The puppets were made of cloth, wood and string but Cook was thrilled at how they told fantastic stories of princesses, witches, dwarfs and kings. It was an exciting time, a time of social uncertainty and revolutionary fervor.īut what Cook loved most about those trips were the puppet shows put on by downtown department stores like Bullocks, Robinsons and May Co. In historic Pershing Square they listened to sidewalk preachers, communists and socialists sermonize to the crowds. “Puppets change like everything else, and it’s valuable to show that change,” says Diane Houk, director of the Puppetry Arts Institute in Independence, Missouri, who met Cook at a puppetry festival in Seattle six years ago and believes he has one of the biggest and most well-rounded collections in the country.ĭuring the Great Depression, Cook was a shy kid with bright, blue eyes who loved to ride the red car trolleys with his parents from his home in South Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. In his own lifetime, he has known and worked closely with some of the most renowned puppeteers of the modern era, including Frank Paris, creator of the Howdy Doody puppet Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets and Sid and Marty Krofft, whose life-size puppets dominated children’s television in the 1970s and ’80s.Ĭook’s collection is a tangible record of modern puppetry history. The history and tradition of puppetry is not lost on Cook.
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In America, the first puppet superstar was that top hat-wearing Charlie McCarthy, who ruled vaudeville, movie reels and radio with his handler, Edgar Bergen, during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Punch, the rascal puppet known to flaunt conventions and defy laws. One of Great Britain’s most popular and longest running acts has been “The Punch and Judy Show,” starring Mr. In Japan, the sophisticated Bunraku puppets overshadowed even the Kabuki as the most popular form of entertainment in the middle of the 18th century.
What is clear is that nearly every major culture has a puppetry tradition. Puppets have been a part of human history for centuries, although the exact origin of the art is the subject of dispute.
Perhaps more amazing than the sheer size of the collection is the fact that Cook built it on donations and the meager earnings of a traveling puppet master. “You don’t throw anything away.”Ĭook’s collection surpasses the 800 puppets at the Detroit Institute for the Arts, the 1,300 puppets at the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts and the 3,000 puppets at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut. “This is what happens when you are a Depression-era kid,” says Cook, sporting a snow-white goatee and ponytail. But they have not yet itemized them all because Cook keeps adding to the collection. Volunteers from the Conservatory of Puppetry Arts, a nonprofit group created in 1999, began cataloging the collection more than four years ago. There are so many puppets that even Cook is not sure of the total number. Others are in giant storage sheds behind his modest home in nearby Altadena. He has hand puppets, marionettes, shadow puppets and rod puppets, most of which are stored in this cluttered building of St. His obsession with puppets-begun when he was only four years old-has resulted in what many experts believe is America’s largest puppet collection. The 74-year-old puppeteer has accumulated more than 3,000 puppets. She is in the case next to Diller.Ĭook’s difficulty in choosing a favorite is understandable. Oh, and he can’t forget Eleanor Roosevelt. But then again, he also likes the Bob Hope puppet that is stashed away somewhere in this crowded building. How can he choose? He loves the Phyllis Diller puppet that is in the glass case by the front door of this church recreation hall in Pasadena.
It’s like asking a father which of his children he loves the most. Ask Alan Cook ’53 to name his favorite puppet and he hesitates.
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