Three Things: Puppet Edition

OK, I admit, I’m really just looking for an excuse to tell you about this book I have: Remo Bufano’s Book of Puppetry, edited and compiled by Arthur Richmond in 1950. I know next to nothing about the world of puppetry, but according to the preface, Mr. Bufano was a high-profile puppeteer who also wrote how-to books, before succumbing to a “tragic death.” Those two little words were enough to make me throw down the book and run to the nearest Google machine to learn the details of this tragedy, but alas, while certainly tragic (as I suppose most deaths are), the story had none of the mystery and intrigue I was hoping for. (Before you look it up for yourself, write your own version. I promise you it will be more exciting.)

But back to the book: it’s peppered with illustrations (by Mr. Bufano himself). And with captions like “Manipulation of Puppets” and “Positions of Control,” I couldn’t help but imagine slightly sinister undertones (which is probably why my brain went all detective at the word “death”).

And so I bring you Three Things, Puppet Edition. We have possibly creepy puppets, which in a not-so-roundabout-way reminded me of the always superb Anatomy of a Murder title sequence by Saul Bass, and a Francesco Gattoni photograph to close.

Richmond, Arthur., ed. Remo Bufano’s Book of Puppetry. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1950.

Anatomy of a Murder. Dir. Otto Preminger. Columbia Pictures, 1959. Title design by Saul Bass.

Photograph by Francesco Gattoni (Florence, Italy 1996). Image © Francesco Gattoni.