Burr Tillstrom

Franklin Burr Tillstrom (October 13, 1917 – December 6, 1985) was a puppeteer and the creator of ''Kukla, Fran and Ollie''.

Early life

Tillstrom was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Bert and Alice Burr Tillstrom. He attended Senn High School in Chicago and later the University of Chicago. While still a freshman, he accepted a job offer from the WPA-Chicago Parks District Theatre to set up a marionette theater.

Career

Tillstrom turned his attention to puppetry in the early 1930s and created Kukla in 1936. Kukla remained nameless until the Russian ballerina Tamara Toumanova referred to him as ''kukla'', the Russian word for "doll". Other famous puppets from Tillstrom's group included Ollie (Oliver J. Dragon), Beulah Witch, Goultar, Cecil Bill, and Fletcher Rabbit. In 1939, Tillstrom was invited to present his Kuklapolitan Players at the New York World's Fair. The following year, RCA sent him to Bermuda to perform on the first ship-to-shore broadcast.

From 1947 to 1957, Tillstrom was involved with the ''Kukla, Fran and Ollie'' show, which starred his puppets and Fran Allison. It is widely regarded as being the first children's show to appeal to both children and adults, and counted Orson Welles, John Steinbeck, Tallulah Bankhead, Adlai Stevenson, and James Thurber among its many adult fans. With only a few exceptions, all of the shows were improvised.

After the original series ended in 1957, Tillstrom continued to work with the Kuklapolitans. Early in 1958, Tillstrom appeared with the puppets on Polly Bergen's short-lived NBC variety show, ''The Polly Bergen Show''.

Tillstrom, Kukla and Ollie reunited with Fran Allison to host the '' CBS Children's Film Festival'' from 1967 to 1977. In 1970, ''Kukla, Fran and Ollie'' appeared on National Educational Television, taped at WTTW in Chicago, for two seasons. In 1975, ''Kukla, Fran and Ollie'' began another run on television with 13 new episodes.

In 1977, The ''Kukla and Ollie Retrospective Stage Show'' tours began, a creation of the Artist-in-Residence program at Hope College. In 1978, Kukla, Burr and Ollie joined the Broadway cast of '' Side by Side by Sondheim'', a revue of Stephen Sondheim songs.

Tillstrom continued to perform with his Kuklapolitan Players until his death at age 68 in Palm Springs, California on December 6, 1985. He was found sitting in a chair near his swimming pool and appeared to have died from natural causes. He was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago. His papers are held at the Chicago History Museum.

Honors

On March 23, 1986, Burr Tillstrom was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame for his creativity and innovation in the medium. The Saugatuck Douglas Art Club in Saugatuck, Michigan (the location of Tillstrom's longtime summer home) dedicated a memorial to Tillstrom in 1988. The Burr Tillstrom Collection and Archives are maintained at the Chicago History Museum.

In 2013 Tillstrom was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

In 1999, the City of Chicago honored Tillstrom with a historical marker at 1407 W. Sherwin in the Rogers Park neighborhood, where he was living when he first debuted "Kukla, Fran and Ollie."

References

External links

A Memoir of Burr Tillstrom

The Kuklapolitan Website and DVDs

Inventory of the Burr Tillstrom Papers

Studs Terkel interviews of Burr Tillstrom

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tillstrom, Burr
1917 births
1985 deaths
American people of Swedish descent
American puppeteers
Burials at Rosehill Cemetery
Peabody Award winners
Entertainers from Chicago
LGBTQ people from Illinois
People from Saugatuck, Michigan
20th-century American LGBTQ people