting particulars of making pupet heads with wood filler. Still elsewhere, Master Puppeteer Scott Land has provided tutorials on movement and an overview of how he takes his shows on the road. [7,8,9,10]
Way back when, with emerging ubiquity of television in homes, many puppeteers migrated to that then-new medium. One of the most famous, of course, was Howdy Doody, which first appeared on the airwaves in 1947. Those who grew up in the 1960s may recall the “supermarionation” approach realized by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson in their series Thunderbirds. [11,12,13,14,15,16]
Fundamental principles of movement and engineering evolved into audio-animatronics developed by Walt Disney, still in use today in theme parks bearing his name. But puppetry is an integral part of practical effects utilized in movie-making now, too. For example, in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. At the same time, as Gino Acevedo explained during a 2016 round table, the lines between puppet types have blurred in application. [17,18,19,20]
For the gross movements, hand puppetry can give you that natural, fluid movement you only get from a human performer. Then, you can add in animatronics for the facial movements, rod puppetry for arms and legs, and cable control for hand movements. All are still great mechanisms to use …, and you need great puppeteers who understand natural movement.
Not surprisingly, elaborately realistic puppets are even used on sets to serve as a “presence on set” — even when they’re to be replaced by CG versions for the final film. Pietro Marson has said that, “Despite what visual effects can do to a shot, there is nothing like a performer’s reaction to a physical puppet on set.” [21]
Sounds a lot like what Meredith Bixby said of the desired effect of his own string puppets, on his own audiences.
Perhaps it is time for more than passing references and tentatively leveraged ties between the world of marionettes and the City of Saline. Our local library is a good place to start, its modest Bixby display just inside the back entrance. Staff has also recommended checking out its Making and Manipulating Marionettes by David Currell for a primer about the craft.
References
- “Marionette” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- “Bixby Marionettes Trust” Saline.
- “‘Hurry! Hurry!’ ‘Ending Soon!’ ‘Won’t Last Much Longer!’ Make Time To Revisit History Before It’s Gone Forever” Dell Deaton (September 5, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “Meredith Bixby’s Marionettes” cityofsaline (November 18, 2009) YouTube.
- “Puppetry in America: Puppets on Stage” The National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
- “Vaudeville” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- “Process: Making Marionettes” Etsy (January 25, 2011) YouTube.
- “Frisch Marionette Tutorial: Making Puppet Heads with MendALL Wood Filler” The Frisch Marionettes Puppet Shows (September 8, 2014) YouTube.
- “Mastering Marionettes: Marionette Performance Techniques – FREE CHAPTER” Stan Winston School (September 30, 2016) YouTube.
- “Scott Land Marionettes and Puppet Co – Come See The Show!” Scott Land (June 23, 2011) YouTube.
- “The Inventors Behind the Creation of Television” Mary Bellis (August 10, 2018) ThoughtCo.
- “Puppets on Radio, Film, and Television” The National Museum of American History, Smithsonian.
- “Velma Dawson: Howdy Doody, 1948 – plastic wood, cloth, leather, wood” Detroit Institute of Arts.
- “The Howdy Doody Show” IMDb.
- “Supermarionation: Gerry Anderson, a life in puppetry” Emma Thom (December 27, 2012) Science + Media Museum.
- “Thunderbirds” IMDb.
- “Audio-Animatronics” Disney Video.
- “Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)” IMDb.
- “Gino Acevedo” IMDb.
- “The History of Puppetry in Cinema” Graham Edwards (March 29, 2016) Tested.
- “Pietro Marson” IMDb.
- Saline District Library (home page).
