The Neighbor
date: label: Date made
content: 1930 - 1934
name: label: user
content: Cordry, Donald
label: maker
content: Cordry, Donald
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Known as "the nosy neighbor" this wooden marionette is a character from Donald Cordy's production of "The Three WIshes." Her features are soft compared to Margo , her eyes are half shut and she is wearing a long gray print cotton skirt a fuzzy ruffled jacket. and leather shoes. She has a prominent nose that speaks of her nosey nature. She is operated with an airplane holder and six strings.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Donald Cordry (1907-1978) was a well known and highly respected American artist, craftsmen and puppeteer of the 1920s and 30s. He was gifted with a great decorative sense and his craftsmanship was extraordinary.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Born in Minnesota, Cordry attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1924-1929 and after graduation he went to work for the Board of Education. While his main job was to lecture and teach classes, Cordy took used the opportunity to create and perform his own marionette show with both hand puppets and marionettes.
label: Description (Brief)
content: From late 1930 to early 1931 Cordry joined the Rufus Rose Company, owned by Rupert and Margo Rose that played the school and college circuit on the East coast.
label: Description (Brief)
content: In the summer of 1931 he traveled to Mexico where he developed a life long interest and dedication to the arts and landscape of Mexico. An avid collector of ethnographic material for over 40 years, Cordy amassed a large collection of indigenous Mexican arts and crafts which he meticulously documented and researched. His passion also included Native American cultures, and in the mid 1930s he worked at the Heye Museum of Indian Art in New York City where he cataloged and researched objects for the museum.
label: Description (Brief)
content: (The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History owns a large collection of Mexican masks donated by the Cordry family in the early 1980s.)
label: Description (Brief)
content: After returning to Minneapolis in late 1931, Cordy started creating his own puppets. He formed his own company and performed shows until 1934. The Dolly Sisters and the Three Wishes were popular with young and old audiences alike.
label: Description (Brief)
content: In June of 1934, Cordry moved to New York and worked with Tony Sarg, a well known and established puppeteer in his own right, and taught classes at Sarg's Summer School. Cordy made a number of puppets for Sarg and toured with his company from 1934-1936.
label: Description (Brief)
content: By 1937 poor health forced him to give up puppetry and he moved to Mexico. He did however, continue his field research on indigenous peoples and later on published two books - Mexican Indian Costumes (1968) and Mexican Masks (c1980).
label: Description (Brief)
content: "The Three WIshes" was Cordy's final production before he moved to Mexico with his wife. The puppets and sets from this production were shipped in crates to Mexico and remained there almost fifty years. In 1982, his widow Dorothy Mann Cordy donated this collections to the Smithsonian which included not only the marionettes, but props made to scale and a fully operational puppet stage.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Associated Place
content: United States: New York, New York
topic: label: used
content: Puppetry
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Puppets
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Dorothy Mann Cordry in memory of Donald Cordry
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.0238.064
label: accession number
content: 1982.0238
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0238.064
objectType: label: Object Name
content: puppet
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: fabric (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 24 in x 7 in; 60.96 cm x 17.78 cm