In the Begining ...

I can't remember how old I was when I became interested in ventriloquisim. I remember seeing both Paul Winchell and Jimmy Nelson on TV. I remember my Dad coming to pick me up at the Magic Mart. Back then it was safe to leave a child alone in a store. My parents did it all the time. When we were at the Tyrone Shopping Center if I wasn't attached to my mother's hip I was at the Toy Box ... Downtown St. Pete around the corner from Mass Brother's Department Store, it was the The Magic Mart.

There I would amuse myself among all the wonders to be found. They didn't have figures, but they did have the dolls of Dannny O'Day and Jerry Mahoney on occassion allong with marrionetttes and hand puppets. These held more magic than the tricks that provailed through the shop. I came home one day with Paul Winchell's book. And thus my first attempt began. I was probably 8 or 9 and I was probabaly more interested in building than exherting the effert to learn how to throw one's voice.

When I was about 12, I became interested again. Dad searched the paper's want ads and found one for a vent figure. I was disappointed to find out when we got there that it was a Danny O'Day doll. I almost walked away but bought it I found it came with Jimmy Nelson's instrucional record. I did pretty well until I got to the "Bs" and "Ms" and once again stalled.

In college I was an art major. Requirements said that one had to also take theater and music classes. Most signed up to paint sceenery for the various productions going on that quarter. The only problem was that you work 24/7 for two weeks and the rest of your studies go to hell. I guess it was growing up in a teacher's household, that kept me from skipping classes. To meet my class requirements I took classes with Bill Lorenzen and caught the puppet bug. I did his "Voodoo" production with marionettes, After College I went back to work as an art instructor for the city of St. Petersburg. There at the Walter Fuller Community Center, Gretchen Tenbrock indulged me with letting me do puppets with the kids. We did the "Lion and the Mouse" and a Punch and Judy show with rod puppets. We even incorpriated puppets in our theme fpr the Festival States Youth Parade where we constructed an 8 foot Pinnochio. It was during this time that I got a call from Bill and got to join his cast for his proformance of the show "Sea Serpent" at the Puppeteers of America. It was there that I learned of a project that Bill was working on. Bill was building puppets for proposed shows for something called EPCOT at Disney World. He casually told me about auditions at USF. I tried out and made it in. For the next 4 years I was a member of the Promenade Players. I worked with some very talented indiviguals. Joe Irwin, Kim Rivers, Terry Woods, and Renee Duplechain. We dressed as gypsies and did a marrionette puppet show out of a puppet wagon with a talking horse as our narrator. We did 4 shows, "Hansel and Grettel," "Aladdin," Horosima Taro." and "Sabatouge at the Works." When the show was canceled to pay for daytime fireworks ( Smoke bombs) for Eisner's Mistake in the Lake show. I stayed on with the company, boxed up the puppets, worked the next 22 years as a bellman and watched the Mouse drift away from what he once was.