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Marionette of a Variety Dancer

Puppet
Artist/Maker

This marionette was designed, carved, painted, strung and dressed by Pip Fisher (1933-2009). As a schoolgirl in Colchester from 1945, Fisher's main interests were in model theatre and marionettes, and in 1949, aged only 16, she successfully auditioned for Jan Bussell, creator and director with his wife Ann Hogarth of the Muffin the Mule television broadcasts from 1946 until 1955, winning a contract through Woman’s Own Magazine to spend a year travelling the country presenting her own show as The Woman’s Own Puppet Theatre. With her mother, a driver, and her troupe of sixteen marionettes, from September 1949 she covered 14,000 miles and forty counties in England and Scotland, performing in village halls, Women's Institutes, factory canteens, youth clubs, hospitals and schools.

Fisher made more puppets on their return and worked in Margate with Christine Glanville doing summer and Christmas shows. After working with Glanville, Fisher performed on her own as The Masque Marionettes performing shows including abridged versions of plays by Shaw and Wilde, and Variety acts - a striptease number in which a trick marionette removed her own skirt being an audience favourite. This marionette was probably a later version of this puppet, not designed to remove her skirt, but containing an internal motor in her back that lit the nipples and rotated the nipple tassels.

In 1952 the agent Al Heath spotted Fisher in 1952, and for the next four years Phyllis Fisher and her Puppets appeared all over the country. She featured in the revue Une Nuit a Montmartre in theatres including at the Blackpool Palace Theatre from March to April 1952, at London's Scala Theatre in May Music Hall, shown on BBC television on 31st May 1952, and at Christmas 1952 in Cinderella at the Colchester Playhouse. In 1953, aged 20, she travelled alone on the steamer ship T.S.S. Jaljawahar, spending June to October in India and Pakistan presenting her puppet act Puppetually Yours. The next two years brought tours with the European Armed Forces Professional Entertainment Branch, entertaining troops in Germany in 1954 with her show Here Come The Girls. In 1955, her show Something for the Boys took her to Tunis, Tripoli, Tobruk, Fayid, Aqaba, Rabat, Marrakesh, Casablanca and Cairo, presenting her show and performing in the chorus line when necessary. After her work abroad she continued to entertain with her puppet troupe throughout the UK, and in May 1959 was part of Jersey's winning St. Helier team in BBC Television's Top Town Variety competition. In 1961 she began working with Christine Glanville on Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation television puppet shows Fireball XL5 (1961-1962), Stingray (1962-1964) and Thunderbirds (1964-1966). From 1963 onwards Pip combined her puppetry work with her interests in marine biology, an interest that took over all her puppetry work from the mid-60s and resulted in her becoming a respected marine biologist and Fellow of the Linnean Society.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleMarionette of a Variety Dancer (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Carved and painted limewood with handsewn cotton and fringed bikini
Brief description
Marionette of a Variety Dancer. Made and operated ca.1953 by Pip Fisher (Phyllis Katherine Fisher) (1933-2009)
Physical description
Carved, jointed, and painted limewood stringed marionette with wooden controls, synthetic hair and eyelashes and a cotton and cotton fringe costume
Dimensions
  • Maximum length of marionette head to feet length: 71cm
  • Maximum width, arms by sides width: 22cm
  • Maximum depth front to back depth: 11cm
Credit line
Given by Gaynor Oddy in memory of Pip Fisher
Object history
This marionette made by Fisher is one of a few kept by her all her life and inherited by her daughter, the donor Gaynor Oddy
Summary
This marionette was designed, carved, painted, strung and dressed by Pip Fisher (1933-2009). As a schoolgirl in Colchester from 1945, Fisher's main interests were in model theatre and marionettes, and in 1949, aged only 16, she successfully auditioned for Jan Bussell, creator and director with his wife Ann Hogarth of the Muffin the Mule television broadcasts from 1946 until 1955, winning a contract through Woman’s Own Magazine to spend a year travelling the country presenting her own show as The Woman’s Own Puppet Theatre. With her mother, a driver, and her troupe of sixteen marionettes, from September 1949 she covered 14,000 miles and forty counties in England and Scotland, performing in village halls, Women's Institutes, factory canteens, youth clubs, hospitals and schools.

Fisher made more puppets on their return and worked in Margate with Christine Glanville doing summer and Christmas shows. After working with Glanville, Fisher performed on her own as The Masque Marionettes performing shows including abridged versions of plays by Shaw and Wilde, and Variety acts - a striptease number in which a trick marionette removed her own skirt being an audience favourite. This marionette was probably a later version of this puppet, not designed to remove her skirt, but containing an internal motor in her back that lit the nipples and rotated the nipple tassels.

In 1952 the agent Al Heath spotted Fisher in 1952, and for the next four years Phyllis Fisher and her Puppets appeared all over the country. She featured in the revue Une Nuit a Montmartre in theatres including at the Blackpool Palace Theatre from March to April 1952, at London's Scala Theatre in May Music Hall, shown on BBC television on 31st May 1952, and at Christmas 1952 in Cinderella at the Colchester Playhouse. In 1953, aged 20, she travelled alone on the steamer ship T.S.S. Jaljawahar, spending June to October in India and Pakistan presenting her puppet act Puppetually Yours. The next two years brought tours with the European Armed Forces Professional Entertainment Branch, entertaining troops in Germany in 1954 with her show Here Come The Girls. In 1955, her show Something for the Boys took her to Tunis, Tripoli, Tobruk, Fayid, Aqaba, Rabat, Marrakesh, Casablanca and Cairo, presenting her show and performing in the chorus line when necessary. After her work abroad she continued to entertain with her puppet troupe throughout the UK, and in May 1959 was part of Jersey's winning St. Helier team in BBC Television's Top Town Variety competition. In 1961 she began working with Christine Glanville on Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation television puppet shows Fireball XL5 (1961-1962), Stingray (1962-1964) and Thunderbirds (1964-1966). From 1963 onwards Pip combined her puppetry work with her interests in marine biology, an interest that took over all her puppetry work from the mid-60s and resulted in her becoming a respected marine biologist and Fellow of the Linnean Society.

Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
S.121-2023

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Record createdJune 23, 2023
Record URL
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