Bernice Silver (October 7, 1913 – April 18, 2020) was an American puppeteer and activist, known in her field as "the Queen of Potpourri", referring to the combination of puppetry, storytelling, music, and politics in her open-mic performances.

Early life

Silver was born in 1913, in

Bushwick, Brooklyn Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Williamsburg to the northwest; ...

, the eldest of eight children born to Samuel Silver and Frances Resnikoff Silver. Her parents were Jewish. Her father was a salesman and ran a candy shop.

Career

Silver worked in schools and factories as a young woman, and sold encyclopedias and other products door-to-door. She joined workers' theatre groups, including Theatre Advance, and performed at demonstrations and strikes. Her one

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

credit was in the original cast of Thornton Wilder's ''

Our Town ''Our Town'' is a three-act play written by American playwright Thornton Wilder in 1938. Described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written", it presents the fictional American town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 ...

'' in 1938. Silver began performing with puppets by the 1960s. "It's one of the oldest professions in the world," she explained in ''

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'' in 2013, "It covers many, many artistic professions." She toured New York state with

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...

and others, billed as the "Vagabond Puppeteers". She was active in the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York (PGOGNY), and was known as "the Queen of Potpourri", because her open-mic performances were a mix of puppetry, stories, folk songs, costumes, and political messages. She entertained at children's events in the New York area for decades, and later in life she used audience expectations about her advanced age in her comedy. Silver appeared in the documentary ''Puppet Rampage'' (2008). In 2011, she went kayaking for the first time, with the NYC Friends of Clearwater. She spoke at a fundraiser for

Hudson River Sloop Clearwater The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is a non-profit organization based in Beacon, New York that seeks to protect the Hudson River and surrounding wetlands and waterways through advocacy and public education. Founded by folk singer Pete Seege ...

in 2016. The Puppeteers of America offered a Bernice Silver Festival Grant, to fund senior attendees at the organization's national festivals.

Personal life

Silver broke her hip and required a foot amputation in 2014; she moved to the

Lillian Booth Actors Home The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is an American assisted living, assisted-living facility, in Englewood, New Jersey, Englewood, New Jersey. It is operated by the Actors Fund, a nonprofit umbrella charitable organization that assi ...

in 2016. That year, she commented on her delight in voting for a woman for president. She died in April 2020, from respiratory failure with coronavirus, in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of Engle ...

. She was 106 years old. In October 2020, a Virtual Puppet Con was held by the Puppeteers of America, dedicated to the memory of Bernice Silver, during the week of her 107th birthday.

References

External links

Bernice Silver speaking in support of PGOGNY in 2007
on YouTube. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Silver, Bernice 1913 births 2020 deaths People from Bushwick, Brooklyn American puppeteers American women centenarians Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey Female puppeteers 20th-century American people 20th-century American women 21st-century American people 21st-century American women Jewish centenarians