Peter Britton Baird (February 25, 1952 â July 16, 2004) was an American puppeteer in live theater, feature films, and TV. He also contributed as a director and script writer. Baird is best known for his five-year contribution to the children's TV show Shining Time Station, which won an Emmy. He is also known for reviving some of his parents' most popular puppet shows, such as Davy Jones' Locker, first as a musical for live theater (1987), then as a feature film (1995). He was the son of puppeteers Bil and Cora Baird. Baird received two UNIMA citations of excellence for live performance (1990, 1992).
Baird was born in New York City to Cora Baird (née Eisenberg) and Bil Baird. Peter was the oldest of two children. His younger sister, Laura Janee Baird, was born three years after him. His parents were career puppeteers and immersed Baird in the world of puppetry, theater, and film at an early age. Baird's mother Cora appeared in multiple Broadway productions under the stage name Cora Burlar, including Valley Forge staged by John Housman in 1934âÂÂ1935 at the Guild Theater, and Noah with Pierre Fresnay as Noah in 1935.
Baird's father Bil Baird worked with Tony Sarg. One of his early projects with Sarg were giant animal balloons for the 1928 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Bil then formed Baird Marionettes, which performed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.
Cora met Bil while working on Orson Welles' stage production of Dr. Faustus. Welles commissioned Bil to create and manipulate puppets to represent the seven deadly sins, and Cora performed the puppet voices. Four weeks after meeting, they married on January 13, 1937. Soon afterwards, they formed Bil & Cora Baird Marionettes and performed continuously and extensively as a team.
Baird's family home was above his parents' marionette theater in Greenwich Village. At age two, Baird was pictured in a newspaper article sitting on his parents' puppet stage as puppets performed around him. The theater had an attic with a playroom. It was designed by Chicagoan Robert Lindenthal, with mushroom-shaped stools, beds on pulleys, a storage box ladder, and, of course, puppets hanging from the walls and ceiling.
Cora and Bil Baird often performed their puppet shows with their children in tow. The venues ranged from the family's theater in Greenwich Village, to New York City vaudeville stages, to the 1939 New York World's Fair Swift Pavilion. Cora and Bil were in the 1941 Broadway production of the Ziegfeld Follies. One of their most famous performances was the Lonely Goatherd in the film version of The Sound of Music in 1964. Puppetry was the dominant context for Baird's youth. Unfortunately, his mother Cora died in 1967 when he was only 15.
Baird's career started with front of house support as a ticket taker at age 11, and became a professional marionette performer at the Bil and Cora Baird Marionette Theater. In 1968 (age 15) his mother died, and the family theater was renamed Bil Baird Marionettes. Peter continued his work there as a puppeteer. In 1979 he had his first involvement in a Hollywood film production. In 1981 Baird worked on his first Broadway production. Afterwards, Baird continued to work in live theater, film and TV. In 1989 he puppeteered on the TV series Shining Time Station that ran for five years. Peter was filmed at a Puppeteers of America National Festival demonstrating puppeteering techniques.
Baird and his sister Laura Janee (née Baird) Brundage auctioned some of the Bil and Cora Baird puppets at the Greenwich Auction Room. This was to help pay estate taxes after Bil Baird's death in 1987. Baird said puppets are created to be used, not hidden away in boxes, and we are not using them.
Baird married Mavis Humes in early 2004. They remained married until his death in 2004.
Baird died of esophageal cancer at a hospital in the Bronx on July 16, 2004. A memorial was written about Baird by Joseph Jacoby, director of the 1995 movie Davy Jones' Locker. As published in Puppetry International, Jacoby said: I had worked with the bestâÂÂfrom Bunin to father BairdâÂÂbut I'd never witnessed the performance genius of Peter Baird. It was a genius born of an open childlike love for his craft, febrile and all-consuming, and a love for humanity, displayed always with humility, which in my judgment spoke softly of his extraordinary gifts.