The Bob Baker Marionette Theater Pulls Strings Back Into Zeitgeist

Not long ago, Hollywood’s beloved Bob Baker Marionette Theater was hanging on by a thread. In the final decades of its eponymous founder’s life — he died in 2014, at the age of 90 — the puppetry organization was in perpetual dire financial straits, its longtime downtown L.A. playhouse in decay, particularly as the rise of CGI sapped its workshop’s film and TV gigs.

Yet recent years have seen the revival of BBMT, known for cabaret-style shows whose whimsical bygone aesthetic is drawn from vaudeville and carnival midways. Today a non-profit, the theater has been string-pulling its way back into the Zeitgeist, its puppeteers performing to a massive crowd at Coachella this spring, its merch adorning Rachel Sennott’s talent manager on HBO’s I Love L.A.

Now, for its next act, BBMT is attempting to purchase the historic Highland Park stage it took over in 2019 and mounting the company’s first original show in more than four decades. “It’s a rare heart-warming story in the time we live in right now, this little glimmer of hope,” says board chair Thas Naseemuddeen, who in her day job serves as the head of an ad agency.

The ongoing fundraising campaign — $5 million to purchase the property, and another $2 million to renovate it — is already far along, with $4.7 million raised so far. The effort has secured major donations from the foundations of the late Univision owner Jerry Perenchio, media heiress Wallis Annenberg and former NPR CEO Jarl Mohn, as well as Jack Black and his wife Tanya Haden, who’s worked as a puppeteer on multiple Muppets projects.

“In an age of screens, Bob Baker offers children something radical: proof that attention, craft and the human hand can still hold a room spellbound,” says Perenchio Foundation CEO Stephania Ramirez. “We did not invest in a building. We invested in the certainty that generations of Angelenos will keep discovering what it feels like to believe in something made entirely of string, paint and devotion.”

Brie Larson, who also contributed to the capital campaign, tells The Hollywood Reporter, “The mere fact that Bob Baker exists brings our community together. It’s a place for kids and kids at heart to enjoy the magic of a craft that otherwise might be lost to time. I always leave feeling inspired and proud to be a Los Angeles native!”

Baker, a Hollywood High School graduate who apprenticed early on for George Pal’s Puppetoons (which had a contract with Paramount Studios), worked closely with the entertainment industry throughout his career. His workshop long produced handmade marionettes, including Pinocchios sold at Disneyland as well as custom pieces for featured roles in movies ranging from A Star is Born to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He later was an AMPAS member and a governor of the Television Academy.

Baker and his theater, which began in 1963 in a space once used for film production design, frequently performed off-site private events, including at birthday parties for the children of Jack Benny, Danny Kaye and other stars — a revenue stream it continues to nurture. San Vicente Bungalows brings in BBMT for shows aimed at its members’ kids. “I think Bob would be happy, and surprised, to know how well we’re doing now,” says production manager Daisy Hernandez, who grew up across the street from the old theater and recalls Baker giving away ice cream on hot days.

In Highland Park, the organization saw 45,000 people visiting its venue last year, many of which were schoolchildren, although BBMT leadership is keen to highlight that performances are meant for adults, too. “We do partnerships with Sid the Cat,” the taste-making Eastside indie music promotion group, explains the theater’s co-executive director Mary Fagot. “You don’t need to kidnap a four year old to come see Bob Baker.”

BBMT has retooled its repertory shows for modern sensibilities. Stereotypes from half a century ago or longer have been cleared away. “Some of the puppets we don’t use anymore, and other puppets we recast,” says artistic director Alex Evans. Choo Choo Revue, the hour-long new production running through Aug. 30, features more than 100 new puppets including dancing luggage and a cicada jug band. “This has been about innovating, which for us is just as important as preservation.”

Fagot observes that, to digital-native children, BBMT’s puppetry may be even more enchanting than for earlier generations. “Our [administrative] offices are in the mezzanine above the theater,” she says. “When field trip groups come for performances, we hear them. I’ve noted an escalation in the volume in the reaction of kids who just scream and holler for joy when a puppet comes and sits in their laps. It’s so incredible to them to be interacting with this handcrafted art, in three dimensions. They intuitively understand that there’s humanity inside of these puppets.”