Burr Tillstrom

Burr Tillstrom. Puppeteer (1917-1985). A pioneer of children's television, Burr Tillstrom's earliest puppet shows were put on in the window of his boyhood home for the neighborhood children. , , Graduating from Senn High School in 1935, Tillstrom turned down a college scholarship to be a professional puppeteer. He created his most famous puppet, Kukla, while working for the Works Progress Administration Chicago Parks Theater. Kukla, which means doll in Russian and Greek, was a balding creature who worried constantly. Kukla was soon joined by two other "Kuklapolitans," Madame Ophelia Ooglepuss and Ollie, a sweet-tempered dragon. , , Tilltrom ran the marionette theater at Marshall Field's department store in the early 1940s, when he decided that television was the ideal medium for puppets. He lived here, at 1407 West Sherwin Avenue, in 1947 when he enlisted Fran Allison, a radio singer, to host the debut of "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie" on WBKB-TV in Chicago. During their ten years together, Tillstrom and Allison never used a script, relying instead on story lines and improvisation. , , An instant success, "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" was broadcast nationally in 1949 by the NBC television network. In 1960 Tilltrom performed "An Evening with Kukla, Fran, and Ollie" on Broadway, and later appeared on public television and as the host of the "CBS Children's Film Festival." Tillstrom's many awards include five Emmys.