BAIRD, Bil

BAIRD

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/11/2014 at 00:42:07

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, June 15, 1940, Page 16

THEY STARTED HERE
No. 13 in a Mason City Series of Success Stories

BIL BAIRD, Marionette Impresario

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Some men win recognition and success in well established fields. Others make their mark in a different way, going into something that would not appear to offer anything and fashioning success by means of their own ingenuity and imagination.

That's the story of Bil Baird's career, for he is one man who has adapted an extremely limited profession to something new - and in doing os he has achieved a top position in his field.

To be more exact, he has adapted marionette performaces to the highly profitable and practical field of advertising, and in so doing has made a real niche for himself.

Bil now operates three marionette shows which tell advertising stories and bring entertainment and laughter to their audiences at the same tune, Two of these shows are traveling in huge trucks for the Shell Oil company in connections with its "share the road" safety campaign. Playing from stages on the specially built trucks, the puppets perform such difficult feats as riding a bicycle.

But the big show, of course, is the perforamnce in the Swift and company building at the New York World's fair, where millions will see his miniature revue which includes a puppet LaGuardia, dancing jitterbugs, and pretty Aquabelle.

* * *
The former Mason Cityan was born 35 years ago in Nebraska and came to Mason City at the age of 15. He had already developed a great interest in marionettes, which was started by his father when he was a boy of 8 or 9, and had been giving shows for neighborhood children. In those days he handled the little wooden dolls and kicked the light switches with his feet when a change in illumination was needed.

Bil attended Mason City high school. Graduating from the local school, he then attended the University of Iowa, where his marionettes gained considerable favor. Following his gradution from Iowa, he went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago for a year.

A natural musical ability proved then and still proves to be of considerable assistance to the marionettes' master in preparing and presenting his shows. He is able to play the piano, accordion, banjo and guitar, all by ear, for he has had only one series of lessons - on the piano.

* * *
After Bil left the Chicago academy, where he had added to the art work which had occupied a good deal of his scholastic schedule at Iowa, he went abroad for the summer. That was in 1927. The youth was able to make a good many contacts and find himself in many unusual places due to the fact that he had his accordion along - and knew how to entertain with it.

Back in this country the young man landed a job with Tony Sarg, probably the best known of all marionette men. He spent a year with the maestro and then, in company with another member of the Sarg company, set out for himself with a marionette show.

They had a fine show, Bil recalls, but that wasn't all it took. They were unable to get the showings and financial return necessary, and so "folded."

For the next four years Bil Baird was back with Tony Sarg, playing a big part in the successes of the Sarg shows. In common with other great marionette men, he has the happy faculty of "coming down the strings" - diffusing some of his own personality into the dolls and keeping them abreast of the times with up-to-date commentary and patter that makes the difference between a fair performance and a fine one.

While with Sarg the former Mason Cityan had designed many of the high gas filled figures which floated through New York's streets in several of the annual Thanksgiving day parades sponsored by a large department store.

This and his work as Sarg's right hand man, especially during a year at the 1933 Century of Progress brought the former Mason Cityan considerable recognition.

* * *
So it was natural that attractive offers were made to him and he decided again to go on his own. One of the first shows he produced was for the Swift and company exhibit at the 1934 Chicago fair. Since then he has been busy developing his own staff of puppeteers and workmen.

Bil has invented new ways of stringing marionettes and new methods of joint structure which makes his puppets so life-like that they are studied by other puppeteers.

The young man from Mason City is as well known in the theater as in the advertising world. He designed the puppet show which was used in this season's Broadway revival of "Lilliom" with Burgess Meredith. His marionettes were the "seven deadly sins" in Dr. Faustus, the vehicle which first brought Orson Welles to the attention of the public. He has staged shows in the French Casino, Radio City and the Cafe Latino.

* * *
Bil designs his settings, new puppets and costumes hmself. He writes the scripts for the shows and arranges much of the music, although the score of the present Swift and company show was especially written by Tom Scott, composer and arranger for Fred Waring.

Mr. and Mrs. Baird now live in "Firehouse Manor," a two story structure in New York which also houses his workshop. The place is so named because it reputedly was once a stable.

The former Mason Cityan's musical talent is still strong within him and he often entertains friends who drop in with songs and his guitar or accordion music. One of his hobbies is collecting musical instruments.

* * *
The workshop in "Firehouse Manor" occupies the firest floor where a staff of six assists Bil in fashioning the new puppets as he needs them, and the apartment home is upstairs.

Bil's mother, Mrs. W. H. Baird, still lives in Mason City, while his brother, George Baird, is also living in New York.

And that is the story - to date - of Mason City's Bil Baird. But there is still more to come, for the young marionet maestro is still busy, trying out new ideas in his workshop theater, singing a calypso song with the present Swift show, and generally tyring to bring a little more fun and a little more laughter to a troubled world. And every time he succeeds he has made the entire effort worthwhile.

NOTE: Upon his retirement, Bil returned to reside in Mason City. The Charles H. MacNider Art Museum [303 Second Street SE, Mason City, Iowa] houses the largest holdings of the late Bil Baird's work (over 400 pieces) to be found anywhere. Although the puppets and marionettes featured in the 1965 motion picture "The Sound of Music" are permanently housed in the art musuem, several of them traveled to New York City in 2005 to help in festivities celebrating the 40th anniversary of the film.

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2014; updated November of 2014

Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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