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Pelham Puppets:
The Story
by David Leech Part 2 |
Notice the
heads in the picture. These were turned on a lathe in Victoria house. A
rather long, slow process and, as Bob once described, The heads came out
from round to squarish round. If they were to increase production
another way had to be found. By chance, in October 1948, Bob was attending
the Marlborough Mop Fair (an annual fair, held by ancient charter, every
October in Marlborough High Street).
Suddenly a man stepped
in front of him with the offer: Four balls for sixpence! Bob immediately
saw this as exactly what he needed! |
Two early puppets from 1947 |
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Where do you get them
from? he asked the man with the coconut shy stall. Fearing Bob wanted to set up in opposition
to him, Mr Bunce, wouldn’t tell him at first. But when Bob returned with
Sandy MacBoozle, Bob was given the name and address of the supplier. The
problem of producing wooden heads in larger quantities had been solved! |
Four balls for 6d!
Illustration by David Leech |
With thousands of puppets being sold in several countries,
it didn’t take
long for hundreds
of letters to start coming in from new puppet owners
requesting help and information for using their puppets and staging shows!
So, in 1950 The Pelpup Club was born. |
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In order to keep in touch with Pelham Puppet enthusiasts, Bob produced a
monthly magazine, Pelpup
News. The first edition appeared in the British Puppet Theatre magazine
in September 1950.The magazine soon appeared in its own right. Hand-written and
illustrated by Bob- Pelpop – it continued to appear every month until
1957, then twice yearly until 1960. From summer 1961, the magazine took
on a new format, a nice glossy magazine with photographs, and every cover
featured a current scene of an animated unit. It continued to be published
twice yearly for just over 20 years. (David Leech produced Pelpup News
issues 47-50 in 1986/7 for the new company, after a gap of 3 years.)
The last issue produced by Bob himself was winter 1979 issue No.38.
In the mid-50’s, Gill Leeper
played a major part in the design and development of Pelham Puppets. |
Example of Gill Leeper’s work:
the Opera Singer with heaving
bosom |
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He was a master woodcarver and design
artist and joined forces with Bob Pelham late in 1949. All his prototypes
were carved in wood and his work is easily recognised, with heads and
faces that have strong, detailed features. Good examples of his work are
the original Alice in Wonderland puppets and the Punch and Judy range.
Gill
Leeper was responsible for special orders, puppets made for professional
use, although it was Bob who worked on the control mechanisms and
stringing.
Gill Leeper died in a road accident in 1957 on his way to work.
Despite the tragic loss of such a talented friend and colleague, Bob did
manage to continue introducing new characters to the ever expanding range
of puppets. |
Puppets designed by Gill Leeper |
He recognised the
increasing appeal and impact of television and popular characters such as
Muffin the Mule, Mr.Turnip, Torchy and
characters from Gerry Anderson’s Supercar and Fireball XL5 were all put
into production.
Most
only had a limited commercial life, but some characters, like Pinky and
Perky continued in production for the life of the factory. |
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However, as with any Company history, Pelham did not escape some serious
set-backs. One major set-back occurred on October 18th 1961.
A fire was discovered late one evening and a major part of the factory,
including Bob’s office and stock room were reduced to ashes!
Although it was a devastating blow, it only presented Bob Pelham with
another opportunity to test his creative mettle in finding the means to
resume production as soon as possible!
This he did by moving production
into a few Nissen huts and with the loyal support of all his employees and
local townspeople, limited production was resumed within a week!
Despite a full
investigation, the cause of the fire was never established. That it
started in the paint shop was beyond doubt, why, remains a mystery to
this day.
A new, single story factory was nearing completion by the spring of 1962
and, indeed, the 1960s proved to be a prosperous and exciting time for
Pelham Puppets. In
1963 a whole new range of SL type puppets were introduced and added to
the existing range. |
Mr Turnip |
Designed by Peter
Carter-Page, these characters certainly reflected the colour and optimism
of the sixties. Carter-Page was a respected Canadian artist who had previously worked for
Disney and his designs had obviously been greatly influenced by his time
and experience gained there.
This range of characters, particularly the animal designs, are among the
most sought after among collectors today. |
The Supercar Team |
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Text and illustrations copyright D J Leech 1981, 2006 |
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Part 3 |
