Puppets and Propaganda: 1930s Parades in New York City

Abstract

The development of American puppet theatre is a tricky subject, because now as well as in the first half of the past century, puppeteers themselves sometimes cannot agree upon what is and isn’t a puppet. Heated discussions about whether shadow figures, special effects in film, stop-action animation, giant puppets, and toy theatre productions can actually be termed puppetry are not uncommon among puppeteers today. In addition, some artists and performers who create and perform “theatrical figure[s] moved under human control,” as Paul McPharlin defined puppets, would never think of what they are doing as puppetry, or themselves as puppeteers. Frank Proschan’s definition of performing objects (“material images of humans, animals, or spirits that are created, displayed, or manipulated in narrative or dramatic performance”) is helpful in this respect because it allows us to consider the wide range of such activities that eschew focus on the human in favor of an artistic focus on sculpture, two-dimensional images, light, and shadow.