Meet master puppeteer Tony Sarg

The Norman Rockwell Museum announced the exhibition "Tony Sarg: Genius at Play." [nrm.org]

Genius is right: Sarg was an early 20th century illustrator, inventor, puppeteer, toy maker, animator, hoaxster, and designer of the first giant character balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which he called "upside down marionettes."

There's a nice gallery of Sarg's art and videos of his animations at the NRM's website.