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Children's Fairyland
Children's Fairyland, U.S.A. is an amusement park, located in Oakland, California, on the shores of Lake Merritt. It was one of the earliest "themed" amusement parks in the United States. Fairyland includes of play sets, small rides, and animals. The park is also home to the Open Storybook Puppet Theater, the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States. Fairyland was built in 1950 by the Oakland Lake Merritt Breakfast Club, a local service club. The park was immediately recognized nationally for its unique value, and during the 1950s it inspired numerous towns to create their own parks. Walt Disney toured many amusement parks in 1950, including Children’s Fairyland, seeking ideas for what turned out to be Disneyland. He hired the first director of Fairyland, Dorothy Manes, to work at Disneyland as youth director, in which position she continued from the park's opening until 1972. Numerous artists have contributed exhibits, murals, puppetry, and sculpture ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairyland Park
Fairyland Park was an amusement park, located at 7501 Prospect Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. It operated from 1923 to 1977, and closed due to lack of attendance and storm damage in late 1977. Marcia Brancato Accurso's grandfather, Salvatore "Sam" Brancato, a Sicilian immigrant and blacksmith by trade, came to the United States in 1896. After settling in Kansas City, he went into the grocery business, then began buying real estate. He opened Fairyland Park in 1923. It remained in family ownership until its closing in 1977, one year after Brancato's passing in 1976. Admission to blacks was only to private groups and employees, until 1964. After protest marches, demonstrations, and arrests for blocking the entrance, general admission was desegregated. Admission cost to the park was kept low, 25 cents by 1971. A storm in late 1977, which by some accounts was "a wind storm" or "a tornado", caused extensive damage to the park. This, combined with the nearby park Worlds of Fun caus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thumbelina
Thumbelina (; da, Tommelise) is a literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Travelling Companion" in the second instalment of ''Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection., Fairy Tales Told for Children''. Thumbelina is about a tiny girl and her adventures with marriage-minded toads, moles, and cockchafers. She successfully avoids their intentions before falling in love with a flower-fairy prince just her size. Thumbelina is chiefly Andersen's invention, though he did take inspiration from tales of miniature people such as "Tom Thumb". Thumbelina was published as one of a series of seven fairy tales in 1835 which were not well received by the Danish critics who disliked their informal style and their lack of morals. One critic, however, applauded Thumbelina. The earliest English translation of Thumbelina is dated 1846. The tale has be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice Dinnean
Alice Catherine Dinnean (born May 23, 1969) is an American puppeteer, voice actress and creative writer who works at The Jim Henson Company. Dinnean has performed on many children's television shows such as ''The Puzzle Place'', ''Sesame Street'', ''Bear in the Big Blue House'', ''Cousin Skeeter'', ''Jim Henson's Pajanimals'', ''Sid the Science Kid'' and ''Jack's Big Music Show''. She also did work on various non-Muppet productions such as ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ''Angel''. Her interest in puppetry began when she received a pig puppet as a prize for winning a local essay contest in Oakland, California. Following her studies at Oberlin College, she interned at the Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. In the early 1990s, she was employed with the Jim Henson Company where she performed characters for the children's TV series, ''Sesame Street''. Some of her characters are Sherry Netherland, the owner of the Furry Arms Hotel, and Phoebe, a member of the ''Monster Clubhouse'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Muppets
The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety- sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompasses television, film, music, and other media associated with the characters. Originally owned by The Jim Henson Company for nearly five decades, the franchise was purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 2004. The Muppets originated in the short-form television series ''Sam and Friends'', which aired from 1955 to 1961. Following appearances on late night talk shows and in advertising during the 1960s, the Muppets began appearing on ''Sesame Street'' (1969–present), and attained celebrity status and international recognition through '' The Muppet Show'' (1976–1981), which received four Primetime Emmy Award wins and twenty-one nominations during its five-year run. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Muppets diversified into theatrical films, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marionette
A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms of theatres or entertainment venues. They have also been used in films and on television. The attachment of the strings varies according to its character or purpose. Etymology In French, ''marionette'' means "little Mary". In France, during the Middle Ages, string puppets were often used to depict biblical events, with the Virgin Mary being a popular character, hence the name. In France, the word ''marionette'' can refer to any kind of puppet, but elsewhere it typically refers only to string puppets. History Ancient times Puppetry is an ancient form of performance. Some historians claim that they predate actors in theatre. There is evidence that they we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hand Puppet
