Graduating from Senn High School in 1935,
Tillstrom turned down a college scholarship to be
a professional puppeteer. He created his most
famous puppet, Kukla, while working for the
Works Progress Administration Chicago Parks
Theater. Kukla, which means “doll” in Russian
and Greek, was a balding creature who worried
constantly. Kukla was soon joined by two other
“Kuklapolitans,” Madame Ophelia Ooglepuss and Ollie, a sweet-tempered dragon.

Tillstrom ran the marionette theater at Marshall Field’s department store in the
early 1940s, when he decided that television was the ideal medium for
puppets. He lived here, at 1407 West Sherwin Avenue, in 1947 when he
enlisted Fran Allison, a radio singer, to host the debut of “Kukla, Fran, and
Ollie” on WBKB-TV in Chicago. During their ten years together, Tillstrom and
Allison never used a script, relying instead on story lines and improvisation.

An instant success, “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” was broadcast nationally in 1949 by
the NBC television network. In 1960 Tillstrom performed “An Evening with
Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” on Broadway, and later appeared on public television
and as the host of the “CBS Children’s Film Festival.” Tillstrom’s many awards
include five Emmys.