Evening star., 1941-06-15
Girl Develops Variety of Talents Including Painting and Embroidery
Just
Between
Yourselves
BY PHILIP H. LOVE,
Junior Star Editor.

Junior Star Editor.
Laura Arnold Flippin gives mar
ionette shows to earn money to buy
more marionettes to give more mar
ionette shows.
A rather awkward sentence, that,
but it's the best one l can think OF
to summarize the story of Laura
Arnold and her marionettes. And,
awkward or not, it's true.
The 1l-year-old Lafayette School
pupil, who lives at 6l58 Thirty-firSt
place NV, has been giving marion
cite shows more or less regularly
since 1899. She gives the shows in
the recreation room of her home
and other girls and boys in the
neighborhOod pay 3 cents each to
see them. Her receipts have totaled
as much as 60 cents for single per-
fOrmance.
Laura Arnold's career" as a pup
PETER began shortly after Christ
mas, 1889, when she found a set
of marionettes among her gifts.
Previously, she had spent as much
OF her spare time as possible making
puppets out of old rags. And it
was lot of fun, too," she says
The whole family-mother, father
and older brother-helped Laura
Arnold to make an old packing case
into a marionette stage. A ping
pong table was drafted into service
as a platform for the stage and
sheets were used as wings. Mrs
Flippin, who has loved to draw
since childhood, designed an assort-
almost no time at all, Laura Arnold
had mastered the rather difficult
art of making the puppets DO her
bidding.
She gave her first show the week
after Christmas. She Just made
it up" as she went along, some
times improvising entirely new
stories, sometimes merely giving new
twists TO such old favorites as
1Illlt INtd 1AldllIS I1oOd
Until about two months ago she
gave a new show nearly every week.
Then other activities interfered and
she laid her marionettes aside.
Now, however. she is back in the
Theatrical business this time TO
stay, she says. She resumed her
shows about two weeks ago.
Those other activities" aside
from her schoolwork, consist of
playing the piano and singing. She
learned to play at and, she says,
has been singing for as long as she
can remember. At present. she
sings in the children's choir of the
First Baptist Church.
%x
Recordings provide the musical
accompaniment for Laura Arnolds
shows. Often. she draws on her
collection of recordings of her own
singing and playing. L don't use
my own records too often, though
she explains, because I don't want
to wear them out. l want to keep
them until I'm grown-until I'm
a real singer-so I'll know what I
sounded like when 1 was little
Sometimes. Laura Arnold plans
her shows in advance, getting up ce-
tailed programs which her brother
types for her. Once. a boy who had
received printing press for Christ
mas made her a set of programs
SO many, in fact. that she still has
some left. She calls the recreation
room "Toyland Theater,' and this
name always appears on her pro-
grams. Her puppets are billed as
The Flippin Marionettes.
But. despite her businesslike
methods. Laura Arnold doesn't al
ways charge admission to her
shows. Sometimes she "just feels
like giving a show''-and gives one.
And once, at the request of her
teacher. she loaded her stage and
puppets into toy express wagon
and hauled them to school for
free performance.
1t is only natural to wonder what
Laura Arnold does with all the
money that her shows earn her.
And that takes us all the way back
to the rather awkward sentence
with which this column began.
Il save the money" Laura Arnold
says, Ito buy more marionettes."
Junior jottings:
Bob Willenborg, Eastern High
School correspondent of The Junior
Star, is working behind soda toun-
tain and saving his money to enter
college next September. Il hardly
have time to write much any more"
he postcards. SalesmanShip and |
Latin American history will be
added to the list of selective sub
jects at Central High School in the |
fall. Similar courses will be |
offered at Roosevelt High School.
along with home economics and
general mathematics. Montgom-
cry Blair High Schools senior BAN
quet and class night will be COM
bined Tuesday at the Indian Spring
Country Club. :. The Western High
Breeze has arranged to have its first
issue of the 1912 term ready for
on the day school re-
opens in September. Jeanne
Barinott, IA, Taft Junior High. who
in the first Junior
Star of the Air" writes: Il enjoyed
speaking on the program and meet
ing j. S. writers. I placed the pic
ture and story in my scrapbook, and
they will bring back happy memo