Draft:Morey Bunin

Morey Bunin (1910–1997) was an American puppeteer known for his Foodini puppet television shows airing from 1948 to 1951.

Early life and career
Morey Bunin was born in Chicago on April 15, 1910. He and his brother, Lou, worked with Bil Baird on the 1932 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade floats. While his brother would turn to animated films, Morey Bunin continued with hand puppetry, working marionettes in Macy's storefront window, producing puppet shows, and performing in Castkill hotels. In the early 1940s, Bunin joined a political puppet show and toured the United States. During World War II, he and his first wife, Hope Shippee, performed for troops in the South Pacific with United Service Organizations. They later played the Palace Theater (with Danny Kaye). CBS discovered their act during a six-week engagement at Radio City Music Hall.

Bunin created the television show The Adventures of Lucky Pup, which featured Lucky the dog, Jolo the clown, the evil, hapless magician Foodini and his inept stooge, Pinhead. In the show, Foodini would attempt to swindle Lucky out of his $5 million inheritance. Foodini's fantastical inventions for this purpose include the Diamond Expander (to make small diamonds large), the Dream Producer (to create dreams based on monetary value), and a radio stove that produced food based on music. Pinhead helped to resolve Foodini's blundering schemes. The Evening Star described the pair as "a literate puppet version of Abbott and Costello". Lucky Pup was later renamed after Foodini, following the character's popularity. Foodini's catchphrase was "Gadzooks!" Other characters on the show included the carnival barker Phineas Pitch and the butler Hotchkiss. Lucky Pup had a dedicated following of children and adults.



Beginning in 1948, Lucky Pup first ran on the CBS television network opposite NBC's more famous Howdy Doody. Compared with the latter, a stringed marionette, Bunin's puppets were hand-and-finger-operated. Lucky Pup aired live for 15 minutes on weeknights at 6:30 p.m. and was recorded on kinescope, edited, and rerun for Saturdays. The series ran from August 1948 to June 1951, with Saturday broadcasts beginning in January 1949. The show was moved earlier in the evening near the end of its run. The Bunins created and owned the puppets. Morey Bunin operated the Foodini puppet and performed his voice, and his first wife, Hope, did the same for Pinhead. Doris Brown narrated the show. Their sponsors included Ipana toothpaste and Good and Plenty candy.

At the time, the nascent television industry was still experimenting with formats and had not developed the now-standard prime time evening lineup for adults or Saturday morning children's programming schedule. Though puppet shows required less studio space, camera work, and money than other shows, the Bunins still needed adjustments to adapt stage performance for the screen, e.g., puppet facial expressions in closeups. Episodes required up to 12 hours of preparation. The Bunins shuffled between three production stages between segments.

When CBS dropped Lucky Pup in mid-1951, the show moved to the ABC network and was renamed Foodini the Great and became a weekly 30-minute program Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. Ellen Parker and Lou Prentis hosted the show, which ran for four months, from August to December 1951.

After Foodini, Bunin appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and other television programs in the 1950s, such as Al Capp's 1952 Fearless Fosdick television show.

Aniforms
Bunin developed a cartoon process, Aniforms, with his second wife, Charlotte, that would feature in many television series. In this technique, the animator uses cutouts to represent the character in lieu of hand-animated drawings. The black plastic cutouts, outlined with white paint, are arranged on a black background, and the television camera reverses its polarity to create a white character with a black outline on a white background, appearing as if a line drawing.

Personal life
Bunin was married twice and worked alongside his partners, Hope and Charlotte. He had three children: David, Erica, and Reada.

During the Lucky Pup era, the Bunins dedicated an entire floor of their four-storey house to the puppet workshop and storage. Bunin considered Foodini to be his alter ego.

Bunin died February 26, 1997, at the age of 86, in his Woodstock, New York, home.

Legacy
Bunin's puppets were included in the Cooper-Hewitt's 1981 exhibition on the history of puppetry. Foodini was a precursor of Charles Ludlam's Professor Bedlam.

In 1995, Bunin was inducted into the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences's New York chapter.

After his death, the Museum of the Moving Image received his puppets and scripts. He left over 200 reels of his recorded work, many of which were donated to the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Television & Radio, and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Other reels were put up for sale.