Marionette Theater’s Future Uncertain : Puppetry: Bob Baker tries to forestall a threatened foreclosure on his historic theater. He will hold its first public fund-raiser March 14.

For a time, it looked as if the historic Bob Baker Marionette Theatre had found its happily-ever-after. Last July, just after the financially troubled theater announced it would close its doors on almost 30 years of puppet magic, two Los Angeles businessmen offered an 11th-hour, Capraesque rescue, volunteering their professional savvy to keep those doors open.

But today, the small First Street theater on the outskirts of downtown still teeters on the brink of oblivion. One good Samaritan apparently soon lost interest; the other says he is still working to aid the theater, but health problems have intervened, and he and owner Bob Baker haven’t always seen eye to eye.

Baker, “wiser now,” said he welcomes any support, but “it’s up to me and Alton (Wood, his partner) to do it. If somebody comes along and can help, great.” He said he is negotiating a mortgage on his house to forestall a threatened March foreclosure on the theater and that he is reinstating the operation’s nonprofit status.

He’s also organizing the theater’s first public fund-raiser, to be held March 14, with a performance and reception, a marionette sale, birthday party giveaways and T-shirts. “I’m going to hold on like a bull dog. That’s all there is to it.”

He said he hopes to raise enough money to fund an on-site educational facility, the Academy of Puppetry and Allied Arts.

“We hope by summer we can offer classes in puppet manipulation and experimental puppetry,” Baker said.

Stocky and energetic, still sporting his trademark black mustache, Baker, 68, and Wood, 79, a courtly Texan, have been in the puppet business--performing and manufacturing--for more than 50 years.

Their creations have appeared in commercials and television shows from the ‘40s to the present, and in such movies as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and “Escape to Witch Mountain.”

The pair sold the theater in 1988. Baker planned to tour and Wood wanted to retire. But they missed the simple white structure on the busy, weedy corner near Glendale Boulevard and 2nd Street. When the new owner wanted out last year, citing “marginal profitability,” they accepted an offer to take it back.

The theater was deeply in debt, however, and many of the more than 3,000 puppets and sets were lost or missing. Baker and Wood were too discouraged to continue.

That’s when Ernie Castillo, the property owner next door, and his friend Edward Maldonado stepped in, offering to guide Baker through the maze of financial red tape. But things didn’t work out as planned.

Castillo, who no longer occupies the property next door, was unreachable for comment. Maldonado, 74, a retired Los Angeles businessman, said he’s still committed to the theater. “Some people say, you’re fighting a losing battle,” he said. “I say, no it’s not, this thing has to go on.

“They’ve got a beautiful program here, they’re interested in getting kids in who’ve never had the chance to go to the theater. Every time they do, I’ve seen what happens, the joy.”

He concedes that he and Baker have had businessman vs. artist disagreements. “I haven’t been there as often,” he said, “because sometimes I get a little frustrated. I try to do what I think I should be doing, but I don’t like to push.”

Maldonado said he is meeting with interested community leaders from East Los Angeles today and that he is determined to raise $50,000 by “selling 5,000 tickets for $10 each” to be donated to underprivileged children to attend performances at the theater .