VEGETABLE SOUP & OUTERSCOPE 2

"Vegetable Soup was an American educational children's television program produced by the New York State Education Department that originally ran on PBS from September 22, 1975 to December 14, 1978. The purpose of the program was to be a television series for children to help counter the negative, destructive effects of racial prejudice and racial isolation and to reinforce and dramatize the positive, life-enhancing value of human diversity in entertaining and affective presentations that children could understand and relate to."

OK, that's the Wikipedia version. However, it left out one of the creepiest puppet segments on television. Ever.

OUTERSCOPE II.

PADY BLACKWOOD's company was in charge of the puppets. DORRIS DOWLING sculpted and painted them, and OLGA FELGEMACHER did the animations, and was in charge of the puppetry. Olga also played EDGAR (shudder) and HENRY. Edgar's voice was redubbed by a kid, but Henry's sports O's Bil Baird coined "toy-voice".

Olga called them the "Village Of The Damned Puppets." Below is a scene - - you can see for yourself. Good night, children. Sleep welllll. . .

(that's Olga as Henry on the left)

PADY BLACKWOOD MEMORIAL

Olga & I attended PADY BLACKWOOD's Memorial Service at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater on Friday December 11th, 2009. It was a beautiful fun-loving event - - kinda like our dear Pady himself.

If any attendees have pictures, memories and reflections they want me to include in this here FlexiBlog, please e them to us flexitoon@aol.com. Soon would be good. Once gathered, we'll post 'em. Thanx!

BAIRD COMPANY PHOTO

(click to enlarge)

Thanks to Doug Preis for finding this.

PADY BLACKWOOD PIX

Pady & me. On the bridge during live DAVY JONES LOCKER.

THE BAIRD COMPANY ON TOUR IN MASON CITY IOWA 1987

PADY BLACKWOOD: R.I.P.

PADY BLACKWOOD, one of the all-time great marionette manipulators, died recently. He had a heart-attack in a parking lot in Florida.
Olga knew Pady very well having worked with him at the NICOLO MARIONETTES and the BIL BAIRD MARIONETTE THEATRE. He was loved and respected and a was wonderful, talented person. I did several posts about Pady in the past, so I will let them serve as our living memories of this gifted, gentle soul.

http://flexitoon.blogspot.com/2009/05/incomporable-pady-blackwood.html

http://flexitoon.blogspot.com/2009/05/little-pady-story-by-olga.html

http://flexitoon.blogspot.com/2009/07/howdy-doody-convention-of-aught-four.html

HOWDY DOODY CONVENTION of AUGHT-FOUR

Our good friend (and excellent-but-occasional puppeteer) JACK ROTH threw a convention for the HOWDY DOODY CLUB in White Plains. NY. The dates were Friday October 1--Sunday October 3, 2004. He (they) put together a fun event with a chance for fans to get celebrity autographs (SOUPY SALES was there!) as well as purchase memorabila. But mostly they assembled from far-and-wide to collude with like-minded denizens of DoodyVille.

The event culminated with a once-in-a-lifetime performance featuring a Buffalo Bob impersonator yes, but the pulse-racing stars of the evening were spot-on replicas of the ORIGINAL HOWDY DOODY MARIONETTES, built to perfection by puppet craftsman RIC LILJEBLAD (Ric has worked with Flexitoon on and off for several years as well.)

(from left: Graphic Artist Dan Tremblay, Olga Felgemacher, Pady Blackwood, puppet-maker Ric Liljeblad, light and sound technician Alex Bartosh, and me directing sans riders crop, though Ric would probably disagree.)

Jack wrote a broadcast-worthy script and brought in the one-and-only-and-legendary marionette-manipulator PADY BLACKWOOD to spring Howdy to life once again (Pady has been Howdy's main puppenspieler since the early 1970's. See OLDER POSTS for more of Pady's storied career.) Jack also asked OLGA FELGEMACHER to puppeteer. Pady and Olga hadn't worked together since his days at the BIL BAIRD THEATER in Manhattan, so it was a wonderful reunion to witness, both off-stage and on.

Olga & Pady

When Jack called and asked me to direct, Mike Campbell and I were in the middle of editing the Flexitoon series THE HAMPTOONS . . .

. . . but I couldn't say no to Jack.

The performance was a real crowd-pleaser and went off amazingly smoothly. However, I offered the assembled a curtain-raiser caveat just in case it didn't - -

"If something goes wrong, we meant to do it."

This trip down MemoryLane also signaled the very last performance ever by the magical Lew Anderson.

Lew who?

How about CLARABELLE himself!

