From: STNW54F-AT-prodigy.com (CRYSTAL BLUE PUPPETS)
Date: Sun,  2 Jun 1996 20:04:31, -0500
Subject: Punch and Judy Manuscript, circa 1932


Can you help?  

>From Steve Whitmire:
                                                     
There is a British puppeteer named Geoff Felix who is an    
expert on Punch and Judy, and has written several books     
about them and various puppeteers who have performed them   
through the centuries.  He has worked with us on several    
Henson projects in England, most recently MTI.  For the last
few years he has been trying to get his hands on an         
article/manuscript written by a 'punchman' named William    
Henry Jesson.  Jesson  apparently wrote a piece around 1932 
about the "decline from 19th century & then revival" of     
Punch and Judy.  Geoff is desparately seeking a way to get a
copy of this piece.  He has traced it to The Detroit Museum 
Library, and has written to them, but no one seems willing  
to help him secure a copy, or any information on a possible 
publication of this piece, because of major funding cuts    
which make it difficult to provide staff to do the search.  
Geoff says that if he had names and dates of a publication  
in which it appeared, he could trace it through the British 
Library.                                                    
                                                            
Anyway, Geoff has written to The Library of Congres and     
Nancy Henk a puppeteer in Detroit who phoned William Peck of
The Detroit Institute of Arts, the relevant man to find the 
work.  Mr. Peck says, with a sigh, that it would involve    
more than one staff person and he cannot spare them for     
Geoff's search.  Geoff has exhausted virtually every        
possible source on this quest, and has written, once again, 
to me for help.                                             
                                                            
It seems to me that the only way this can ever get done is  
if someone who lives in Detroit goes, in person, to the     
Library and does this search.  It also seems to me that     
through our online connections it may well be possible to   
find that person.  Any thoughts?  I have e mailed Kerry with
this note and asked her to bring this up in various online  
sites(www, people/puppeteers in Detroit, etc.).  If any of  
you have any thoughts or live in the Detroit area and can   
help, I'd certainly appreciate it on Geoff's behalf.  If it 
would help to contact Geoff directly, he can be reached in  
England  at 011-44181-903-3869, 111 Raglan Court, Empire    
Way, Wembley Park, Middlesex HA9 0RG, England.  He is       
willing to cover the costs involved in this pursuit (It     
would be good to clear the amount of such costs before      
anyone proceeded to incur them, of course).                 
                                                            
Geoff is certainly one of today's formost authority on Punch
and Judy history, and it would be wonderful if we could do  
something to help. Thanks! Steve                            
                                                            
                                                            




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