WALDO LANCHESTER GALLERY
Pictures and Memorabilia Collected by Brian Green Waldo Lanchester (1897-1978) was at the forefront of the British revival in popularity of the string puppet and was a leading player in the formative years of the British Puppet & Model Theatre Guild, which remains Britain's leading Puppetry Organisation. With colleague Harry Whanslaw, Waldo established the London Marionette Theatre in Hammersmith in 1927 - the first puppets anywhere in the world to appear on television. Assisted by his wife, Muriel, he went on to run the Lanchester Marionette Theatre, based in Malvern, from 1936 to 1949 including a prestigious appearance at Buckingham Palace in 1938. For the 1949 Malvern Festival, George Bernard Shaw wrote the play "Shakes v Shav" specially for the Lanchester Marionettes and the Company's repertoire also included Opera, Ballet, Plays and a Grand Puppet Circus. In 1951, Waldo & Muriel re-located to Stratford-Upon-Avon and established a delightful shop specialising in puppets and puppetry-related items, notably the "Lanchester-Lee" marionettes in kit form, made from a specially developed new moulding material "Leetex". Waldo was a fine craftsman with incredible attention to detail. He was the author of the greatly respected book "Hand Puppets and String Puppets", first published in 1937 and his work featured in the acclaimed documentary film "The Creation of a Marionette" produced by Douglas Fisher (1945). |