A hand puppet is a type of puppet that is controlled by the hand or hands that occupies the interior of the puppet.Sinclair, A, ''The Puppetry Handbook'', p.15 A glove puppet is a variation of hand puppets. Rod puppets require one of the puppeteer's hands inside the puppet glove holding a rod which controls the head, and the puppet's body then hangs over most or all of the forearm of the puppeteer, and possibly extends further. Other parts of the puppet may be controlled by different means, e.g., by rods operated by the puppeteer's free hand, or strings or levers pulled the head or body. A smaller variety, simple hand puppets often have no significant manipulable parts at all. Finger puppets are not hand puppets as they are used only on a finger. Types of hand puppets Simple hand puppets The simplest hand puppets are those with few or no moving parts. They can be stiff, made from e.g. a hard plastic, but are more often flexible, made from fabric, possibly with some stuffing an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puppet
A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs, and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet. The puppeteer often speaks in the voice of the character of the puppet, and then synchronizes the movements of the puppet's mouth with this spoken part. The actions, gestures and spoken parts acted out by the puppeteer with the puppet are typically used in storytelling. Puppetry is a very ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in Ancient Greece. There are many different varieties of puppets, and they are made from a wide range of materials, depending on their form and intended use. They range from very simple in construction and operation to very complex. Two simple types of puppets are the finger puppet, which is a tiny p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bunraku
(also known as ) is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the or ( puppeteers), the ( chanters), and musicians. Occasionally other instruments such as drums will be used. The combination of chanting and playing is called and the Japanese word for puppet (or dolls, generally) is . It is used in many plays. History 's history goes as far back as the 16th century, but the origins of its modern form can be traced to around the 1680s. It rose to popularity after the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724) began a collaboration with the chanter Takemoto Gidayu (1651–1714), who established the Takemoto puppet theater in Osaka in 1684. Originally, the term referred only to the particular theater established in 1805 in Osaka, which was named the after the puppeteering ensemble of , an early 18th-century p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Pied Piper
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (german: der Rattenfänger von Hameln, also known as the Pan Piper or the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin) is the title character of a legend from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany. The legend dates back to the Middle Ages, the earliest references describing a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied A piebald or pied animal is one that has a pattern of unpigmented spots (white) on a pigmented background of hair, feathers or scales. Thus a piebald black and white dog is a black dog with white spots. The animal's skin under the white backgro ...") clothing, who was a rat catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic Pipe (instrument), pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service as promised, he retaliates by using his instrument's magical power on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as folklore and has appeared in the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Three Little Pigs
"The Three Little Pigs" is a fable about three pigs who build three houses of different materials. A Big Bad Wolf blows down the first two pigs' houses which made of straw and sticks respectively, but is unable to destroy the third pig's house that made of bricks. The printed versions of this fable date back to the 1840s, but the story is thought to be much older. The earliest version takes place in Dartmoor with three pixies and a fox before its best known version appears in ''English Fairy Tales'' by Joseph Jacobs in 1890, with Jacobs crediting James Halliwell-Phillipps as the source. The phrases used in the story, and the various morals drawn from it, have become embedded in Western culture. Many versions of ''The Three Little Pigs'' have been recreated and modified over the years, sometimes making the wolf a kind character. It is a type B124 folktale in the Thompson Motif Index. Traditional versions "The Three Little Pigs" was included in ''The Nursery Rhymes of England'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bruce Sedley
The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a Scottish surname since medieval times; it is now a common given name. The variant ''Lebrix'' and ''Le Brix'' are French variations of the surname. Actors * Bruce Bennett (1906–2007), American actor and athlete * Bruce Boxleitner (born 1950), American actor * Bruce Campbell (born 1958), American actor, director, writer, producer and author * Bruce Davison (born 1946), American actor and director * Bruce Dern (born 1936), American actor * Bruce Gray (1936–2017), American-Canadian actor * Bruce Greenwood (born 1956), Canadian actor and musician * Bruce Herbelin-Earle (born 1998), English-French actor and model * Bruce Jones (born 1953), English actor * Bruce Kirby (1925–2021), American actor * Bruce Lee (1940–1973), martial art ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoo Key
A zoo key is a large novelty key used to activate talking storybooks at American zoos. These were used by various zoos, largely in the latter half of the 20th century, as part of a system which played audio recordings describing exhibits. The keys were typically made from brightly colored plastic in the shape of animals, although some zoos issued the keys in non-animal shapes. The first generation of keys were in the shape of an elephant, with the trunk being the blade of the key. This was commonly known as "Trunkey the Elephant" (sometimes spelled Trunky). At the Cleveland Zoo, it was called "Packey". Installations included zoos in Portland (see Packy), San Francisco, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and New York. Children's Fairyland The system was invented and patented by Bruce Sedley (1925–2012), in response to a request from William Penn Mott of the Oakland, California, Park Department. Originally known as "Talking Storybooks", (and impleme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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