We re-costumed our Didi The Drummer marionette (from Shining Time Station) as PRINCESS SUMMERFALL WINTERSPRING.


Above are four of the actual original marionettes built for the Howdy Doody Show by RUFUS ROSE: MAMBO THE ELEPHANT, TOMMY TURTLE, and HIDE AND ZEKE.

JOHN J. FADOOZLE is brought to life once again by Olga!

Even BUFFALO BEE and the FLUB-A-DUB were there!

Jackson Roth? You done DOODY good!

A Little Pady Story by Olga

PADY BLACKWOOD never toured with me during my magic-time with Nicolo Marionettes, but we finally got to work together at Bil Baird's Theatre. One of my favorite Pady stories is when we were in the middle of performing THE WIZARD OF OZ.

We were on the bridge with LIVE mics. I was wearing this blouse . . .

. . . which buttoned up the back. I'm totally involved in performing Dorothy, when Pady strolls over on the bridge and starts unbuttoning my blouse! I couldn't say anything because the mics were hot, so I'm moving my mouth and yelling in mime "stoppit! Pady!" Then the blouse slowly- -falls - - doooooooooown over my hands, onto the controls! I couldn't stop performing. Meanwhile, the whole cast is convulsing with laughter. Including me! I was hysterical at the funnyness and totally embarassed at the same time. Soon Pady's better nature took over (unless that WAS his better nature?) and he calmly returned to my side , slid the blouse up over my shoulders and rebuttoned me up. The audience didn't notice a thing, but it became indelibly etched in my head. I love Pady Blackwood!

next? The HOWDY DOODY CONVENTION!

OLGA and BAIRD

When Olga Felgemacher joined the Bil Baird Marionette Theater, it rejuvenated Bil. "Finally" he said. "A female puppeteer who can not only act (she graduated from Northwestern University), manipulate marionettes, design and sew costumes - - but - - she also has the perfect toy voice!" Bil signed her to a long-term contract. He also gave her this amazing picture.

Olga became Leading Lady in the Bil Baird "A" Team: Bil, Frank (Sully) Sullivan (who was Olga's mentor), Byron Whiting, Carl Harms and off course, the legendary Pady Blackwood (more about Pady next post.)

Her first show with Bil was Winnie The Pooh. She played Christopher Robbin, Tigger, and the Coddleston Pie Mouse (Sully was Winnie, Bil was Eeyore.)

Olga also played PETER in Peter and the Wolf. . . . . . DOROTHY in The Wizard of Oz, and NICKIE in DAVY JONES LOCKER.
Baird's was a very exciting place to work. Of course all the puppets and marionettes were the product of the idiocyncratic vision and genius of Bil Baird himself, whom I call THE OLYMPUS OF PUPPETRY. Olga said if you were skilled, though, the puppeteers could also have a hand in the building process (there never really was a "shop foreman.") Sully would one day be making molds while Olga was sewing costumes and Bil was painting faces and Pady was laying celastic (they were very close.)

Then one day Bil told Olga they were going to do a show "just for her." It was PINOCCHIO!

Written by JEROME COOPERSMITH (The Apple Tree); Music by MARY RODGERS (Once Upon A Mattress); lyrics by SHELDON HARNICK (Fiddler on the Roof), Pinocchio, with Olga in the lead, won the New York State Council of the Arts GOLD MEDAL.

By now, several new, world-class puppeteers have joined the company, as Sully retired from the bridge to build puppets and supervise the productions. This is when JONATHAN FREEMAN came upon the scene, forging a life-long connection to Olga (and me!) in the make-believe arts.

BAIRD COMPANY ON TOUR

(from left) Sean O'Malley, Olga, Bill Tost, Jonathan Freeman, Byron Whiting, Peter Baird, and Carl Harms

Pinocchio, being the rousing success it was, prompted Bil to tackle another classic. This time, ALICE IN WONDERLAND (see earlier post.) It opened at the theater to rave reviews, and soon, Olga was on the road again, touring Alice across America. Olga played ALICE (live on stage and as the puppet,) the RED QUEEN, and TIGER LILY. All the marionettes were wonderful to work. Of course - - they were BAIRDS!

OLGA ON THE BRIDGE BETWEEN SHOWS

A child loved the show, saw it several times, and came back once to meet Olga - - dressed as Alice!

Olga wanted Bil to sign her copy of his book, THE ART OF THE PUPPET. He said OK but held onto it for several years. Whenever she'd ask about it, he would shine her on. Then one day in 1975, Bil, smiling impishly, handed her the book. Olga ran and hid, and in the privacy of under the stage, she sloo-o-o-wly opened the book and cried. She could not have been happier with what she discovered!