Customer Reviews

Turnabout: The Story of the Yale Puppeteers [VHS]

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The Turnabout theater, a combination puppet show and live cabaret revues show, ran in Los Angeles from 1941 until 1956. Harry Burnett, Forman Brown, and Richard Brandon operated the theater with Harry designing and manipulating the puppets, Forman writing the puppet plays and the musical numbers, and Roddy handling the business operations of the theater. Elsa Lancaster, who is always best remembered for her role as the Bride of Frankenstein and as the wife of Charles Laughton, performed at the Turnabout for more that 10 years. This loving documentary by Harry's nephew Dan Bessie maybe the only record of Turnabout's clever antics and the extraordinary talents of it's founders. The Turnabout Theater originally started on Olvera Street in the 1020's and ended up in their permanent home on La Cienega Blvd not far from Melrose. Forman and Roddy were a couple together for more than 50 years, and altogether, in one way or the other, the threesome worked together for almost 70 years. I cannot recommend this video highly enough to anyone interested in either gay history or in the history of theater in Los Angeles.