A word of thanks to those laboring on this monumental project: Beth Fernandez has, I believe, doubled her typing speed to keep entering information into the data base as fast as I unearth the treasures. She must be hearing the phrase, “Bethee! I have something for you” in her sleep (nightmares?) each night.

And Lady Harrington, our priestess of mummification (oops, I mean wrapping, bagging and boxing) and her well known cry of “Steve! I need more boxes, please!”
My aide-de-camp, Stephen Seymour, is continually moving boxes and even entire shelving units, to help give a sense of order to all this and realize my vision of things stored as if in a library.

And speaking of library, there is John Leland, who spends hours hunched over the blue iMac containing our book database. He has been entering each volume and giving it the proper number and placement.

Then there is our wonderful Jackee Marks, without whose unrelenting love and support, all this would still be in Alan’s garages.
Last and above all NOT least the person whose seven decade OBSESSION caused all this, America’s own Puppet Sage, my friend, Alan Gregory Cook.

We have standardized the size of the boxes; simplified the information forms, index cards and individual puppet I.D. type; and implemented a new procedure for checking items out and returning them to their proper boxes. All in all things are going smoother and faster than ever.

Some recent rediscoveries include: three Bil Baird hand puppets; twenty Pat Platt marionettes plus two Platt masks and assorted props; a Susan French terra cotta puppet head; two pig marionettes and a carved head we think to be a female opera singer by Sue Hastings; and a Joe Fischer Pavlova marionette.

The Pavlova puppet was found just days before we received a gift from Maggie Ogilvey Ellis of four Fischer puppets and boxes of filmed work and personal papers. What a serendipitous coincidence!
Stay tuned to this site page for updates and rediscovered “treasures from the vaults.”