Bob Baker Marionette Theater - the country's longest-running puppet theater - is a Los Angeles institution. I went there over the weekend and was inspired to find out more about its history, so I thought I'd share a bit of what I learned before I tell you a little about my experience there.
In 1929, 5-year-old Bob Baker saw a puppet show and immediately knew that he'd found his calling. By age 7 he had a mentor who gave him private puppeteering lessons, and at age 8 he started performing at birthday parties for rather large sums of money (his first gig paid about $360 in today's dollars - nothing to sneeze at for a little kid!). Later in the 1930s, he lied about his age and was able to secure work as a puppeteer in the LA Puppetry Unit of the WPA. He went on to graduate from the iconic Hollywood High (fellow famous alums include Eve Babitz, Judy Garland, Lana Turner and many, many more). After a brief stint in the military and a nasty illness, he received a degree from UCLA and did graduate work at a now-defunct art school.
Soon he found employment in stop-motion animation, all while working away at his own line of marionettes. Department stores began to purchase his puppets, and at the height of its popularity Bob Baker Marionettes had a staff of 40 artists who together produced more than 100,000 puppets. He found success in television with a show called The Adventures of Bobo, and began working in film as well. He also became an advisor to Disney during the construction of Disneyland.
By the early 60s, Baker was no longer content to produce shows solely for other organizations, envisioning instead a stage of his own. The Bob Baker Marionette Theater was established by Baker and his partner and collaborator Alton Wood in 1963, in a boxy, nondescript building just west of downtown.
To design the new playhouse, Baker and Wood hired a Yugoslavian art director best known for his work on the original Batman TV series. An enormous clown named Toot graced the courtyard, and the interior was decorated in red velvet and crystal chandeliers. After each show, guests were welcomed backstage to the puppet workshop to learn how they were created. There wasn't much demand for the shows at first, but it grew steadily throughout the 1960s and 70s despite the fact that the "urban renewal" the city had slated for the area never came to pass, eliminating the foot traffic they'd initially envisioned.
The theater managed to squeak by for the next several decades, but it was tough going. Facing financial ruin, in 2013 Baker had no choice but to sell the building. Though Baker was promised that the new development being planned would carve out an area for the theater, this did not come to pass. In 2014, Baker died at age 90.
Amazingly, though, the theater lived on and appears to be more popular than ever. In 2019, the organization moved into a 1920s silent film theater turned Korean church in Highland Park and became a 501(c)3 non-profit. The building has been lovingly renovated, with adorable details like trompe l'oeil curtains and whimsical lights at every turn. Many design motifs, like the red interior and crystal chandeliers, have thankfully been retained in the new space.
LA Olé, now named Hooray LA, is the last show Baker conceived of himself. It was created in 1981 as a celebration of the city's bicentennial. Since then, it's been updated to touch on more recent LA topics, like our beloved mountain lion P-22, who roamed Griffith Park for a decade before his death in December 2022 (I remember learning the awful news while manning the reference desk and promptly bursting into tears in front of a library full of patrons. Just last week, though, another mountain lion was spotted in the park!).
I had high expectations for the show and it absolutely did not disappoint. As they did in the old theater, kids mostly sit cross-legged on the floor of the 100-seat venue. Adults fill the rows behind them. Because it's created with children in mind (though the audience when I went was maybe 80% adults), there is literally never a dull moment. There are razzle-dazzle showbiz-loving cats, dancing oil derricks with black tinsel for hair, ghosts playing wooly mammoth bones like a marimba, and so much more. It's really quite an achievement on many levels - the lighting design is surprising and beautiful, the talented puppeteers' all-red outfits are weirdly chic, and the puppets are all impeccably crafted. The show is a tight one hour, and everyone gets free ice cream when it's over. What's not to like?
The delightful 2022 book Enchanted Strings by Randal J. Metz provided me with much of the information discussed above. I recommend checking out the theater on YouTube, too!