{"id":3685,"date":"2012-10-31T13:48:20","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T18:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3685"},"modified":"2012-11-16T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T14:29:44","slug":"happy-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3685","title":{"rendered":"Happy Halloween!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A snake charmer shares the stage with a magician who is about to saw his assistant in half. Ralph Chess\u00e9 papers C0224, Box 1, Folder 19. Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University. Public domain. There are no known restrictions.<\/p><\/div>\n

Happy Halloween! There is something inherently creepy about marionettes to me and after looking through photographs of marionettes used by the Federal Theatre Project, I thought a Halloween blog post might be the perfect way to highlight some of the photographs from the newly processed Ralph Chess\u00e9 papers<\/a>. All of these photographs are from productions of a Marionette Variety show produced in San Francisco in July of 1936 and a later incarnation in Los Angeles in 1938. I\u2019m sure there was nothing scary about the actual performances; in fact at a time when the country was seized by the Great Depression I\u2019m sure that the marionettes brought a lot of joy to the audience, but the shadowy atmosphere of the black and white photographs suggests that the puppets could have just as easily been involved in sinister activities. More images from the Chess\u00e9 collection can be found on our digital collections site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bill \u201cBojangles\u201d Robinson puppet. Ralph Chess\u00e9 papers C0224, Box 1, Folder 19. Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University. Public domain. There are no known restrictions.<\/p><\/div>\n

Bill \u201cBojangles\u201d Robinson<\/a> (1878-1949) was a popular African-American entertainer from the early 1900s. A native of Richmond, Virginia he was most known for dancing with Shirley Temple in a series of films from the 1930s. He began his career in the theatre and vaudeville in Washington, D.C., and New York City and developed as a tap dancer and actor in musical comedy shows. He was a popular figure on Broadway and in the nightclubs. It wasn\u2019t until he was 50 years old that he began performing for white audiences. Fellow puppeteer Bob Baker also created a Bill Robinson marionette in the late 1930s. Video of Baker\u2019s Robinson can be found on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

George Bernard Shaw was the master of ceremonies at the Marionette Variety show and here he is sharing the stage with quintuplets. Ralph Chess\u00e9 papers C0224, Box 1, Folder 19. Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University. Public domain. There are no known restrictions.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ralph Chess\u00e9 began his career with government sponsored work in 1934 when he was selected to add a mural to the Coit Tower in San Francisco. Two years later he joined the Federal Theatre project as Director of the Puppetry Unit and in 1937 Chess\u00e9 moved to Los Angeles to take over as State Director for California. The Chess\u00e9 papers contain materials such as photographs, watercolor set and costume design sketches, playscripts, and programs relating to Federal Theatre Project marionette productions in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Some of these plays are Child of God, Crock of Gold, The Emperor Jones, Hansel and Gretel, Marionette Varieties, Rip Van Winkle, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night. The papers also include magazine articles from the 1970s that highlight Chess\u00e9’s mural painting at the Coit Tower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Halloween! There is something inherently creepy about marionettes to me and after looking through photographs of marionettes used by the Federal Theatre Project, I thought a Halloween blog post might be the perfect way to highlight some of the photographs from the newly processed Ralph Chess\u00e9 papers. All of these photographs are from productions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,162],"tags":[25,56],"class_list":["post-3685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-federal-theatre-project","category-recently-processed","tag-federal-theatre-project","tag-photographs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-Xr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3841,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3841","url_meta":{"origin":3685,"position":0},"title":"Voices from the FTP – a new exhibit from SC&A","author":"admin","date":"January 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We have recently installed an exhibit outside of SC&A in Fenwick Library focusing on the Federal Theatre Project titled \"Voices from the FTP\". This exhibit takes the individual personal papers we have from FTP participants and integrates their story into the larger context of this government sponsored program. These may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "exhibits"","block_context":{"text":"exhibits","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/FTP.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3272,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3272","url_meta":{"origin":3685,"position":1},"title":"Reprocessing the Federal Theatre Project – Playscripts","author":"admin","date":"March 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the first in a new series of blog posts focusing on the reprocessing of The Federal Theatre Project collection. The Federal Theatre Project was a government sponsored large scale arts endeavor that created jobs for thousands of unemployed theatre professionals during the years 1935 to 1939. George Mason\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Federal Theatre Project"","block_context":{"text":"Federal Theatre Project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/swing_socko_vagabond.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3791,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3791","url_meta":{"origin":3685,"position":2},"title":"Federal Theatre Project personal papers","author":"admin","date":"December 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A number of personal collections related to the Federal Theatre Project are now processed and finding aids are available online.\u00a0 The J. Howard Miller papers include custom-made\u00a0 scrapbooks bound by the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, part of the Works Progress Administration of Wisconsin. Inside the scrapbooks are programs, photographs, posters, flyers,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Federal Theatre Project"","block_context":{"text":"Federal Theatre Project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/millerScrapbook1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":119,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=119","url_meta":{"origin":3685,"position":3},"title":"Strings Attached – The Marionettes of Molka Reich","author":"admin","date":"December 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"SC&A's Federal Theatre Project Collection is home to a lot of unsual and fascinating pieces. At the request of a patron, I recently went through the Molka Reich Collection and found several interesting photographs.\u00c2\u00a0 Molka Reich led a most unusual life. After studying puppetry under Remo Bufano in New York,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "SCRC interest"","block_context":{"text":"SCRC interest","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"molka_reich_puppets","src":"https:\/\/specialcollections.files.wordpress.com\/2008\/12\/molka_reich_puppets.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4668,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=4668","url_meta":{"origin":3685,"position":4},"title":"Set models in the Federal Theatre Project personal papers","author":"admin","date":"November 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are a number of recent additions to the FTP personal papers collection. The number of boxes in the collection has gone from 9 to 29 since the finding aid was originally created in October 2012. This is mainly due to a processing decision that instead of processing each collection\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Federal Theatre Project"","block_context":{"text":"Federal Theatre Project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"Leve_CherokeeNights","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Leve_CherokeeNights.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6149,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=6149","url_meta":{"origin":3685,"position":5},"title":"The Swing Mikado: Gilbert and Sullivan Reinvented in 1938","author":"admin","date":"February 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here in the Special Collections Research Center, we are gearing up for #GandS2017 - our celebration of all things Gilbert and Sullivan, culminating in the opening of an exhibit of materials from the David and Annabelle Stone Gilbert and Sullivan Collection. One of Gilbert and Sullivan's popular comic operas is\u00a0The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "exhibits"","block_context":{"text":"exhibits","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mikado_01.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3685"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3719,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685\/revisions\/3719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}