Following a southern tour of the United States and a disastrous trip to Florida, where they grossly misjudged the timing of the 1929 winter tourist season, the Yale Puppeteers tried their luck out West. However, upon arriving in Los Angeles, they were disappointed to discover the only engagements they could secure were for school children, work that would soon dry up with the looming summer break.
Forced ingenuity prompted them to convert part of their rented home in the Hollywood Hills into a performance space. Zoning laws prevented them from operating a “theater” out of the basement but allowed for “clubs” to meet. So, they transformed a room into “Club Guignol” which could accommodate 25 paying “members.” Silent film actress Colleen Moore became a regular and helped turn Club Guignol into a popular hangout.
Another “club member” was Christine Sterling who had recently launched a successful movement to save the Avila Adobe, the city’s oldest standing building, from demolition. She was in the process of making over Olvera Street, where the Adobe was located, into an “authentic” Mexican village, i.e. tourist destination. She invited the Yale Puppeteers to be the first tenants of 27 Olvera Street. They jumped at the chance. The Teatro Torito was unveiled to the public with the rest of the renovated Olvera Street in the spring of 1930, and included a small bookstore operated by Forman Brown, and a space for Harry Burnett’s puppet-making classes. Through this venture, the Yale Puppeteers continued to build on their reputation, particularly with members of the film community.
They would operate Teatro Torito until 1933, continuously the first year and then intermittently as they resumed operations on the other side of the country. Inevitably, their talents were briefly sought by the film industry and they participated in two feature films, I Am Suzanne (1933) and Whom the Gods Destroy (1934).
The Pie-Eyed Piper was the troupe’s modern retelling of the German folktale. In their version, the town of Hamlin is brought to its knees when the disgruntled piper lures the female population to a nearby carnival and away from their domestic duties. The production included a torch-singing rat named Gwendolyn and extended rat ballet sequence featuring multiple marionettes. It would be proudly advertised as “the rattiest show in town.”
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