Category:Pelham Puppets: Difference between revisions

Pelham Puppets are a range of toys, typically string puppets (marionettes) but occasionally rod, glove and ventriloquist dolls, originally produced by Bob Pelham’s company from 1947 to 1986. Pelham were based out of Marlborough, Wiltshire where Bob Pelham had settled after the Second World War with the aim of producing children’s toys. For nearly 40 years Pelham produced thousands of puppets in many designs, shapes and styles which would go on to become some of the most prized and collectable toys in history.

History

Bob Pelham was called up to serve in the Royal Armed Forces in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War. Throughout his time serving on active duty he became affectionately known as 'The Wonky Donkey Officer' due to his penchant of making small, wooden, animated donkey toys. It was his time spent throughout the conflict which influenced him to start a toy making company upon his return to Britain. After consulting Jan Bussell and Ann Hogarth (the operators of Muffin the Mule on the popular television programme) Bob set about designing puppets which would be simple enough for young children to operate and thus ---Wonky Toys Ltd--- was born; a nod to his wartime nick-name. The early operations consisted of just a few workers based in a small work shop and nearly all of the materials used in the production of the puppets were recycled, either taken from Bob's father's house or local scrap yards.

In the first months of the company Bob struggled to convince toy retailers that puppets would be a popular item to stock and he received many rejections, usually due to the perceived complicated nature of marionettes. Not to be deterred, Bob continued producing and designing his puppets and it was during this period that one of the company's most recogniseable puppets was designed: Sandy MacBoozle. This puppet would be taken from store to store by Bob and used to show potential buyers that puppets were the next big thing in the toy market. MacBoozle would later go on to become one of the company's flagship puppets. Around the end of 1947 Bob struck gold when he approached Hamley's of Regent Street, London with his puppets and they agreed to let him demonstrate them from behind his own counter. They were an instant hit and Bob later recalled "By explaining how simple string puppets really were to work and showing a somewhat surprised audience their comical antics, the first puppets began to sell!".

After the launch of the puppets to a big name toy store, shops all over the country began placing orders and the following years proved to be extremely successful for the company. These simple puppets, made from recycled materials and packaged in a simple brown box (an example of one of these is available to see in cabinet 53) were so popular that by 1952, a mere five years later, the company was in need of much larger premises in order to keep up with the increased production. Pelham, whilst staying in Marlborough, moved it's offices and retail store to Elcot Lane and one year later purchased a three story factory on London Road, on the south bank of the River Kennet, which would go on the become the permanent home of Pelham until 1987, when the original company ceased trading.

The Pelham company went from strength to strength and at it's peak was producing thousands of puppets in a multitude of different colours, sizes, designs and sets (see below). One of the biggest achievements for Bob came in 1953 when the company won the rights to produce a set of Disney puppets (available to see in cabinet 56). This acquisition started a pattern of fighting for commercial rights to other brands and many sets followed including The Magic Roundabout, The Muppets, Peanuts and The Wombles. All of these successes however suffered a drastic set back when, in October 1961, the London Road factory caught fire and was nearly all destroyed. Stock, materials and documents were all lost but, not to be deterred, Bob and the rest of the company set about building a new factory on the same site, as quick as possible in order to catch up with the lost time.

The 70's proved to be the the busiest decade experienced by the company and rapid expansion was required in order to keep up with the now international demand. Pelham was exporting puppets to over 40 countries and in 1979 foreign demand was so high that every puppet produced in the first six months of the year was sent to the USA. Despite the fact that business had never been better it was around this time that Bob began to lose his enthusiasm due to the ever increasing commercial nature of his company; it had grown from a small office of close colleagues to an enterprise based across several premises producing at full speed, all day every day. Bob's troubles reached their worst during the 1980's when Pelham had to make several hundred loyal employees redundant due to the falling economy. This heartbreak eventually took it's toll on Bob when, in mid 1980, Bob died suddenly at his home. His wife and partner Anne continued trading at the company for the following 6 years until she reached the point of retirement and closed the factory's doors for the final time.

Construction

Parts and materials were hard to come by in the post-war austerity, and Bob used his ingenuity to turn army surplus parts and materials into puppets. Wooden toggles, ammunition box partitions and even rubber respirator tubes were all recycled as puppet parts, and jumble sales and rubbish bins were trawled for interesting pieces that could be pressed into service.

Puppet fabrics were often hand-dyed parachute material, and were sometimes taken from old fabric sample books and jumble sales.

Development

Pelham founded Wonkey Toys in 1947, which became Pelham Puppets in 1948, and the business name continued until 1997. As the popularity of the puppets increased, and marionettes played an increasingly important part of children’s tv programming, Pelham produced licensed versions of Muffin the Mule, The Bookworm Family, and Noddy and Bigears, as well as some early Gerry Anderson characters such as Torchy the Battery Boy, Snoopy, and some Disney characters.

They then went on to produce automated marionette displays, and a full-size marionette model, "Bimbo".

As Pelham Puppets grew as a company the continual demand for new stock led to expansions both in staffing and factory space leading to larger and larger orders being sent out. In 1947 the company produced around eighty puppets a week but at Pelham's peak of 1978-9 the number had shot up to five to six thousand.

Pelham's puppets were hand-made, and the technology went through various stages, with the early lead and war-surplus parts being replaced by more custom metal and plastic fittings.

External links

• Pelham Puppets homepage (pelhampuppets.uk.com)

Further reading

1. David Leech, Yours Puppetually issue 2 (David Leech Publishing, 1996) pp.19
2. Ibid, ppp.3

• David Leech, Pelham Puppets: A collectors' guide (Crowood Collectors' Series) (Crowood Press, 2008) ISBN 9781847970558