Reading Rainbow’s LeVar Burton visits a Balloon Rally hosted by puppeteer Bonnie Duncan’s family in 1984.
If you’ve ever seen a Gottabees show or any work that puppeteer Bonnie Duncan has made solo, there is often a balloon involved --- whether the balloon helps a character escape, transports them to magical lands, or is a merely a form of transportation.
For Bonnie, balloons are magical, beautiful, and mysterious. They were also an important part of her childhood.
Read on to learn more about her real-life hot air balloon adventures, and sign up for ScreenPLAY! Episode 4, Look Up: A Hot Air Balloon Adventure on August 26-29 to join Bonnie and the Gottabees on an imaginary flight into the clouds. Learn More / Reserve Tickets.
Bonnie and her balloons…
Bonnie with her grandparents and cousins in the 1980s, awaiting a hot air balloon flight.
Q: Bonnie, what’s your connection to hot air ballooning?
When I was four years old, my family started hot air ballooning. This became our family’s hobby for 15+ years --- my grandparents, my parents, and my aunt and uncle all had balloons. Most weekends, we would pack up the van and head to a balloon rally in a neighboring state or fly with other ballooning friends at dawn and then again at dusk.”
Q: What do you remember from the experience of flying with your family?
Balloon or Baby Dragon? Find out at ScreenPLAY August 26-29!
You cannot control exactly where a balloon goes or lands. Radio communication was limited at the time (there was no GPS readily available), and the chase crew depended on maps, a good sense of direction, and continual attempts at keeping sight of the 7-story high balloon flying overhead in order to meet the balloon when it landed.
The landowners of wherever we landed were always amazed and overwhelmingly wonderful. For them, a colorful gentle giant that sounded like a dragon had just floated down from the sky and landed in their yard or field at 8:00 am on a Saturday.
Each flight was a new adventure, filled with characters and experiences that we still recount to this day as a family.
Q: Do you have any other fun stories to share?
One story that I so love sharing with my own children is that Reading Rainbow was filmed during a balloon rally that my father organized. LeVar Burton flew in our balloon and was part of our weekend. I was eight at the time and this was really special because I was a BIG FAN of the show. But don’t just take my word for it…
The closing credits to Season 2, Episode 1 feature a beautiful sequence that gives you a sense of what it’s like to be in a balloon. You can see all of my family’s and friends’ balloons!!
Bonnie’s family’s hot air balloons fly during the closing credits for Reading Rainbow (1984).
By the way, not all of this week’s ScreenPLAY! story will be true.
There might be a long-horned cow....
There might be a baby dragon...
There might even be a...
JOIN US TO FIND OUT!
Learn More about Bonnie Duncan and The Gottabees at
www.thegottabees.com
Bonnie with her family around a hot air balloon basket (Bonnie is in the middle wearing a white shirt!)
