User:Johnrb3

Frank Paris (Franklin Marion Parris, Jr.) was born on July 15, 1914 in Frederick, Oklahoma to Franklin Marion Parris and Sarah Emma Smith. He later died at the age of 70 on Tuesday, August 14, 1984 in North Hollywood, California of lung cancer. Paris was a self-taught, nationally known puppeteer. Paris made, copyrighted and performed the original "Howdy Doody." He designed and built marionettes for Sid and Marty Kroft and had his work displayed in such places as the Smithsonian Institue and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He taught puppetry courses at New York University and Columbia University. Paris' puppets appeared in magazine advertisements and television commercials and in his own TV series called "Pixie Playtime." Other television credits included a Gloria Swanson show, the Morning Show, Today, Ed Sullivan, Jack Paar, Jack Benny, Perry Como, Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason programs. Some of the places he played include Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall with his Carmen Miranda puppet, and the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. He constructed extraterrestrial beings in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and robots for the movie "Star Trek." --Italic textPuppet Life, The Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry, September-October 1984.

Paris' survivors include two sisters, Marie P. Walker of British Columbia, Canada, and Jane P. McSpadden of Amarillo.