ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

Tony Sarg’s Background
Tony Sarg took a circuitous path to American puppet theatre that produced a
puppeteer who envisioned himself as an artist first and a showman second. 162 He was
born in Coban, Guatemala on the 21 st of April, 1880, the child of planters Francis Charles
Sarg of Germany and Mary Elizabeth Parker of England. At least two generations of his
family were artistically inclined, his father and grandmother painted, and his grandfather
made carvings of wood. He claimed, in interviews he held in 1924 and 1932, that his
grandmother’s rich paintings of domestic life on the family plantation embedded his art
with high standards for characterization, and an appreciation of local culture. 163
When he was seven, his family returned to Germany. Sarg’s father sent the boy
to Litchterfelde Academy to train for an officer’s commission. He was a lieutenant in the
German army from 1897-1905. Secretly, he moonlighted during his service as an
illustrator, living what one biographer would call “a Jekyll and Hyde” existence. 164
Finally, his desire to pursue an artistic career took full charge of his industry and
he left the military behind. For the next nine years, he lived in London, where he worked
as an illustrator, cartoonist, and theatrical artist for Sketch. During this time, he leased a
two-story house in Lincoln’s Inn Field. Reportedly, it was the original “Old Curiosity
Shop” of Charles Dickens. Sarg latched onto the opportunity to sell admission to tourists.
Untold numbers enjoyed the second floor doll’s house Sarg called “Little Nell’s
162 I chose to begin with Sarg due to his visibility and influence. If I were following a strict
chronology, I would have begun with Susan Hastings. While her career began earlier, her most visible
contributions actually post-date Sarg’s.
163
Qtd. in: Tamara Robin Hunt, Tony Sarg: Puppeteer in America 1915-1942 (North Vancouver:
Charlemagne Press, 1988), 13.
164 Ibid., 14.
127