Forget Citigroup, Puppet Show Needs a Bailout - NYTimes.com

Forget Citigroup, Puppet Show Needs a Bailout - NYTimes.com

Cue the Alfred Hitchcock theme: "Near a freeway overpass on a decidedly scrappy edge of downtown Los Angeles is a marionette puppet theater that has enchanted children over nearly five decades, several recessions, two riots, at least four failed urban renewal plans and an earthquake or two. The Bob Baker Marionette Theater's shows, employing an eclectic selection of Mr. Baker's 3,000 handmade puppets prancing about a shoebox-size theater perpetually decked out in gold garlands, are a staple of a Los Angeleno childhood.... Over the last few months Mr. Baker, 84, has fallen $30,000 behind on his mortgage and lost a rent-paying tenant, while his two major sources of revenue have dried up." (Via Mark Evanier.)