Web Page 3048 2nd March 2023 Lenny the Lion First Picture: Terry and Lenny

Second Picture: Lenny at Home

Third Picture: Lenny and Emu

Forth Picture: Terry Hall blue plaque

Terence "Terry" Hall. He appeared regularly on television with his puppet, Lenny the Lion, whose catchphrase was "Aw, don't embawass me!" Terry Hall is credited with having been one of the first ventriloquists to use a non-human puppet. He was born on 20th November 1926 in Chadderton, Lancashire, where his parents ran a local working men's club and was educated at St Patrick's School in Oldham and at De La Salle College in Pendleton, Salford. t was clear from an early age he would be talented and he played the accordion at Nimble Nook Working Men's Club from the aged of 12. He initially worked as a ventriloquist with a boy dummy, named Mickey Finn, and he won a talent show aged 15. Terry Hall created Lenny the Lion in 1954 after he visited the zoo while working at the summer season in Blackpool. Lenny was made from an old fox fur and papier-mâché, with a golf ball for the nose. He originally had a mouthful of fearsome teeth, but they were removed at the suggestion of the singer Anne Shelton to avoid scaring children in the audience. Terry and Lenny first appeared on BBC Television in 1956, in a variety show entitled Dress Rehearsal that also signaled Eric Sykes's television debut. The Lenny the Lion Show ran on from 1957 to 1960, followed by Lenny's Den in 1959 to 1961, and the pop music show Pops and Lenny in 1962 to 1963 and in 1958 Bill Mevin created a comic strip based on Lenny the Lion. Terry and Lenny visited the United States in 1958, making his debut on The Ed Sullivan Show that year. Throughout the 1960s, Terry Hall and Lenny appeared on stage in Blackpool and on television. The Beatles made one of their early TV appearances in a 1963 episode of Pops and Lenny, singing "From Me to You" and "Please, Please Me". David Bowie's father, Hayward Jones, worked on the show, and 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. In spite of the fact that Terry 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 Millwall F.C. and allowed Lenny to pose with his "fellow Lions" for publicity shots, much to the delight of all present in the ground. They continued to work in variety through the 1970s, appearing on television in programmes such as Crackerjack and 3-2-1. From 1977 to 1980, They regularly appeared in the educational television programme Reading With Lenny. He wrote the Kevin the Kitten series of children's reading books which accompanied the series. Terry Hall married twice. He had two daughters from his first marriage to Kathleen Mary Hall, who died. He married a second time in 1980, to dance teacher Denise Francis. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease in later life, and died in 2007 in Coventry aged 80. The Lenny the Lion Song "I'm Lenny The lion and I'd like to say I'm strong and ferocious, but I'm not that way. I wish I had courage then I'd shout with glee that I'm Lenny the Lion, so Don't Embawass me!" Stay in Touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com