The Haines Marionettes Finding Hidden Beauties
Steve Abrams T
he Haines Marionettes are an excellent example of why collections are important. The company and their beautifully crafted marionettes were almost entirely unknown. While researching puppet collections in 2003, I called a curator at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum to ask about some antique French shadow puppets. Checking their list of objects, the curator said, “We have a collection of 400 puppets and props by the Haines Marionettes.” The curator said that the puppets were packed away, but he kindly e-mailed this information. Frank D. Haines (1891– 1988) and Elizabeth L. Haines (1903–1977) donated puppets and marionettes to the Cooper Hewitt Museum in the 1970s. The collection is composed of 408 items (the inventory is not clear about how many of the items are puppets), including marionettes, advertising puppets, stage props and accessories, backdrops, lighting equipment, Victrola records, scripts, and other paper files. Frank and Elizabeth Haines worked near Philadelphia from the 1930s to the 1950s. The puppets are hand carved of wood and assembled by Mr. Haines and dressed with exquisite costumes by Mrs. Haines (sometimes with rare bits of authentic period lace or Chinese embroideries). Materials are from the following productions: The Chinese Nightingale; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; A Christmas Carol; The Tipsy Tea Party; Old Fashioned Amateurs Night; Barnacle Bill the Sailor; The Owl and the Pussy Cat; The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat; and advertising figures, including Reddy Kilowatt and Elsie the Borden Cow. I was astonished for four reasons. It isn’t every day that you stumble across a collection of 400 puppets. And this was a company I had never heard of. And they were from my hometown
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of Philadelphia. And a branch of the Smithsonian agreed to accept this collection. Intrigued, the research began. Way at the back of Paul McPharlin’s The Puppet Theatre in America, there is a one-line note about the 1932 productions of Aucassin and Nicolette, The Nativity, and Sleeping Beauty by Elizabeth Haines. A very senior member of the Philadelphia guild smiled broadly and said that when he was young, he had seen their production of A Christmas Carol. He went backstage, and they revealed some special effects. A marionette scholar said, “I’ve heard they made exquisite puppets, and I think Martin P. Robinson (Mr. Snuffleupagus) has a few of them.” Would I ever see them? In 2010, the Cooper Hewitt looked for a new home for the marionettes. The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry acquired many of them and mounted an exhibit, supplemented by a loan of puppets from Martin P. Robinson. Another group of about 25 marionettes was transferred to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
Bagpiper: Martin Robinson Collection. All puppets by Frank and Elizabeth Haines. All photos courtesy of Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry.
Philadelphia artists Frank and Elizabeth Haines took up puppetry in the early 1930s and created hundreds of marionettes. One play they developed was inspired by a Puerto Rican folktale, Perez and Martina, first retold by Pura Belpré and published in the United States in 1932. Belpré was the first Puerto Rican librarian at the New York Public Library and a puppeteer. When she was growing up in Puerto Rico, her grandmother told her the story of Perez and Martina, a romance between a mouse
and a cockroach. The Haineses also devised a supporting cast that included the grim-faced Señora Beetle Duenna—Martina’s maidservant-guardian—and the elegantly attired M’sieu Frog. Their play The Circus featured a number of marionettes
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