Gary Strong Timeline

WHEN IT ALL BEGAN
The Gary Strong Marionettes began shortly after I saw my first marionette show performed by the Cole Marionettes in kindergarten around 1951. I already knew something about marionettes and hand puppets from watching the early children's TV shows, Howdy Doody and Kukla, Fran and Ollie. George and Lucille Cole had been well known as a touring marionette show since they started it in the late 1920's or early 1930's, eventually having four or five troupes touring schools in several midwest states. 

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By 1959 I began performing shows with store-bought toy puppets and hand puppets made from old socks, for my classmates in my school. As a young child I was very bashful and often became petrified in front of any audience. Being hidden behind a stage, I gradually overcame the stage fright. Eventually, my neighborhood friends were my co-puppeteers with shows in backyards and street corners. One of my early marionettes was Howdy Doody. In junior high school, two church member friends and I produced our version of the "Ten Commandments". I made a terrible mistake of changing Howdy Doody into Moses. Today that toy puppet would be worth well over $400. Needless to say, that we were kids. Our music was a record player, and since we had not memorized the script, we read it off the hand-written pages... which somehow got out of order! The audience held back their laughter and since they forgave us, we knew the Lord did too.

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In the early 1960's my Sunday school teacher gave me a book titled "Marionettes" by Edith Flack Ackley, published around 1930. It gave complete instructions on how to make marionettes out of cloth. I still use a variation of that today. By 1959, my school allowed me to meet Mr. and Mrs. Cole. After seeing their show from backstage for several years, it was a learning experience I have never forgotten. Simply by watching, I learned how to put on a show, stage assembly, how to use scene changes to tell the story, the music selection and lighting effects.

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Around that save time, my father lent me his carpentry skills to help me build my first real stage, after watching me struggle with cardboard boxes, folding tables, and mom's old bedspreads. In the fall of 1962, by family moved to New Jersey where I spent my junior and senior high school years graduating in 1963. in those two years, I only did one show for my local church. Right after graduation, the family returned to Decatur Illinois.

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The Vietnam war interrupted my show biz until I was discharged from the army in 1969. During that time, I met my wife who became my co-puppeteer. The show went back on the road, performing at many churches throughout central Illinois, Fairview Park's Fun Fair, campgrounds, Saturday morning kids shows in Decatur's Northgate Cinema, a childrens clothing store, and the Front Street Dinner Theater in Dante's Italian Restaurant in Decatur. Divorce disrupted the shows and by 1977 after returning from out of state my mother and I teamed up to begain the shows again. By 1980, I gained full custody of my two daughers who also pulled strings from time to time. In the late 1970's, a friend and I built our first outdoor tailer stage, expanding our shows to new audiences such as The Decatur Herald and Review Pumpkinfest at the Decatur Civic Center, and the Macon County Historical Society's Yesteryear Fair. By 1988, the trailer stage had fallen into disrepair, and my father helped my build a new 10 foot trailer stage, as well as n new, larger indoor auditorium stage. Soon after, my father became the third member of the eam, keeping our electronic equipment and our motor home in good running order.

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That year, we began to travel both in and out of Illinois, when Leroy and Terry Harris, who owned Nashville North in Taylorville, introduced us to their booking agent, bill stein of Champaign. We then joined the county fair circuit, the Illinois State Fair, many street festivals and events far and wide. Fred puglia, who was the creator and producer of the Decatur Celevration, also booked show for us, including Springfields New Years First Night events, and New Years Eve at the Peoria Civic Center. During the holiday season, we were booked solid for parties.

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In 1990, I became one of 7 board members to re-open and restore the Lincoln Square Theatre where my first kids club began in 1992 combining puppets, games, prizes and cartoons. In 1999, I joined Skip Huston and WilliamTraver to re-open the Avon Theater where I rebooted the kids club as the Avon Theater Kids Club until 2006. Personal problems with that affiliationled me to end volunteering there, moving kids club to the Masonic Temple where it became the Super Kids Club in 2007. Kim Whitt as Granny Giggles and Chelso Frescura as SpiderMan folleded me from the Avon as well. In 2007, Super Kids Club went to the Lincoln Square Theatre through 2013 when the Mt. Zion Recreation Department asked us to create and produce the Fletcher Park Kids Club which enede in 2020 when Covid 19 swept the country. From 2008 through the last Decatur Celebration, we appeared on the Kids Block. We have also appeared at Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth, the Decatur Jaycees 4th of July Celebrations at Nelson Park, on WAND TV's noon hour program with Mike Cheever (70's), the WCIA TV MDA telethon in Champaign, the UCP telethon also on WAND, and returned to Scovill Zoo in 2007, 2019 and 2021. Most of my over 60 years in performing was a double job working 40 hours each week in factories at the same time. With Chelso Frescura onboard as my co-puppeteer and all around helper, our new stage and our new professional tent for outdoor shows, we hoe to have a bright future.

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