Writer Forman Brown Isn’t Resting in Peace
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What good news that Forman Brown is alive and fighting. He helped found the Yale Puppeteers and the Turnabout Theatre. The puppet shows were first seen locally on Olvera Street, and in 1940 the group moved to a new theater in Hollywood, where many celebrities came again and again to enjoy the performances.
The Turnabout Theatre had a puppet stage at one end and a stage for live revues at the other. During intermission the old double streetcar seats were simply reversed by flipping the backs in the other direction. They all had double names, such as Bill and Coo, Shiver and Shake, and Free and Easy.
The puppet shows and marionettes were pure entertainment. The live revues featured Elsa Lanchester, famed mime Lotte Goslar, and comedienne Dorothy Neumann, as well as longtime troupe members Harry Burnett, Frances Osborne and Forman Brown himself. He wrote the songs and sketches and played the piano when not on stage. After 4,535 performance the theater closed in 1956, a victim of the growing TV entertainment dominance.
For a wonderful account about these fun times, read “Small Wonder, the Story of the Yale Puppeteers and the Turnabout Theatre,” by Forman Brown. Ray Bradbury wrote the foreword. (Scarecrow Press, 1980)
JOHANNA E. TALLMAN
La Canada
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