Bobo Puppets Now Available
Celebrate the legacy of BBMT with a Bob Baker Marionette of your very own
Bobo is back! In celebration of BBMT’s 57th anniversary (and 1st anniversary of our new home), beautifully handmade Bobo marionettes are now available for purchase.
This limited edition, collectible marionette is crafted in-house at BBMT and based on an original design that Bob Baker himself created more than 50 years ago. A piece of LA and puppetry history and a legacy of our Theater, Bobo has not been commercially available for decades and we are delighted to bring him back now.
Every artisanal Bobo puppet represents dozens of hours of work and is constructed from a total of nearly 40 handcrafted components and requires over 100 separate distinct manufacturing processes from cutting and sanding to painting and glueing.
Not only a beautiful object and touchstone in puppetry history, each Bobo puppet is fully manipulatable with intricate stringing and perfect weight to give it a true illusion of life in movement and pose. The final result is a puppet unlike any other — aside from those Bob and his team of fabricators produced decades ago.
For those who purchase this puppet, we hope that you enjoy Bobo as much as the BBMT Fabrication Team enjoyed building him.
For insights into the puppet making process, take a look at the photos below.
All images courtesy of Ian Byers-Gamber. Special thanks to the BBMT Puppet Workshop: Kevin Beltz (Technical Director and Head Puppet Builder), Roxy Jamin (Fabricator), Emily Frasu (Fabricator)
The History of “Bobo”
Circa 1945, the only clown out of eight manufactured marionettes coming down the Bob Baker assembly line was Coco. One day Bob Baker and Morton Haack, designing with Bob at the time, decided they were tired of seeing Coco's face. On the spur of the moment the two created a new character from the scraps and discards left on the cutting tables and floor. Taking his name from his creator, BOBO was born. Everyone had an immediate affinity for the pixie clown with the happy-go-lucky face.
From his ignominious beginning, Bobo proved his worth by outselling every puppet model 3 to 1. Thousands upon thousands of Bobos were sold as fast as the Baker corps could manufacture them. Bobo was a hit. Three wallpaper companies put him on a children's line of wallpaper. He had his own TV show, The Adventures of Bobo, which was the first television series to originate on the West Coast, televised from KFI-TV: Los Angeles. With Marion Richman supplying his vocal chords, Bobo headed for a long career ... until they sold the station. Then came Ms. Richman's untimely death, and Bobo became voiceless.
He joined the Baker touring company as a mute puppet. In fact, whenever an audience of children grew frightened of the other marionettes, Bob Baker would trot out Bobo who proved to be shyer of the children then they were of him. Hiding behind Mr. Baker's leg, Bobo would peek at the children trying to coax him out so that the show could go on. Bobo also received the honor of giving the birthday children a very large lollipop which guaranteed his return invitation the following year. He regained his voice with the help of Alton Wood, and for the next fifteen years, Bobo played in countless movie star homes and for the children of California. Then came the Bob Baker Marionette Theater and Bobo went into retirement appearing now and again for a specialty number or a nostalgia act.
The Historic Puppet Making Process (that’s still used today!)
