This photograph shows four marionettes being manipulated on a puppet stage by four performers standing on a bridge above the stage. It is one of five in the collection taken by the Keystone Press Agency at the opening of the 13th annual exhibition of the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild at Victory House, Leicester Square. The exhibition was opened by the fourteen-year old Molly Sheldrake, billed as Britain's youngest Punch and Judy performer and seen in this photograph. It drew large crowds and ran from the 24th to the 30th October 1938, featuring almost 250 puppets and demonstrations by 25 different troupes giving about 70 demonstrations. In his article on the exhibition in the periodical The World's Fair, 5th November 1938, Gerald Morice noted that Tuesday 25th October was a foggy, wet and cold day but that they filmed scenes from a marionette show all morning, from in front and behind, for British Movietone News. He added that all the national daily papers with the exception of The Daily Mirror carried stories about the exhibition, mostly with photographs, and that Molly as 'the youngest Punch and Judy performer in the country' really caught the imagination of the press.

Two of the puppets being operated are H.W. Whanslaw's Cactus the Camel, and Harry Bigg's Chelsea Pensioner, both of which were given to the V&A as part of the collection of the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild Collection. Cactus the Camel appeared in the early BBC children's television programme Telescope, hosted by Cliff Michelmore. Cactus appeared with his best friend the sailor marionette Timothy in his wooden boat H.M.S. Telescope. The two-weekly programmethat first appeared on BBC television on Saturday 21st April 1951 consisted mainly of hobby demonstrations and stories, as well as the puppetry section Ship Ahoy! featuring the adventures of Timothy and Cactus. Harry Whanslaw made Cactus in about 1930 and a photograph in the British Puppet and Model Theatre Archive of the 13th exbibition of the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild in 1938 shows Cactus being operated. In 1956 the film The Adventures of Timothy Telescope was directed by Jill Allgood with Harry Whanslaw and Harry Bigg operating Timothy and his best friend Cactus the Camel on board HMS Telescope, with a family of crows keeping watch from the crows' nest