MARIONETTE SHOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1939, Page 10

MARIONETTE SHOW

TO VISIT DOMINION. One of the world’s oldest forms of entertainment, the marionette show, has come back, and one of the few great troupes of marionette showmen, the Salicis, will appear in New Zealand shortly. Salici’s Puppets will head the bill of the variety show, “Funz-a-Poppin’,” which Sir Benjamin Fuller has brought from the United States of America, thus completing his theatrical “hat trick,” for he has brought out to Australia and New Zealand three big American shows, the Marcus Show, Hollywood Hotel Revenue, and now “Funz-a-Poppin’.” “After you look at Salici’s Parisian Puppets for a while you begin to believe that they aren’t marionettes, but human beings,”- states a critic. The art of the Salicis goes back to 1825, and for generations they have concentrated on this one form of entertainment. Their puppets have been modernised. The time has gone when marionettes were merely little wooden figures on strings, Salici’s Puppets sing, dance and do acrobatic turns that were originally thought impossible for the “string people.” They have appeared in several motion pictures. “Funz-a-Poppin’ ” will have a number of other big American acts, including the Twelve Debutantes, trained by Albertina Rasch, who prepares the ballets for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s great films. There will also be Rose and Edwards, Ziegfeld comedy topliners, Carr Brothers and Betty, Green and Lang, vocal celebrities, the Van Twins, delightful. Hollywood pair, Tommy “Bozo” Snyder, Broadway’s pantomime genius, and Jack Bickie, a remarkable young dancer.