My friend Frank Mumford, who has died aged 95, had a career as a marionette master spanning eight decades. He and his wife, Maisie, presented their speciality act, the Mumford Puppets, for royalty and in top nightspots, including the London Palladium and the Moulin Rouge. The Mumfords played cabarets around the world, mingling with the likes of Jean Cocteau, Josephine Baker and Charlie Chaplin. They performed for Prince Rainier and Princess Grace in Monaco, at private parties for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Paris and for stars such as Laurel and Hardy and Ingrid Bergman. Frank also carved the early versions of the TV puppet Andy Pandy.
Frank's father was a solicitor's clerk in north London and his mother a midwife. He was a late addition to a large family the last of six children. A 10-year age gap to his nearest sibling meant he was a solitary child. Recovering from mumps aged six, he made himself a puppet theatre from a Maynards' sweet box and manipulated the figures with hairpins. Later his school drama teacher gave him a book, Marionettes and How to Make Them, by the American puppeteer Tony Sarg. That set his course.
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