Ralph Chesse Exhibit at the San Francisco Library

As a kid in the San Francisco Bay Area I was a dedicated follower of The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz Show and, in fact, a card-carrying member of the Brother Buzz Club (Actually, I had a Brother Buzz club button, I don’t recall if there really was a Membership card).

The creator of the TV show, script writer, voice artists and head puppeteer/marionettist was Ralph Chesse. Over the years, I learned more about this remarkable creative artist and was very pleased to learn that the SF Public Library had decided to highlight his life and varied career.

Ralph Chesse: A San Francisco Century was exhibited this summer in the Jewett Gallery of the Main Branch of the SF Library.  The exhibit was curated Glen Helfand. Here’s a glimpse of the show.

 

Ralph Chesse life work defies easy definition. He was a painter, printmaker and muralist, an actor (in theater, television and film), and a puppeteer. Sometimes these different talents ran in tandem other times they seemed to collide and happen creatively all at once.

Chesse was born in 1900 in New Orleans of Creole heritage.  It seems he started painting there (with a bit of instruction from the Chicago Art Institute). 

Some early work by Ralph Chesse. Clearly influenced by Charles Dana Gibson

A detail of the above piece

He also got his first introduction to theater in New Orleans as an occasional actor and stage designer.    It seems Chesse was first exposed to puppetry around 1925 when he moved to San Francisco and met Blanding Sloan.  

                                                        

Some art from San Francisco 1930’s

Some rough sketches

His ‘Black Madonna’ won a prize at the Art Association’s Annual Exhibition in 1928

 

In 1929, Chesse launched his Marionette Guild producing adaptions of works by the likes of Moliere. During the depression his work was supported by the Federal Theater/WPA. 

Chesse usually created his own block print posters for his performances.

 

In 1934, Chesse was one of 25 artists selected by the WPA to create a mural for Coit Tower.

Coit Tower block print by Ralph Chesse

Preliminary art for the Coit Tower fresco

A shot of  the fresco “Playground” at Coit Tower

In 1936, he was appointed Director of Puppetry (There’s a title I never knew existed). His job ultimately was to oversee Federal Theater puppetry units throughout the state of California. And in 1938 he produced and performed “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” at the Golden Gate Exposition on Treasure Island.

 

Through the difficult years of the Great Depression and World War II Chesse continued to struggle along with his combination of puppetry, freelancing art, teaching and gallery shows. 

He began working in local television in 1950. In 1952, he began the Wonderful World of Brother Buzz sponsored by the Latham Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education. 

The ‘cast' of the Brother Buzz show

The show bounced around on local stations and eventually became a nationally syndicated program. The show lasted 17 years.

Somehow while creating and performing a weekly TV show, Chesse managed to continue to juggle his other interests—creating puppets for the SF Opera and SF Symphony, exhibiting in galleries in SF, New York, New Orleans and Paris, and appearing as an actor on TV and on stage.  (By the 1970’s, he was appearing in movies such as THX 1138, Raid on Entebbe, and Tell Me A Riddle).

One of his latter day marionettes--Tiny Tim

 

Over the years, I’ve chanced upon different aspects of Chesse’s remarkable life but this exhibit did a fine job of bringing some attention to an under acknowledged creative figure.