Tommy Wonder

Who was Tommy Wonder?

Tommy Wonder was an American dancer, actor, choreographer, and artist manager. He was a principal dancer in the 1943 Ziegfeld Follies.

As a child, Wonder suffered from an unspecified physical disability which hindered his ability to walk; to help him, his mother used clothes and a broomstick to build a puppet on which he could support himself. Wonder named the puppet "Suzanne", and with its help he was able not only to learn to walk, but to dance at a professional level; an upgraded version of "Suzanne", designed by members of the Westmore family, with human hair, a Hubert Givenchy gown, and Wonder's mother's original broomstick, is in the Smithsonian Institution.