Ethel Stein (American, 1917-2018)
Croton-on-Hudson, New York
Doodlehead puppets, 1 set
INV-2465
Ethel Stein (American, 1917-2018)
Croton-on-Hudson, New York1954
Doodlehead puppets, 1 set
Ethel Stein (American, 1917-2018) Croton-on-Hudson, New York →mid-century moderntextile
Date
1954
Medium
Cotton, paperboard, papier mâché, paint, cellophane
Dimensions
24.1 × 11.4 × 10.2 cm (9 1/2 × 4 1/2 × 4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of the Stein Family
Ethel Stein designed this set of sock puppets for commercial retail following the success of her puppetry work at her son's nursery school. The Doodleheads were sold at a department store in New York City, where Shari Lewis purchased one. Lewis recognized Stein's ingenuity and in the late 1950s Stein create several puppets for Lewis's children's television program "The Shari Show." Stein submitted a patent for her sock puppet design in 1954, the same year the Doodleheads were first produced, and it was issued two years later. Stein's deft approach to design, demonstrated in these early works, would find ultimate expression in her weavings.
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