Burr Tillstrom, the creative talent behind the extraordinarily successful Kukla, Fran and Ollie programs, was one of television's earliest pioneers and a principal participant in a number of television "firsts." In the late 1930s Tillstrom joined the RCA Victor television demonstration show for a tour throughout the mid­ western United States. At the completion of the tour, he was invited to present his Kuklapolitan Players at the 1939 New York World's Fair, where he demonstrated the new medium at the RCA Victor exhibit. In the spring of 1940, RCA sent Tillstrom to Bermuda to do the first ship-to-shore telecasts. The Kuklapolitans

     were also featured on the 1941 premiere broadcast of the Balaban and Katz station WBKB in Chicago. By drawing large audiences for television puppetry, Till­ strom opened the door for future puppeteers and their puppets, such as Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney, Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, and Jim Henson and the Muppets.

     Tillstrom demonstrated his improvisational talents at an early age when he entertained neighborhood children using teddy bears, dolls, and any other objects that he could animate to mimic performances and film stories. Following one year of college during the mid-1930s, he joined the Chicago Park District's puppet theater, created under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and developed his own puppets and characters after work. Kukla, the puppet who was the first member of the Kuklapolitan Players, was actually designed and constructed by Till­strom for a friend in 1936, but Tillstrom found he could not part with his creation. The character remains nameless until a chance meeting with Russian ballerina Tamara Toumanova, who, upon seeing the puppet. called him "kukla" (Russian for "doll" and a term of endearment).

     The format for Kukla, Fran and Ollie had its roots in Tillstrom 's work at the 1939 World's Fair. His puppets, who served as an entr'acte for another marionette group, made comments to the audience and interacted with actresses and models (exhibit spokespersons) invited onto the stage. Tillstrom performed more than 2,000 shows at the fair, each performance different because he disliked repetition.

     Tillstrom continued to hone his craft by performing with other marionette troupes and managing the puppet theater at Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. He performed benefits for the United Service Organization (USO) during World War II and at local hospitals for the Red Cross. During a 1941 bond­ selling rally in Chicago, Tillstrom met a young radio singer and personality, Fran Allison, who later joined his troupe for a trial 13-week local program, a trial that lasted for many years and attracted millions of fans.

     Tillstrom created each puppet on Kukla, Fran and Ollie by hand and was the sole manipulator and voice for 15 characters. He shifted  easily-usually with only a momentary pause-among characters, and created unique personalities and voices for each "kid" (as he referred to his creations), ranging from the sweet voice of Kukla, the baritone singing voice of Ollie, and the flirtatious Buelah Witch, to the indistinguishable gibberish of Cecil Bill. Standing behind the small stage, Tillstrom could observe the onstage action through the use of a small monitor, a technique that was later adopted and expanded by Jim Henson for The Muppet Show.

     Although he is most closely identified with Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Tillstrom was featured on the U.S. version of That Was the Week That Was (TW3) in 1964 without the Kuklapolitans. He won a special Emmy Award for a hand-ballet symbolizing the emotional conflicts caused by the Berlin Wall crisis. His work on TW3 was cited by the George Foster Peabody committee, which in 1965 decided to recognize distinguished individual achievements rather than general program categories after chiding the radio and television industry for "a dreary sameness and steady conformity" in its programming.

Following his success on television in various rein­ carnations and syndicated specials of Kukla, Fran and Ollie, including a Broadway production, annual  holi­ day productions at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, and a sound recording (for which he was  nominated  for  a Best Recording for Children Grammy Award in 1972). Tillstrom brought his characters to the printed page  in his 1984 work The Dragon Who Lived Downstairs. A generous spirit who  enjoyed  sharing  his  knowledge and experience with  future  performers,  Tillstrom served as an artist-in-residence at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. At the time of his death in December 1985, he was working on a  musical  adaptation of  his life story for television. On March 23, 1986 Till­strom was inducted posthumously into  the  Hall  of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his significant contributions to the art of television. Fran Allison accepted the award on his behalf.