Marionette by Les and Mabel Beaton from Mayflower Mouse.
Left to right: John Wayne by Dan Peeler, Prince and Princess by Roger Dennis, Liza by Jimmy Rowland.
been rained on and now will be restored, if all goes well); and another collection of random plaster puppet molds, cast heads, arms, and legs. In a way, the compressed timeline was a bless- ing. To do it correctly would have taken far more time and money (especially money) and would have seemed impossible. I can honestly say that without the help of Michael and the Fergusons, much of Gary's collection might have been lost forever.
What will happen to the collection now? It's a good ques- tion, but difficult to answer. Giving a collection to someone is like giving a St. Bernard dog. It eats money, takes up loads of space, and wanders around being really fun and entertaining, sometimes a nightmare, and all points in between. There are lots of pieces I remembered, but I haven’t run across them. Gary did sell several things in the last few years, being careful to make certain they were going to people who would appreciate them, not just for the artistic value of the figure but also for its relationship to the creators. And that's a part of what's really important to Gary's legacy, remember- ing that each of these figures has a story behind it. If you are someone who was lucky enough to acquire part of his col- lection, I would love to know what it was and when you got it, just to help with maintaining a timeline. I’d also like you to know that if he sold it to you, he trusted you to be a good steward of his legacy.
An Exhibit
I was very honored when Steven Widerman asked me to bring part of the Busk collection to the National Puppetry Festival in 2019. He, David Herzog, Rick Morse, Dmitri Carter, Peter Allen, Debbie Lutzky Allen, and Joseph Emory were all very helpful in identifying individual pieces, and in getting everything in the exhibit mounted and posed. Lots of people thanked me, but honestly, I was just the driver. They did all the work to make those 100+ figures come to life for the duration of the festival. The exhibit really showed me how powerful and exciting the collection could be. Other exhibits are possible, and a traveling exhibit is under consideration if funding is available. The key to an exhibit is knowing the answer to a very important question. “What story
do you want to tell?” Exhibit curators and designers look for lots of different entry points. In other words, they are looking to appeal to as many people as possible. Of course, a puppetry exhibit will appeal to people interested in puppets, but it needs to reach other people as well. Part of the story we would like to tell is about puppets in television, puppets used for sto- rytelling, puppets as a reflection of their times, but also their importance to Gary Busk. Personally, I want this exhibit to connect people to the figures, but also to the puppeteers, the artists, and the person who collected it all so that those artists will not be forgotten.
While working toward this goal, we're still curating, we're still preserving, and we're doing some limited restoration. Stabilizing puppets, costumes, and sets is a challenge considering the different construction materials and storage conditions for each particular figure. It's a time-consuming process, and one that also can be ex- pensive. Puppets can be bulky, and they take up a lot of room (as all of you who have to pack a show well know), and unfortunately storage space gets expensive in a hurry. We are working to digitize, photograph, and catalog in a consistent way all of the puppets in this collection. I owe a huge debt of thanks to Dmitri Carter at the Northwest Puppet Center for sharing with me the cataloging format he has been using. Our hope is to have the Cook/Marks collection and the Gary and Carmen Busk Collection in a unified database so that people doing research on aspects of puppetry will have a good place to start. As a steward of Gary's legacy, telling this story seems to be the right thing to do.
Pix Smith founded the Dallas Puppet Theater in 1983. With artistic director Michael Robinson, the company created more than 20 productions. Pix has performed all over Texas, playing the- aters, libraries, and a vast assortment of other venues from Ohio to Las Vegas to Japan. He worked with Bob Kramer Marionettes on a tour to Russia, and he collaborated with Paul Mesner. Dallas Puppet Theater builds for other puppeteers for work in film, in commercials, and with symphony orchestras. Pix has served as vice president of Puppeteers of America, performed at national festi- vals, and served as master of ceremonies for potpourris with wit and diplomacy.
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