From Sorcery to Science: Remo Bufano and World’s Fair Puppet Theatre

Abstract

Developments in American puppetry that had begun during the early years of the Little Theatre Movement had by 1939 extended to all areas of high and low culture. New types of puppets, or older forms of puppets in new contexts—including those from Asian as well as European traditions—had been seen in avant-garde and mainstream theatre; in political street demonstrations and consumer-oriented street parades; as advertising propaganda in department stores; in scores of Federal Theatre Project productions across the United States; on screen in both experimental and mainstream films; and even in the nascent medium of television. And at Paul McPharlin and Marjorie Batchelders initiative the Puppeteers of America had been founded in 1937, a little than two decades after Ellen Van Volkenburg had invented the word “puppeteer.” The 1939 New York World s Fair, like all world s fairs before it, proved to be a great patron of pup-pet and performing object shows, and this huge performance event marked a noteworthy climax to the growth of modern American puppet and object performance before World War Two.