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Marionette of a Beatle thumbnail 2
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Marionette of a Beatle

Puppet
ca.1964 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This marionette with a movable mouth was designed, carved, painted, strung and dressed by Pip Fisher (1933-2009). As a schoolgirl in Colchester from 1945 her 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 from September 1949 travelling the country and presenting her show as The Woman’s Own Puppet Theatre. With her mother, a driver, and her troupe of sixteen marionettes, she covered 14,000 miles in forty counties in England and Scotland, performing in village halls, Women's Institutes, factory canteens, youth clubs, hospitals and schools. She made more puppets on her return, and worked in Margate with Christine Glanville doing summer and Christmas shows. After working with Glanville, Fisher performed on her own company The Masque Marionettes performing shows included abridged versions of plays by Shaw and Wilde, and Variety acts.

The variety agent Al Heath spotted Fisher in 1952, and for the next four years Phyllis Fisher and her Puppets appeared all over the country in revues including Une Nuit a Montmartre at Blackpool Palace Theatre from March to April 1952, and May Music Hall at London's Scala Theatre, shown on BBC television on 31st May 1952, and in the pantomime Cinderellaat Christmas 1952 at the Colchester Playhouse. In 1953, aged 20, she travelled alone on the steamer ship T.S.S. Jaljawahar, to spend 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. The rock n' roll singer with his guitar that she performed in this show would have been a forerunner of this figure.

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 with her interest in marine biology, a passion 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. This marionette would have been one of the last she made since The Beatles first hit was the 1962 single Love Me Do. With the marionette's plectrum in its right hand it would have been modelled after George Harrison or John Lennon, but not the left-handed player Paul McCartney.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleMarionette of a Beatle (generic title)
Materials and techniques
carved, painted and dressed
Brief description
Marionette of a Beatle. Made and operated ca.1964 by Pip Fisher (Phyllis Kathleen Fisher) (1933-2009)
Physical description
Carved, painted and strung jointed marionette with movable mouth, button plectrum in its right hand and left hand designed to move up and down the guitar fretboard.
Dimensions
  • Maximum length of marionette head to feet length: 72cm
  • Maximum width, arms by sides, guitar upright width: 31cm
  • Maximum depth front to back depth: 12cm
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 with a movable mouth was designed, carved, painted, strung and dressed by Pip Fisher (1933-2009). As a schoolgirl in Colchester from 1945 her 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 from September 1949 travelling the country and presenting her show as The Woman’s Own Puppet Theatre. With her mother, a driver, and her troupe of sixteen marionettes, she covered 14,000 miles in forty counties in England and Scotland, performing in village halls, Women's Institutes, factory canteens, youth clubs, hospitals and schools. She made more puppets on her return, and worked in Margate with Christine Glanville doing summer and Christmas shows. After working with Glanville, Fisher performed on her own company The Masque Marionettes performing shows included abridged versions of plays by Shaw and Wilde, and Variety acts.

The variety agent Al Heath spotted Fisher in 1952, and for the next four years Phyllis Fisher and her Puppets appeared all over the country in revues including Une Nuit a Montmartre at Blackpool Palace Theatre from March to April 1952, and May Music Hall at London's Scala Theatre, shown on BBC television on 31st May 1952, and in the pantomime Cinderellaat Christmas 1952 at the Colchester Playhouse. In 1953, aged 20, she travelled alone on the steamer ship T.S.S. Jaljawahar, to spend 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. The rock n' roll singer with his guitar that she performed in this show would have been a forerunner of this figure.

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 with her interest in marine biology, a passion 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. This marionette would have been one of the last she made since The Beatles first hit was the 1962 single Love Me Do. With the marionette's plectrum in its right hand it would have been modelled after George Harrison or John Lennon, but not the left-handed player Paul McCartney.
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
S.123-2023

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Record createdJune 23, 2023
Record URL
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