Thursday, November 22, 2018

Tony Sarg and the Thanksgiving Day Balloons

Felix the Cat Balloon, 1927 (image: Macy’s via Smithsonian)
Puppeteer and illustrator Tony Sarg played an important role in introducing the character balloons in New York City's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
"His father was an artist, his grandfather a wood-carver, and his grandmother was a painter who gave the young Sarg a collection of mechanical toys that may have inspired the imagination of the burgeoning designer. But it wasn’t until he saw a performance by famed puppeteer Thomas Holden, who essentially invented the marionette, that Sarg found his calling. He began experimenting with puppet designs and stagings around 1917, eventually earning renown for his particularly sophisticated puppet shows that included performances of Faust and Don Quixote."
Read the rest at Smithsonian online
Previous posts on Tony Sarg

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