Baker Marionette Theater to Attempt a Comeback

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, a Los Angeles institution that on Sunday seemed have reached its final curtain after delighting children for 29 years, will be attempting a comeback, one of its co-founders said Tuesday. The show must go on, Alton Wood said, and he and Baker, now on tour with a troupe of marionettes, again plan to pull the strings at the popular children’s playhouse.

Baker and Wood would be taking over a theater they had sold to Donald Battjes & Associates in March, 1988. Battjes, who Alton said has focused his efforts more on a related puppet-making business, closed the financially troubled theater after its Sunday matinee. Wood said the theater would resume performances July 9.

“We’re delighted that the theater can continue because it’s the only one of its kind in the United States,” Wood said. “We built this business on quality and it’s been destroyed. We’ll try to put the quality back in.”