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Back home for the first time in years. Checks calendar. It’s not even been four weeks. But how?
Reunited with the most important person in my life today - Ally Sloper.
We stopped off in York on the way home to pick up the puppets who had been given some loving care (hopefully not an inappropriate amount) by Richard Ison and his wife George. It was a sensitive restoration, allowing the dolls to keep their character, but also stop them falling apart. We had debated whether Ally should have his shut eye opened, but Richard restored the mechanism that allows the puppets to blink, whilst installing a little screw so that I can, if I wish, keep the eye closed. He decided not to fix the mechanism that shoots Ally’s hair up, which is supposed to make the hair spring down too, but this would have meant replacing the whole mechanism, which he felt he couldn’t do as the piece was so beautifully made. George had cleaned up Sally’s original dress and added a little lace - all the time I’ve know Sally she has worn a paisley smock put together by my Nannan Vera, but underneath her original Victorian dress was still in fairly good nick.
Ally’s bowtie has also been rescued from decay (George found an extra bit of bow tie in his trousers which helped with the repair) and Sally’s hair is now neatly back in place after getting dangerously flyaway and both puppets can blink (or wink). Sally’s teeth are repaired and Ally’s mouth spring is back in place so it will be easier to make his lips move. There were photos from the various stages of the process, including some nude shots which again made me question the motives of these seemingly charming and friendly prop and costume makers. Absolutely terrific work which will hopefully add a few years of working life to these already ancient puppets. Good to know how beautifully made they were by Tom Herring back in the 1890s. Don’t know if he made the clothes too, but they are equally exquisite. I am incredibly lucky to have these kind people helping me on my ridiculous and pointless puppet show.
The drive was fairly uneventful, though after my night of disturbed sleep I was pretty tired when we got home. We watched Mary Poppins again and as usual it struck me how amazing it is that three of the four adult leads are still alive, even though this film was made almost 60 years ago. I don’t want to jinx it. I wondered how many of the dancing chimney sweeps were still alive and whether Van Dyke might be the only one. It seems one or two of them might still be with us, which when you consider how many risks they took on those roof tops, plus the basic dangers of getting cancer from soot is remarkable. Oh wait, they might not actually have been chimney sweeps.
