This poster was used to advertise De-Randel's Marionettes, owned by Joe Randel Hodson. He performed in variety and pantomime, but in 1945, with work was scarce after the war, became the resident puppeteer at Heysham Head, the 'Wonderland of the North', a family attraction set in 20 acres of gardens and parkland just south of Morecambe on the North West Coast of England. An admission charge of one shilling entitled families to a full day's outing including a zoo, circus, children's talent competition, rose garden and other entertainments including marionettes. He performed with the marionettes used by his father Joe Hodson in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Joe Randel Hodson worked from 1945 for eight years at Heysham Head as De-Randel's Marionettes. He obviously acquired a quantity of posters originally printed for Thomas Holden, and had them overprinted in gold to obliterate all the instances of the name - on the balloons, on the pyramid, on the balance pole on the clown's feet, on the newspaper the man is reading in the sedan chair, the bird's wings, the ballerina's tutu and the wine bottles.

Thomas Holden owned one of Britain's best-known marionette companies in the late 19th century. Having grown up performing with his father John Holden's troupe, Thomas left for the USA in 1873 with Bullock's Marionettes when his brother John inherited the family business. He returned to England in 1875 with his own company the Imperial Marionettes and spent the 1880s travelling all over Europe and even South America, performing with them.