The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

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Peter B. Baird

Peter B. Baird, the son of Cora and Bil Baird, became the director of Baird Marionettes as his father’s health declined. A consummate puppeteer himself, Peter died of esophageal cancer in 2004 at the age of fifty-two. The MacNider Museum in Mason City, Iowa, has established a memorial endowment fund for conservation of its collection of the Baird puppets.

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Cora Baird

In a reverse of the usual sequence of events, Cora Eisenberg Baird started playing with dolls when she grew up and married puppeteer Bil Baird. They performed at the 1939 and 1940 World’s Fairs and in the 1941 Ziegfeld Follies. They created educational and public service films and founded the American Puppet Arts Council.