Bob Baker's Marionette Celebrates Halloween, 10/2-31

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater continues its 50th anniversary season with "Bob Baker's Halloween Hoop-Dee-Do" playing October 2-31, 2010. As a special treat for "Back To Schoolers" of all ages, the Theater will also offer a $5 discount on every ticket purchased for this special production.

One of the theater's perennial favorites, "Bob Baker's Halloween Hoop-De-Do" first played the theater in 1963.  Featuring a fantastical cast of over 100 Halloween themed puppets, from the Purple People Eater and the Invisible Man to a gaggle of Roaring 20's skeletons dancing the night away in Hernando's Hideaway, "Bob Baker's Halloween Hoop-De-Do" will whisk you away to "the place where imagination dwells". 

These celebrated marionettes are presented in Bob Baker's now famous "In the Round" cabaret style, with the puppeteers not only exposed to the audience, but serving as an integral part of the proceedings . . . and also making the audience part of the show.
 
"Bob Baker's Halloween Hoop-De-Do" is an hour-long revue. After the performance, guests are invited to visit with the Puppeteers and have refreshments in our Party Room.
 
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater in downtown Los Angeles is the oldest of its kind in the United States and has been entertaining children of all ages since its inception in 1960. At that time, Bob Baker and his business partner Alton Wood turned a scene shop in Los Angeles into the family entertainment landmark that it is today. 

Jennifer Steinhauer of The New York Times has described Baker's shows as "a staple of a Los Angeleno childhood. It is the cultural equivalent of the annual march by the nation's third graders to the neighborhood firehouse." On June 3, 2009, The Bob Baker Marionette Theater was declared an historic cultural monument by the city of Los Angeles.

This special anniversary season at the theater features five of the Theater's most beloved productions. "Fiesta" played January 19 through April 11,"It's A Musical World," played April 17 through July 11, and "Something To Crow About!" is currently playing through September 26. "Bob Baker's Halloween Hoop-Dee-Do" arrives in time for Halloween 2010, and the season will come to a close with the holiday classic, "Bob Baker's Nutcracker," playing November 6 through January 16, 2011.  This marionette version of the legendary ballet has been one of Bob's most requested holiday productions since it was first presented in 1965.

This is the first time the Bob Baker Marionette Theater has ever presented this many productions at the Theater in one calendar year.
 "We have had fifty amazing years right here on First Street, and here's to fifty more!" says Bob Baker, commenting on the occasion of the Theater's Golden Anniversary.

More About Bob Baker
Bob Baker first became interested in puppetry at the age of five, and has since become an innovator, artist, puppet master, and top-notch animator with credits in television and film.
 
His marionettes have entertained thousands of children and adults worldwide over the years. Mr. Baker has a current inventory of over three thousand puppets, with just about everything from robots that light up, to dancing frogs, to egg laying chickens. 
 

Bob began to learn the magic of puppetry at the early age of eight. He trained with several different local companies and put his skills to work with his first professional performance for director Mervyn LeRoy.

While attending Hollywood High School, Bob began manufacturing toy marionettes that sold both in Europe and the United States. Fifty of the finest department stores in the country carried his line including Bullocks Wilshire, Saks Fifth Avenue, Niemen Marcus, FAO Schwarz, and Marshall Fields. After graduation at the age of eighteen, he began his extensive career in animation at the George Pal Studios. He began as an apprentice and soon became a head animator of "Puppetoons" a year later.

After WWII, Bob served as an animation advisor at many film studios including Walt Disney.

As a puppeteer his prestigious credits include the films: "A Star Is Born", "G.I. Blues," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Escape to Witch Mountain," and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", as well as work on countless television series and projects. Baker has performed with the likes of Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, and Angela Lansbury.
 
Aside from running the theater, Baker maintains an active role in the company's traveling shows. Bob has taken his marionettes to countless fairs, puppet festivals, and of course, birthday parties. The Bob Baker Marionettes have entertained audiences in Las Vegas, Toronto, New York, Germany, and have even performed on Navy ships and submarines.
 
Mr. Baker is the former president of the Los Angeles Puppet Guild and Governor of the Television Arts & Sciences Animation Branch and currently sits on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His dream of establishing a school began with the formation of the non-profit group "The Academy of Puppetry and Allied Arts." Although his goal of a refurbished theater complex complete with training facilities is still a long way off, Bob Hopes with the aid of civic leaders and corporate sponsors, his academy will one day be a reality.

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