Marie Hitchcock of Padre Puppeteers and San Diego Puppet Guild with Sgt. Friendly in 1976. The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater is located in the Palisades area of Balboa Park. It was originally part of a single, large unit erected for the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935-36 and called the Palisades Building. In 1947, the first public performance at the Puppet Theater was a marionette show given by Marie Hitchcock and her sister, Genevieve Engman.