Her bright, optimistic personality made her everyone’s friend at national puppetry festivals. For more than 40 years, Bernice performed at festi- val open-mike late-night events called “potpourri,” and she earned the undisputed title of “Queen of Potpourri.” In the late 1960s, when hippies were presenting “happenings,” Bernice developed her own version of the happening. She would choose a theme—frequently an animal such as a pig, chicken, or fish—and in a free-form solo performance, she would blend together songs, history, sociology, science, skits, economics, recipes, poems, and anything else she could think of, all illustrated with simple homemade puppets and found objects.
At the 1999 National Puppetry Festival, Bernice led the Punch & Judy Parade, waving from a chariot. She was crowned Queen of Potpourri in 2004. At age 101, she performed her “Ann Boleyn” song at the 2015 National Puppetry Festival. In 2016, Bernice moved from her Upper West Side studio apartment to the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey.
Fans led by Sharon Murphy-Boski founded the Bernice Silver Apprecia- tion Society in 2009. The Bernice Silver Festival Grant was established to assist fellow senior members of PofA to attend Puppeteers of America national festivals.
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Tributes to Bernice Collected From Facebook
Carol Sterling: “Bernice’s spirit will live on in our hearts forever. I had the pleasure of a 30-minute phone call with Bernice, April 16th. We giggled together and then sang favorite songs.”
Valerie Nelson: “A towering personality in
a very short body, Bernice Silver has left us. There was a night when Bernice was danc- ing. She was only 96. At one point I tried to sit her down afraid of wearing her out. Not happening. Oh how you will be missed!”
Phillip Huber: “We lost a ray of sunshine… She always had a brilliant smile, a puckish sense of humor, and the greatest zest for life of anyone I have known. The world was made richer by her presence.”
Leslie Carrara-Rudolph: “Bernice your smile, laugh, and incredible sense of humor and heart made you a queen. I know you will be delighting the angels in their potpourri.”
Keith Shubert: “Bernice was not only wildly creative and sometimes genuinely bizarre, but she was also one of the most positive and joyous people I have ever met. She was not only an active artist but also an advocate for social justice and human equality.”
Bob Nathanson and Elise Handelman:
“We met Bernice on December 20, 1979, the day our love affair with the queen began. We were enjoying our graduation from Lea Wallace’s puppet classes, partying in the basement of a church on 29th Street. Bernice Silver and Paul Zaloom came to join the festivities. Bernice began to sing, ‘With her head tucked underneath her arm,’ but she needed a head. She grabbed Paul Zaloom, and he became the head. We will never forget her.”
Tom Keegan: “She was also one of the funniest human beings I ever spent time with. She would start performing, get lost in her script, and end up creating a unique and hysterical show, never to be duplicated again.”
Photo: Daniel E. Ungar: 37
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