There's an amzing article on tv puppet pioneers Bil & Cora Baird (and their marionettes) at Michael Sporn's Splog:
"Bil & Cora Baird had ruled the theatrical environs on TV (Bil & Cora Baird Show and Peter & the Wolf) , in theater (Flahooley, Baker Street) and on film (Sound of Music). Yet when the very successful scene in the film, Lili, where Leslie Caron talks to Bil Baird’s marionette, moved to Broadway as the musical, Carnival, it was Jim Henson who built the puppets for the show. A sea change had happened. The marionette had become a hand puppet."