Commercials and Promotions - Lucas

This character was created to advertise a new transistor radio. We created huge carnival heads to be worn at a fair at Olympia. This was a new departure for us. The first time the actors wore the heads they nearly suffocated because the air holes were not big enough. We hastily resorted to a saw to quickly put the matter right!

Using puppets and marionettes was a big innovation for commericals at this time and we always enjoyed the challenge. The transistor puppet was a box like character with movable wooden arms and legs. It was an exact replica of the sketches supplied. It walked and moved as the Art director planned and Ann was engaged to operate it. Unfortunately they had not given us the shooting script. On the day of the shoot we found the character was expected to walk down a long flight of stairs!

It had not been made to do this, it was impossible! A few red faces and an angry director.