Tony Sarg

Anthony (Tony) Frederick Sarg (1880-1942)

Tony Sarg was born in Guatemala to German father (he was a consul) and English mother. He studied in military academy, became lieutenant, but in 1905 moved to England.

He married an American (Bertha Eleanor McGowan) who have met in Germany (marriage took place in Ohio, USA in 1909) and Tony Sarg finally settled in USA (he became a citizen of USA in 1920), where he after series of different professions finally became a puppeteer.

Puppets were Tony Sarg's long time hobby. He started learning the tricks of the trade from Thomas Holden, when he was still living in England. Tony Sarg moved from England to the USA before the outbreak of World War I.

In New York he established a circle of friends and artists who described him as a warm personality and practical joker, often being a life of the party. Still, his commercial succes was a product of many original ideas and hard working ethics.

As we can see he was pretty good at illustrating too. The illustration above comes from the old tale Cock, Mouse, Little Red Hen, one of numerous versions of Little Red Hen, rewritten by Felicite Lefevre.

He also made animated movies, and designed helium balloons in shapes of different characters for parades and mechanical figures for window displays. Today he is sometimes called a father of American puppetry. While he was always in tune with the latest technological achievements, his approach to the puppetry was more conservative than puppetry of his contemporary Remo Bufano.

In later years, Tony Sarg lost most of his money due rough competition and died after complications following operation of his appendix. He also wrote several manuals about puppetry which are still highly praised among the artists.