Web Page 3043

First Picture: Saveen and Dogs

Second Picture: Seveen and Daisy May

Third Picture; Saveen and wide boy doll

Fourth Picture Peter Brough and Archie Andrews Saveen Albert Saveen was born Albert Edward Langford on the 27 May 1914 and died on 14th April 1994. He was well know as a ventriloquist when we were youngsters he was normally known as the by the single name Saveen. His most famous puppet character was a little girl called Daisy May who hosted her own radio on the Light Programme Saveen was born in Southwark, London, he worked for a printing company before being injured in a bomb explosion in the Second World War. While recuperating, and exercising using only one lung at a time, he developed a ventriloquism technique that produced a girlish voice, with which he entertained his fellow troops. He made a tiny wooden schoolgirl dummy, Daisy May, and she was later was discovered by impresario Val Parnell. Saveen made his first BBC radio appearances in 1945, and in 1950 had his own regular show, Midday with Daisy May. He also made frequent appearances on television and in the variety halls in the 1950s and 1960s. He used 14 different puppet characters in all, including a cockney boy dummy who was called "Andy the Spiv", and he incorporated into his act two dogs (one dummy and one real). The puppet dog used to say "Drop Dead!" or ”Ah! Shut up ” in a very droll posh voice whenever Saveen spoke to him or when the puppet dog would continually yap at it. At the end of the stage act, Saveen, who was always immaculately dressed in a tail suit and smoking a cigarette, the puppets would be packed into a tidily in a suitcase, and appeared to be heard arguing with each other as Saveen and the real dog left the stage. The act was often billed as "Daisy May assisted by Saveen". Daisy May almost seemed to have her own life and she had her own bank account and telephone number. Roy Hudd wrote that, on one occasion, he rang to speak to Saveen; "Daisy May" answered the phone and insisted that Roy Hudd could not speak to Saveen, but that she, if he wished, would pass a message on for him to ring Mr.Hudd back as soon as possible. Saveen was a trained carpenter and made and repaired most of his characters himself. He started with ENSA entertaining the troops and was discovered by Val Parnell. Although he had developed the voice, he still had no doll to go with it and so he decided to create the Daisy May character. Saveen appeared first on BBC Radio where he was the first ventriloquist to have his own radio show, beating Peter Brough and Archie Andrews and his “Educating Archie” to it by just a matter of weeks, and later on Television. In later life Saveen gave up performing and became a theatrical agent. He died in Worcester Park, Surrey, in 1994, aged 79. "Daisy May" is identified as the origin of Royal Navy slang "Daisy" for a sailor named May. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com