John Shirley was from Chicago, Illinois. It is believed that Shriley performed on a variety of shows during his career, including the Ed Sullivan show—and of course, on The Magic Palace.
Dana Hanson, who was a child when first meeting John Shirley in Southern Wisconson at the Walworth CO and the Wisconsin State Fair shares these memories of John Shirley: “John was a master balloon artist and magician, but his gift was marionettes. All the characters in this clip were designed and made by Shirley.”
Dana continues: “The short clips are word for word as I remember them. His show was normally ended with a large about 3-4" skeleton puppet. It would dance and fly all over the stage...the puppet was very elaborate and could be separated into pieces. Head, spine, arms, legs could all be controlled separately.”
We thank Dana Hanson for submitting this update.
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