ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

Lano introduces a clever trick that would captivate audiences unfamiliar with the craft of
puppetry, the object’s head is uneven and its fingers are only vaguely articulated. The
outfit appears to reflect some sort of Chinese robe, but the fabric lacks decoration and is
unevenly attached. Finally, the hair is nothing more than a painted line high on the
irregular scalp. Lano’s strategy is to focus on a few interesting manipulation techniques,
Fig. 18. “Chinese Ball Juggler.” Photograph by the Author. Detroit Institute of the Arts
Collection.
but otherwise spend little time perfecting the design of the figure. Its simple genius is the
product of a puppeteer who believed that clever tricks were the essence of the frontier
puppeteer’s craft.
The single extant blackface puppet in Lano’s collection is described as a “Lano
Friday, dressed as a Negro minstrel with a gardenia in his lapel.” It is a crude and wildly
exotic image. Perhaps the most conspicuous feature is the unusually exaggerated hair.
Lano draws on the characteristic fright wig of minstrelsy to produce a spiked comb for
his “Friday.” The bushy tangle is vaguely reminiscent of traditional ceremonial masks,
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