Tony Sarg Biography

Anthony Frederick Sarg (1880-1942) was a German American puppeteer and illustrator. He was described as 'America's Puppet Master', and in his biography as the 'father of modern puppetry' in North America.

Tony Sarg was born in Cobán, Guatemala, to Francis Charles Sarg and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Parker. The elder Sarg, son of Mary Ellen Best, was a consul representing Germany whilst Parker was English.

The family returned to the German Empire in 1887 and Sarg entered a military academy at age 14 and received a commission as lieutenant at 17. In 1905, in his mid-20s, he resigned his commission and took up residence in the United Kingdom. There, he pursued a relationship with Bertha Eleanor McGowan, an American he had met when she was a tourist in Germany. They were married in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, 20 January 1909, and returned to England, where their daughter Mary was born two years later.

Sarg appears to have worked as a book illustrator at this time, his earliest title we could find being The Cock, The Mouse and the Little Red Hen from 1907.

In 1914, with the start of World War I, he sent Bertha and the children to Cincinnati, followed them soon after, and settled the family in New York City in 1915. In 1920, he became a naturalised citizen of the United States.

Other books illustrated by Sarg include Speaking of Operations (1915), Fibble (1916), The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me (1918), Aristokia (1919), One Third Off (1921) and Tony Sarg's Book for Children from Six to Sixty (1924).

Sarg had been raised around puppets, inherited his grandmother's collection of them, developed them as a hobby that enhanced the impression he made on other artists, and finally in 1917, turned them into a profession.

In 1921, Sarg animated the film The First Circus, an inventive cartoon for producer Herbert M. Dawley, who was credited as co-animator. Sarg went on to produce a series of cartoons known as Tony Sarg's Almanac, from 1921 to 1923.

In 1928, he designed, and his protégé Bil Baird built, tethered helium-filled balloons up to 125 ft (38 m) long, resembling animals, for the New York institution of Macy's department store. This work involved a number of puppetry-related principles. These creations were featured in the store's Thanksgiving Day parade. In 1935, he undertook the puppet-related work of designing Macy's elaborate animated window display, which was shown between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The pinnacle of Sarg's visibility occurred at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, where his cumulative audience was 3 million; Baird was involved in this production, as were Rufus Rose and Margo Rose.

Sarg stepped back from competing with other puppet studios, and pursued illustrating magazine covers, guide books, and original children's picture books, games, and toys. He designed salons and sophisticated interiors for high-end department stores and restaurants, including the supper club at New York's Waldorf Astoria. He designed extensively for the New York World's Fair, in 1939, creating the fair's official pictorial map, and numerous colorful and modernistic fabrics with World's Fair themes for lady's scarves, handkerchiefs, dresses, table linens, and upholstery, which were sold through Lord & Taylor Department Store. His protégé, Bil Baird, went on to design the puppets featured in the film The Sound of Music.

On February 17, 1942, Sarg had surgery for a ruptured appendix, and died on 7 March 1942, of complications arising from it. He is buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.