Bernice Silver
{{Short description|American puppeteer and activist (1913–2020)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bernice Silver
| image = Screen Shot 2020-12-20 at 12.33.44 PM.png
| alt = An older woman with large round glasses, wearing a costume with a peaked hood; in black-and-white newspaper photo from 1978.
| caption = Bernice Silver, from a 1978 newspaper.
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = October 7, 1913
| birth_place = Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2020|4|18|1913|10|12}}
| death_place = Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
| occupation = Puppeteer, activist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Bernice Silver (October 7, 1913 – April 18, 2020) was an American puppeteer and activist, known in her field as "the Queen of Potpourri", referring to the combination of puppetry, storytelling, music, and politics in her open-mic performances.
Early life
Silver was born in 1913, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the eldest of eight children born to Samuel Silver and Frances Resnikoff Silver. Her parents were Jewish.{{Cite web|title=Bernice Silver, 106, New York, N.Y. - Enjoyed puppetry and people, dedicated to social justice|url=https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4798642/jewish/Bernice-Silver-106-New-York-NY.htm|access-date=2020-12-20|website=Chabad News|language=en}} Her father was a salesman and ran a candy shop.{{Cite news|last=Green|first=Penelope|date=2020-05-21|title=Bernice Silver, Impish Puppeteer and Activist, Dies at 106|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/obituaries/bernice-silver-dead-coronavirus.html|access-date=2020-12-20|issn=0362-4331}}
Career
Silver worked in schools and factories as a young woman, and sold encyclopedias and other products door-to-door. She joined workers' theatre groups, including Theatre Advance, and performed at demonstrations and strikes.{{Cite book|last=Bell|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUrt2TWsHNIC&pg=PA4|title=Puppets, Masks, and Performing Objects|date=2001|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-52293-9|pages=4|language=en}} Her one Broadway credit was in the original cast of Thornton Wilder's Our Town in 1938.{{Cite web|title=Our Town|url=http://www.playbill.com/production/our-town-henry-millers-theatre-vault-0000002470|access-date=2020-12-20|website=Playbill|language=en}}
Silver began performing with puppets by the 1960s. "It's one of the oldest professions in the world," she explained in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2013, "It covers many, many artistic professions."{{Cite web|last=Palmer|first=Chris|date=August 11, 2013|title=Puppets take over Swarthmore|url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/local/20130811_Puppets_take_over_Swarthmore.html|access-date=2020-12-20|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|language=en-US}} She toured New York state with Pete Seeger and others, billed as the "Vagabond Puppeteers".{{Cite web|date=2016-07-28|title=Education and Propaganda|url=https://wepa.unima.org/en/education-and-propaganda/|access-date=2020-12-20|website=World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts|language=en-US}} She was active in the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York (PGOGNY),{{Cite web|last=Chang|first=Julia|date=April 26, 2011|title=NYPL Celebrates National Day of Puppetry|url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/04/26/nypl-celebrates-national-day-puppetry|access-date=2020-12-20|website=The New York Public Library}} and was known as "the Queen of Potpourri",{{Cite web|title=Puppet Con 2020 – Western Massachusetts Puppetry Guild|url=https://www.westmasspuppetry.org/puppet-con-2020/|access-date=2020-12-20|language=en-US}} because her open-mic performances were a mix of puppetry, stories, folk songs, costumes, and political messages.{{Cite journal|last=Corwin|first=Lois|date=August 2011|title=Festival Review|url=http://www.gardenstatepuppetryguild.com/NewsLetters/Garden%20State%20Puppetry%20Guild%20Aug%202011.pdf|journal=Garden State Puppetry Guild|pages=6}}{{Cite magazine|last=Kambhampaty|first=Anna Purna|date=December 18, 2020|title=The Lives Lost to Coronavirus: Bernice Silver|url=https://time.com/5814406/coronavirus-obituaries/|access-date=2020-12-20|magazine=Time}} She entertained at children's events in the New York area for decades,{{Cite news|last=Martin|first=Jo|date=1978-06-02|title=Young Treats at Old Site|pages=69|work=Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65690372/young-treats-at-old-sitejo-martin/|access-date=2020-12-20|via=Newspapers.com}} and later in life she used audience expectations about her advanced age in her comedy.{{Cite web|last=Andrew|date=2014-10-08|title=Happy Birthday Bernice Silver|url=http://puppetvision.blog/2014/10/happy-101st-birthday-bernice-silver/|access-date=2020-12-20|website=PuppetVision Blog|language=en-US}}
Silver appeared in the documentary Puppet Rampage (2008). In 2011, she went kayaking for the first time, with the NYC Friends of Clearwater.{{Cite web|last=Stein|first=Donna|date=July 25, 2011|title=Bernice Silver, 97 Years Young Goes Kayaking!|url=https://www.nycfriendsofclearwater.org/blog/94-bernice-silver-97-years-young-goes-kayaking|access-date=2020-12-20|website=New York Friends of Clearwater}} She spoke at a fundraiser for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater in 2016.{{Cite web|last=Churnakoses|first=Anne|date=May 12, 2016|title=Rock On to Clean the Hudson River!: A Fundraiser for Clearwater|url=https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/anneistrash/?p=147|access-date=2020-12-20|website=Trash Talker|language=en-US}} The Puppeteers of America offered a Bernice Silver Festival Grant, to fund senior attendees at the organization's national festivals.{{Cite web|title=Bernice Silver Festival Grant|url=https://www.puppeteers.org/bernice-silver-festival-grant|access-date=2020-12-20|website=Puppeteers of America|language=en}}
Personal life
Silver broke her hip and required a foot amputation in 2014; she moved to the Lillian Booth Actors Home in 2016. That year, she commented on her delight in voting for a woman for president.{{Cite web|title=Bernice|url=https://www.iwaited96years.com/bernice|access-date=2020-12-20|website=iwaited96years|language=en}} She died in April 2020, from respiratory failure with coronavirus, in Englewood, New Jersey. She was 106 years old.{{Cite journal|date=June 2020|title=RIP Bernice Silver|url=http://www.folkmusicny.org/FMC2020-06.pdf|journal=The New York Pinewoods Folk Music Club Newsletter|volume=55|pages=3}} In October 2020, a Virtual Puppet Con was held by the Puppeteers of America, dedicated to the memory of Bernice Silver, during the week of her 107th birthday.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lf_VaaV744 Bernice Silver speaking in support of PGOGNY in 2007], on YouTube.
- {{IBDB name|id=113994}}
- {{IMDb name|id=3189204}}
{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver, Bernice}}
Category:People from Bushwick, Brooklyn
Category:American women centenarians
Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey
Category:20th-century American people
Category:20th-century American women
Category:21st-century American people