Charmayne's push puppet page, Kohner gallery

The Kohner brothers had a license to manufacture Wakouwa puppets. Early ones were all wood and a few bases were square rather than the much more prevalent round shape. The round wood bases are VERY nice to touch. Soon the bases were changed to plastic. Most were red. These plastic bases tended to warp and crack. Several of mine have been in the Push Puppet Hospital, undergoing restorative surgery. Bob has filled the crack with epoxy to stabilize it. I have two Kohner puppets on green plastic bases, one under Howdy Doody and one under Rudolph. Interestingly, these bases STINK!! The surface turns chalky looking and when rubbed off, smells just horrible. It re-chalks quickly. The figures on all the plastic bases were still made with wood beads. I call them "transition Kohner puppets". Later yet, the Kohner puppets were all plastic, much smaller. The figures were not the same as those on the transition puppets but were different characters, many from American cartoons. The newer all plastic puppets are generally not repairable if the strings break. This page shows my all-wood and transition plastic base / wood figure puppets.

Howdy Doody character puppets ~~~


Bob Smith's Howdy Doody Gang	Flub-a-Dub	Howdy Doody

Clarabelle the Clown #186 _______________________ _______	Princess SummerFall WinterSpring The photo on the right is a link to a short movie showing how her mouth works.	Shared Heads Howdy Doody and Peter Pan utilize the same head.


Bronco Bill #125		Lone Ranger #182	The Lone Ranger #182 with a black suit.
			The Kohner's took some artist license with the Lone Ranger's horse. Trigger wasn't white. And note Bronco Bill is seated on the same horse. I have little doubt this was done to simplify manufacture and control costs.
	Both color costumes use the same label.	Close-up of the horse's head.

Peter Pan, #141	Mac the Sailor	Davy Crocket	Indian Chief, #176

Walloping Willie, #111, gray	Watch Willie swing for a home run!	Another pair of shared heads	Boxers, 2 of several. More can be found here.

Swing Dancers	older Swing Dancers	Swing Dancer heads
			The Kohner labels on the plastic based puppets were cut into the bases and filled with gold colored paint.
	Tipsy Tom	Tipsy Tom's label

		Funny Monkey on the left-hand side of the photo is one of my puppets which Bob repaired with epoxy.
Storky, #155	Funny Monkey #154 came in two versions.		Mickey Mouse, #185

Donkey # 140 came in several styles.	Some had squeakers bases. Note the head shape.	Some donkeys are on wood bases. Later on plastic.	Donald Duck, #128
	A metal reed and bellows are positioned in the base. When the button is pushed, air is forced up through the reed and a squeaking sound is heard. →
Barking Dog, #130		Squeaker mechanism.	Lucky the Cat

Elephant #139, wood base	Closer view of label		Elephant #139, plastic base

Pluto, #131		Tiny animals. These are all wood and less than 3" tall.

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