Helen Joseph (puppeteer)

Helen Joseph (born Helen Haiman on August 28, 1888 in Atlanta ; died August 15, 1978 ) was an American puppeteer and author . She has written numerous plays and a history of puppet theater.

Life

Helen Joseph was the daughter of Elias Haiman and Frances Haiman nee. Lowenthan. Her father owned a tool factory. She grew up in Cleveland ( Ohio ) and attended Cleveland's Central High School, the Vassar College and the College for Women of Western Reserve University , where they each have a Bachelor acquired Accounts.

She had her first appearance as a puppeteer in 1910 at the Cleveland Play House . The puppets had designed himself. She stayed at the Cleveland Play House, where she directed puppet plays from 1914 to 1920.

In 1918 she married Ernest A. Joseph. In the same year their daughter Anne was born. Ernest died a year later while Helen Joseph was pregnant with their second daughter, Ernestine.

Josephs researched the history of puppetry and in 1920 published her book Book of Marionettes , the first comprehensive history of puppetry in English. From 1921 to 1924 she went on a European tour as a puppeteer with her daughters.

Joseph wrote puppet plays, mostly for children, and designed, carved, and painted her own puppets. In 1924, she founded the Pinocchio Players puppet theater company in Cleveland . She put some of her puppet theater pieces together in a book that appeared in 1927 under the title Ali Baba and Other Plays for Puppets . In 1932 she published her children's book Little Mr. Clown , in which one of her puppets is the main character. To accompany the book, she sold replicas of her doll, Mr. Clown . With their plays for children, the Pinocchio Players performed in schools and hospitals, among other places, and went on tour through the United States in the 1930s. The successful force had to disband when several members were drafted into the military at the beginning of World War II . During the war, Helen Joseph worked in various office and factory jobs. After the war, she took up puppetry again and built up a new theater company with which she was able to build on her earlier successes.

Portions of Helen Joseph's estate are held in the New York Public Library , including some unpublished plays and an unfinished autobiography .

Publications

• 1920: A Book of Marionettes
• 1927: Ali Baba and Other Plays for Puppets
• 1932: Little Mr. Clown

Web links

• Helen Joseph in the Jewish Women's Archive (English)
• Helen Joseph's estate in the New York Public Library (English)