(pictured: Carby Carburator, more often than not manipulated by Rod Young)
Then one day I discovered there was another puppet show on the Fair grounds - - LES POUPEE de PARIS (pronounced Paree)
It was created by Sid & Marty Krofft, several years before they hit it super big in TV with the clunky HR PUFENSTUFF et al.
The show was an extravaganza - - filled with celebrity puppets and spectacle and glitz. It was really pretty great. After the show they would let us go backstage! You'd enter an auditorium door SR, they'd lead you across the backstage area, then out you'd go into the Fair SL. But not me. I was backstage and I wasn't leaving. I saw an artistic-looking fellow in black, and I caught his eye and blurted out "I'm a puppeteer too." He said "I bet you are." "I even make my own puppets" I said. "That's what a real puppeteer does" he replied in a way that I never forgot (no, duh.)Then he asked if I "would you like to watch the next performance from back. . ." "YES!!!!!" ". . stage?" He showed me where to sit (if I remember correctly through these rosy bifocals) it was on a raised platform off-stage left. Ocassionally during this amazing production, he would come over to make sure I was alright, that I could see OK, etc. It was thrilling. After the show, this puppet artist who made such a great impression on me, shook my hand at the stage door - - (once the audience had filled past yet again) - - and said "My name is PADY BLACKWOOD" and off I went, walking on Air-Thru-The-Fair, thinking about Pady Blackwood. Somehow - - I found myself on line once again at the Show-Go-Round.
Next post, Olga reminices about many a Pady shenanagin at Baird's theater. . .
