Bernice Silver | |
---|---|
![]() Bernice Silver, from a 1978 newspaper. | |
Born | October 7, 1913 Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Died | April 18, 2020 106) Englewood, New Jersey, U.S. | (aged
Occupation(s) | Puppeteer, activist |
Bernice Silver (October 7, 1913 – April 18, 2020) [1] was an American puppeteer and activist, known in her field as "the Queen of Potpourri", referring to the combination of puppetry, storytelling, music, and politics in her open-mic performances.
Silver was born in 1913, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the eldest of eight children born to Samuel Silver and Frances Resnikoff Silver. Her parents were Jewish. [2] Her father was a salesman and ran a candy shop. [1]
Silver worked in schools and factories as a young woman, and sold encyclopedias and other products door-to-door. She joined workers' theatre groups, including Theatre Advance, and performed at demonstrations and strikes. [3] Her one Broadway credit was in the original cast of Thornton Wilder's Our Town in 1938. [4]
Silver began performing with puppets by the 1960s. [1] "It's one of the oldest professions in the world," she explained in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2013, "It covers many, many artistic professions." [5] She toured New York state with Pete Seeger and others, billed as the "Vagabond Puppeteers". [6] She was active in the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York (PGOGNY), [7] and was known as "the Queen of Potpourri", [8] because her open-mic performances were a mix of puppetry, stories, folk songs, costumes, and political messages. [9] [10] She entertained at children's events in the New York area for decades, [11] and later in life she used audience expectations about her advanced age in her comedy. [12]
Silver appeared in the documentary Puppet Rampage (2008). In 2011, she went kayaking for the first time, with the NYC Friends of Clearwater. [13] She spoke at a fundraiser for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater in 2016. [14] The Puppeteers of America offered a Bernice Silver Festival Grant, to fund senior attendees at the organization's national festivals. [15]
Silver broke her hip and required a foot amputation in 2014; [12] she moved to the Lillian Booth Actors Home in 2016. That year, she commented on her delight in voting for a woman for president. [16] She died in April 2020, from respiratory failure with coronavirus, in Englewood, New Jersey. She was 106 years old. [1] [17] In October 2020, a Virtual Puppet Con was held by the Puppeteers of America, dedicated to the memory of Bernice Silver, during the week of her 107th birthday. [8]
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