Web Page 1166

 20^th July 2013

Top Picture: Lenny the Lion and Terry Hall

Bottom Picture: Crackerjack!

Lenny the Lion

Lenny the Lion was the brainchild of Terence (Terry) Hall, a ventriloquist who was born in Oldham on 20th November 1926, where his parents ran a working men's club. He was a self-taught ventriloquist who attended St Patrick's School in the town and De La Salle College, Salford, and bought his first dummy, called Bert Williams, for £2 10s (£2.50). After winning a talent contest at the age of 15, he joined the Carroll Levis Discoveries stage show.

Inspired by a visit to Blackpool Zoo while performing in a 1954 summer season, Terry Hall created the dummy using old fox fur, papier-mâché and a golf ball for a nose. At first, Lenny had lion-like teeth and a growling voice, but the character frightened children and the singer Anne Shelton, who was also on the bill, suggested the teeth come out and the voice be made gentler. As a result, the puppet - one of the first with moving arms, as well as a lisping, falsetto voice, wide eyes and a habit of lifting a paw to his head and sighing "Aw! Don't embawass me" - kept Terry Hall in front of television viewers for over a quarter of a century.

In putting Lenny the Lion in front of family audiences on stage and television, Terry Hall was one of the first ventriloquists to enthral them with a stooge in the guise of an animal not a human based puppet, blazing a trail for entertainers such as Keith Harris and Orville and Roger DeCourcey and Nookie Bear.

Traditionally, ventriloquists had been boy puppets, such as Arthur Worsley with Charlie Brown and Peter Brough with Archie Andrews, the notable exception being Saveen and Daisy May! Terry Hall took advantage of the expanding medium of television in the 1950s to tweak the format a bit.

His television debut, with Lenny the Lion, came alongside Eric Sykes in the one-off BBC comedy-variety show Dress Rehearsal (1956), with Eric Sykes as the harassed director and Terry Hall as the ventriloquist contributing to the mayhem, while supposedly preparing for transmission of a live television programme.

Later he found screen success in his own right with the BBC's The Lenny the Lion Show (1957-60), the animal-puppet craze soon gained momentum, notably with Muriel Young on ITV, being joined by Pussy Cat Willum and Ollie Beak in the children's series Small Time, Tuesday Rendezvous and The Five O'Clock Club.

The act had really arrived when they were invited to guest-star on the legendary Ed Sullivan Show in the United States (1958) and returned home to take Lenny to two more popular programmes, Lenny's Den (1959-61) and Pops and Lenny (1962-63).

The Beatles made one of their earliest television appearances in a May 1963 episode of Pops and Lenny, singing their first No 1 single, "From Me To You", and "Please Please Me", as well as joining Terry Hall and Lenny for a song titled "After You've Gone". At the time, the future pop star David Bowie's father was working on the show and he launched the Lenny the Lion Fan Club.

Lenny advertised Trebor mints for three years and Terry Hall released a single, "Lenny's Bath Time", in 1963.

The act remained popular in summer seasons and pantomimes on stage and as guest stars in television variety programmes including Big Night Out (1965), David Nixon's Comedy Bandbox (1966) and The Blackpool Show (1966). Terry Hall and Lenny continued to work in variety through the 1970s, appearing on television in programmes such as Crackerjack  Later, they enjoyed fame together with a new audience in the ITV children's educational series Reading with Lenny (1977-80), for which Terry Hall wrote a number of accompanying storybooks featuring Kevin the Kitten.

In spite of the fact that Terry Hall was a staunch Oldham Athletic fan, during the 1957/58 English football season, he took Lenny to The Den which was then the home of Milwall Football Club and allowed Lenny to pose with his "Fellow Lions" for publicity shots, much to the delight of the crowd.

Terry Hall was married twice. He had two daughters from his first marriage. He married a second time in 1980, to dance teacher Denise Francis. He suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease in later life, he died Coventry, 4th April 2007 and so, of course did his alter ego Lenny the Lion a puppet which made his name a household word and at home Terry had a special cupboard where he kept Lenny, this was called the ‘Lions Den!’ 

Stay in touch,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com 

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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News and Views

On the is day 20^th July 1960-1965

On 20/07/1960 the number one single was Please Don't Tease - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Beer goes up 1d a pint to 1s7d.

On 20/07/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £20.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was East Germans close E-W German border.

On 20/07/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 20/07/1963 the number one single was Sweets For My Sweet - Searchers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 20/07/1964 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's

On 20/07/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Riviera Police (AR) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.