An American Marionette Story

Paul McPharlin , sometimes called "the Father of American Puppetry" built a marionette covered wagon with a team of two horses and a driver for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair "A Century of Progress".

Many years later, the horses and driver were discovered at an elementary school in Michigan by Fern Zwicky, who recognized them as having been at the "transport" exhibit at the fair*. She gave them to John Miller, who kept them in his collection as she had found them. In the 1970's, one of the horses, that was in fairly good shape, was photographed by Time/Life for a book on puppetry.

The other horse was missing a foreleg and hoof. In the spring of 2008, John's widow, Marilyn O'Connor Miller asked me to repair the horse's leg. I brought it to the O'Neil Puppetry Conference, where Phillip Huber and Jim Rose could help give advice on how to go about the repair.

(-- Jim Rose was born during the 1933 World's Fair. His parents, Margo and Rufus Rose, had been hired to perform there, and Margo went into labor during the run of their show).

In addition, I received some information from other puppeteers, especially Alan Cook. There is a blue foam that forms the flexible horse neck -- Alan remembered a product developed in Germany that was later marketed as a material in a toy-making kit in the 1930's. The kits had red and blue foam pieces. The sponge-like foam is very hearty, and has lasted all these years without ripping.

When we took the front legs off in order to effect repairs, I videotaped Phillip Huber and Jim Rose investigating the figure. They discovered that the horse's body had been made out of a screen mesh pushed into plastic wood, probably pressed into a mold (this makes sense as there were two horses, and the heads are molded plastic wood). The controller is the original, but obviously only part of a larger complex controller. The head bar has a peg hole, but there is no peg on the controller. There were no strings to the legs. I later discovered that the screw for the leg attachment could be tightened so that the figure could be posed easily. This was probably done when not in use, as would happen at a long-term exhibit.

I sculpted the new hoof out of poplar wood, and the foreleg and upper joint repair out of pine. The original wood may have been a type of pine. I used black trunk fiber for the joints, similar to the trunk fiber originally used. Plastic wood was used to fill in gaps, and a "pin" stop was discovered at the top joint of the good leg, which I was able to match.

There is no doubt that more information about these figures and the part they played at the Fair will be forthcoming, but for now, enjoy the photos of the process!

Rolande Duprey

The horse and controller and harness as I received them.

The broken leg.

The horse head and neck showing the mysterious blue foam.

Inside of the horse's body.

Working on the replacement horse hoof.

The replaced joint, with pin stop also replaced.

Standing once again!

*As of this writing, Fern's testimony is the only evidence that the horses were at the fair. In Ryan Howard's book on McPharlin, he describes a 1929 marionette piece in which Abe Lincoln rode a horse. There may be photos of McPharlin's puppets at the Detroit Institute of the Arts that may clarify exactly where this horse was used. I have yet to find any listing of an exhibit that Fern described.

The Second Horse: Another Page

For information about the care of old puppets, go to: http://www.puppeteers.org/collections.html