LA in Focus: Turnabout Puppet Theatre

Puppetry, Hollywood, and gay history would not be the same without the Yale Puppeteers and Turnabout Theatre. Located on La Cienega, the Turnabout was a cabaret destination for audiences and entertainers who visited its performers such as Elsa Lanchester and the theatre founders Harry Burnett, Richard Brandon, and Forman Brown. More than friends, these marionette maestros were a talented gay trio who illuminated early gay culture and changed the course of American puppetry. Please join historian J. Eric Lynxwiler for this Los Angeles tale unlike any other. With special guests, Tony Urbano, master puppeteer and former performer with Turnabout, and Alan Cook, founder and director of the International Puppetry Museum.

LA in Focus is a free lecture series, with images drawn from the LAPL Photo Collection, and presented by Photo Friends of the Los Angeles Public Library: Formed in 1990, Photo Friends is a nonprofit organization that supports the Los Angeles Public Library’s Photo Collection/History & Genealogy Department. Our goal is to improve access to the collections and promote them through programs, events, and online exhibits.