Jim Rose - Punch & Judy

September 9th, 2010: Professor Rose performs Punch & Judy at the annual fair on George Washington's Estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
After the show, Jim entertained audience members at the back of his booth and then lead the children in various fun with his signature marionette Pepito.
This is the second of two performances Jim did that day. We were invited to come and watch him perform - I was a very new puppeteer and learned a lot from watching Jim interact with the audience.
Years when Jim had fully retired, it was our extreme honor to be gifted the puppets and stage you see in this video clip. Jim passed away from complications of COVID-19 in 2021.
Jim Rose's parents, Margo and Rufus, had learned their craft from Tony Sarg, often called the father of American puppetry. After quitting his broadway theater, they toured America with their own marionette variety acts and made several feature-length marionette films for family audiences. They also were the operators of the famous Howdy Doody puppet on TV. Margo and Rufus were some of the founding members of the Puppeteers of America, and Margo helped found the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater.
Jim grew up not caring for his parents' marionette style and opted for hand puppets instead. His first major performance came as a child in front of the Puppeteers of America's national festival audience. His makeshift hand puppet stage fell over and into the crowd, but he set it back up and finished. He said the audience was very complimentary.
Judy performed alongside Jim in every Punch & Judy show he did, but Jim had to give her character a stage name so not to confuse the audience. Her role was to interact with Punch and the audience, and make sure the children behaved.
Jim was well-known for being a caring and generous teacher of marionette craft, making an annual trek with Judy from Yellow Springs, Ohio to teach at the O'Neill in Waterford, Connecticut. His father Rufus pioneered a way to make quick copies of puppet heads with molds using metal strings to separate the material at a specific time in the process. Jim carried on this legacy and taught hundreds of students at the O'Neill - usually it was their first marionette. Judy instituted a daily tea time for the conference participants to help them relax during the extremely stressful weeklong intensive.
This video was shot by Chad Williams at the behest of Jim. The entire puppetry community of America misses Jim's kindness and wit.