PUPPETEERS HAVE AUDIENCES ON A STRING; MARIONETTES BOUNCING BACK.

Byline: Cynthia L. Webb Associated Press 

A 3-year-old boy squeals with delight as the yellow-feathered bird dances on his lap, wiggling its tail and sassily lip-syncing to children's tunes.

The bird seems real to the giggling youngster, but it's actually a 3-foot-tall marionette that sways, runs and blinks under the control of a black-clothed puppeteer.

The doll is one of hundreds used by Bob Baker, 73, at his Bob Baker Marionette Theater, where captivated adults and children have been watching the pieces of cloth, wood and string come to life for 34 years.

The 25-member theater is one of the oldest in America - a remnant of the days when playhouses dotted the streets of downtown Los Angeles.

``There is a fine line between those who think it is a puppet, and those that think it is real,'' said Steven Loeb, a puppeteer.

``I may be playing second fiddle to a bunch of wires, but the secret is you have to breathe life into the strings.''

The theater is a place for Baker to live out a passion he has had since first watching a puppet show at the age of 6. After visiting a toy store to buy his first marionette doll, his mother arranged for him to get lessons, and he's been performing ever since.

While puppetry may seem like an offbeat art form that traditionally caters to children, it is a budding, international trade that is practiced across the country, with theaters in Arizona, Georgia and New England.

Puppetry caught on nationally with the advent of television, Baker said. Shows like Jim Henson's ``The Muppets'' and ``Sesame Street'' gave puppetry exposure, and the craft has rocketed from playhouses onto the big screen. Hit movies like ``Ghostbusters'' and ``Men In Black'' used puppets for special effects.

Baker's credits include orchestrating marionette work on some 250 films, like ``GI Blues,'' ``Escape from Witch Mountain,'' ``Bedknobs and Broomsticks,'' and the upcoming TV version of ``Cinderella.''

He has performed for stars like Bette Davis, and his talents also brought him close to Walt Disney, leading to a job decorating windows when Disneyland first opened.

``It's about being in the right place at the right time'' because it is important to teach people to use their imagination and to believe in fantasy, he said.

Laurel German sat crossed-legged on the floor of Baker's theater on a recent September afternoon, among other 3- and 4-year-olds. ``I liked the one with the red skirt,'' Laurel said. ``I liked the Mexican hat dancers. That was my favorite.''

A cast of six puppeteers maneuvered singing cactuses, dueting lovers and spooky skeletons to circus-style music and lighting. The dolls, made with wood or plastic and dressed in pint-size costumes, are moved by an intricate webbing of strings and animated by the twisting, pulling and balancing of a wood handle.

``It makes you feel young at heart,'' said 84-year-old Rose Salkan, one of a group of senior citizens visiting the show from nearby Hawthorne.

The company entertains a variety of visitors, from kindergarten classes to senior citizen groups. But its financial mainstay is creating handmade marionette dolls for the Disney Store catalog, such as Pinocchio, Goofy and Jiminy Cricket. They sell for around $500.

In the theater's workshop, rows of headless Pinocchio dolls hang from lines, waiting to be dressed and painted. Baker and his crew make the dolls from scratch, piecing and stringing them together for sale and performances.

Ursula Heinle, who made both of Nancy Reagan's inaugural dresses, designs and hand sews the costumes for all the theater's puppets, down to the bloomers and petticoats for Snow White dolls and the wizard hats for the ``Fantasia'' Mickey Mouse.

``There is a good thing about these puppets,'' she said, smiling. ``They don't talk back to you.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1) Children reach for the mouth of a hand puppet animated by puppeteer Susan Gayle at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater in Los Angeles.

(2) Spotlight hits Yulia Yemelin, left, and Matthew Gross before a performance.

(3) Ray Vieta manipulates a puppet.

Associated Press