-I'll be honest with you, growing up, I hated "Pinocchio"
and lumped marionettes into the same category
as ventriloquist dummies,
which means I was completely terrified of them.
But I recently met two very special people
who replaced my anxieties with a love and admiration
for this ancient art.
I'm Erin Cantelo, and this is "SubCultures."
!!musiC@!!!musiC@!
-Right now you're up in my hidden, hidden sanctuary.
I have a lot of hidden drawings in boxes and things.
We own the corner here, and we have the theater,
and then we have a warehouse next to it.
There are over 3,000 puppets in that warehouse.
I saw my first show when I was 6.
I went to a local department store,
and we saw the first show of the day.
And because of certain intriguing things,
we saw all six performances.
I was in dramatic classes.
I was taking piano lessons, two different kinds of dancing.
And my mother said, "What does he do about learning
how to work these things?"
By the time I was 8, I acquired enough puppets
to do a half an hour show.
I was now an entertainer.
[ Laughs ]
[ Classical music plays ]
I had a business partner for 50 years -- Alton Wood.
We traveled all over.
Alton was much taller than I am.
He had a wonderful laugh.
"I'd like to go on your show
that you're gonna be doing over at RKO."
He says, "I want to see what you do when you're on film."
After the filming was over, he said,
"Let me take care of all of your books and your business,
and you build your puppets. We'll take shows out."
From that point on, for 50 years,
we performed together and built shows
and did motion pictures, television.
-At the age of 7, I was helping my uncle.
He was Bob's gardener.
And that was actually the first time that I saw a puppet.
What I really love about puppeteering
is getting the crowd into your show
and really making them laugh and having a good time.
[ Ding-dong! ] [ Laughter ]
Just that feeling after -- It's a very good feeling.
-I think that was the whole thing, really.
I figured that this was a good way to make people laugh.
[ Up-tempo piano plays ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
-When I was 16, I had a tumor
growing on the right side of my cheek,
which didn't allow me to hear or smell or taste.
[ Balloon pops ]
Had a good life. I was never sick.
And then out of nowhere, I become sick.
After I had surgery, that was almost the time --
That was my senior year.
I went into a kind of depression,
and I was really down in my own little bubble.
I didn't want to express myself.
For me, if I will see another puppeteer,
I always feel like, "Why did he build that puppet?"
And the reason I say is if you see most of Bob's puppets,
he has something that he has put in there
that's related to himself.
Honestly, after coming and working for Bob
and helping him out and just knowing
that you could project yourself, project other characters
through puppets was amazing for me.
And that was kind of my way of coming back.
-Now that I've gotten to be 88, I don't know how to act.
I've never been 88 before.
I'd love to be down here every day and being able
to do things and the thrill, especially.
-Bob's plan is to transform
the whole block into this great place.
There's gonna be the puppet studio.
There's gonna be the theater itself.
It's gonna be a gallery.
We're gonna have another second theater for puppeteers
that are coming out of the country
or any performance coming out of the country.
A lot of classes -- Puppeteer classes, building puppets.
-I have a few little tricks
that other puppeteers aren't us-- haven't used.
Those are the things that I want to pass on
to somebody else very desperately.
-This has been around for so long.
It's been a tradition, and we don't want it
just kind of fade out and, you know, be lost.
!!musiC@!!!musiC@!
-When you go to the theater, you pay your admission
and you watch a show with really nothing
other than a piece of paper in your hand.
But you take home the idea that goes on that stage,
the illusion, the fantasy, the love, the drama, the music.
And you'll always have it.
You'll have it forever.
I did that when I went -- was 6 years old.
And I'm still talking about it.