Bob Baker puppet show brings songs, smiles to LA County Fair ...Middle East

On the Los Angeles County Fair asphalt, a mobile stage faces the Millard Sheets Art Center and the Clock Tower. At either end of the low flatbed truck, behind curtains, two puppeteers limber up with their marionettes.

A dozen of us gather around on this chilly Sunday, unsure what to expect from an outdoor puppet show. Then a recorded voice calls out cheerfully: “Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls!”

And with that, it’s showtime for the Bob Baker Marionettes.

Puppeteers Caden Healander and Samantha Lake bring out a series of animal puppets on strings for the barnyard-themed show, “Something to Crow About.”

Mama and Papa Goat preside over the farm. We meet a menagerie: pigs, a crow, a dodo bird, a frog, a yellow cat, a chicken who fancies herself an opera singer and three rabbits, named the Foot-Foot Bunnies.

They cavort and sing songs, including such pop standards of the 1930s as “It’s De-Lovely” and “Shine On Harvest Moon.” All the music and vocals are pre-recorded, and not recently. The effect is charming, like a half-remembered children’s record from your own youth.

Both in matching red, Healander and Lake look down at their puppets, which helps our eyes focus on the puppets too, and don’t speak. On a few occasions, one or the other steps onto the asphalt to bring a puppet closer to us.

In one segment, a bumblebee with allergies keeps flying toward a daisy but, after sneezing, has to retreat. Lake comes out toward the audience, swinging the bee in mid-air, before returning to the stage’s daisy, which is manipulated by Healander.

The audience, meanwhile, keeps growing as passersby pause to watch. Midway through, people start applauding after each song. A few people take a seat on the asphalt. The original dozen people expands to 90.

When the show ends, after 20 minutes, everyone is smiling.

I approach the truck to talk with Healander and Lake. They smile too.

When I heard the puppet show would be at the fair, that was my top priority for coverage. The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, founded in 1963, is a beloved institution.

For the children’s theater company, the oldest in Los Angeles, “Something to Crow About” was a natural choice for the county fair since the show is farm-themed.

“This show originated in 1958,” Healander tells me. “It’s Bob Baker’s first traveling show. All the puppets are from the original production.”

A mother interrupts to exclaim to Healander: “You guys are amazing!”

An L.A. native born in 1924, Baker’s course was set at age 6 when he saw his first puppet show, according to a history on the theater’s website. He created his own backyard puppet theater, trained with established puppeteers, apprenticed with director George Pal and became head animator of Puppetoons, which made stop-motion puppet films.

In 1963 Baker co-founded the theater in downtown L.A., performing there or on the road until his death in 2014 at age 90. The theater then relocated to Highland Park.

Its children’s entertainment is of the type you’d swear they don’t make any more: puppets on strings, old songs and corny jokes. That’s made the theater a time capsule of another era and a favorite of devotees of popular culture.

With a theme this year of “Art Unleashed,” the fair invited various high-profile arts organizations from around Los Angeles County to take part. They include LACMA, the Getty Center, Center Theater Group, LA Opera, LA Plaza de Cultural y Artes — and Bob Baker Marionettes.

“Our marketing manager loves them. She has one of their marionettes tattooed on her calf,” confided Renee Hernandez, the fair’s spokesperson.

Healander and Lake perform at schools and special events. At Christmas, they did a show in an LAX terminal to entertain stressed-out travelers.

Now they’re at the county fair, Sundays only through May 25, at 1, 3 and 5 p.m. It’s free with fair admission. No strings attached, except on the puppets.

Even if they rarely look up while performing, Healander and Lake have a sense of the audience.

“If I’m looking down, it helps when I hear chuckles,” says Healander, 22.

Unlike the theater, where patrons buy tickets and take a seat, “out here, it’s whoever’s passing by,” says Lake, 30. “They’re looking, they’re laughing. It helps me as a performer to see the crowd growing… It’s energizing to be at places like this.”

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It had rained overnight and that morning. For this first day, the sky is gray and the temperature is in the 50s. Puddles remain in depressions in the asphalt, forming a moat between the audience and performers and limiting interaction.

But the response heartens the performers. “A ton of kids sat down in that little arc,” Healander says. “That’s why we do it. We’re here to inspire children — and adults too.”

“No matter where you are, you’re bringing joy to people,” Lake says of the venues. “It never gets old.”

Even on a wet, overcast and chilly day, a Bob Baker puppet show is a burst of sunshine.

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My staple food at the Los Angeles County Fair is a chili dog from Pink’s. I got one on Sunday. “Your order name is Katy Perry,” an employee told me. As I waited, completed orders were called out for pickup: “Denzel Washington!” “Jack Nicholson!” It beats being order 538.

David “Katy Perry” Allen writes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday. Email [email protected], phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.

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