Show Business: Bairds on the Wing

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See It Now-Wow. Baird turns clay models of his puppets' heads over to his 13 artisans for casting in plastic; there may be four or more versions of the same character to show his various stages and moods. In action, the creatures are handled by the Bairds (Cora plays all the female parts) and their company of four men. Though a puppeteer may handle as many as four characters at a time (including dancing marionettes with 27 strings apiece), the art requires less finger dexterity than uncanny ability to project voice and body down from the overhead "bridge" onto the stage. "Some people can just throw themselves straight down the strings," says Cora. "I can't explain the secret. It's dancing, acting, singing, all wrapped in one."

To spoof people, Bil has generally used animals: a gossipy hen (Hedda Louella McBrood), a bulldog TV interviewer (Mike Malice), a cow fan dancer (Dorothy LaMoo). He also has a mournful hound-dog named Edward R. Bow-Wow, who delivers historical newscasts over See It Now-Wow. But if TV is willing, Baird proposes something grander: serious news shows using puppets (Khrushchev, Dulles, et al.), with graphic, moving geopolitical maps. "Nothing to it," says Puppeteer Baird. "In this art, the whole world is at your fingertips."