It's by design that my work number isn't the easiest thing to track down. After years of working in the Madison office where anyone could walk in off the street and tell us about his hippie jam band playing at some coffee house, I've tried to limit unwelcome access as much as possible. When I do get a call it's usually from someone I want to talk to or someone tenacious enough to figure out my extension. I rarely get calls from famous puppeteers out of the blue.
But that changed yesterday when Bob Baker of the Bob Baker Marionettes called to talk about the Disney Inventory Noel and I wrote last week. We had a nice talk about his time with Disney, where he worked in the special effects department after WWII. It was great to talk to someone who was there, especially after being immersed in Disney stuff after reading Neal Gabler's bio. Baker's well known in his own right, though. He was head animator for George Pal's Puppetoons and worked on everything from Star Trek to Close Encounters to George Ulmer's Bluebeard. And his marionette company has entertained L.A. kids for years. Like the title of this post says, I wish I got out-of-nowhere calls like this more often.
