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Full name: Ronald William Field
English puppeteer who was also known for his musical and artistic
accomplishments. His career in puppetry spanned 1946 until the late 1970s.
Spouse: Joan Field who was a puppeteer, variety artiste, and clothing designer.
Joan was one of the puppeteers, with Ron, on The
Telegoons pilot film, The Lost Colony.
Children: Ann Field - Puppeteer, variety artiste, and more recently film-maker,
who was also one of The Telegoons puppeteers,
including the pilot.
Judy Field - Puppeteer and school teacher.
General (also covers the other
members of this remarkable family):
Ron's initial career direction and training was concert
pianist, but this was cut short by WWII. Even so, he was able to use his musical
expertise to compose music and songs for ENSA (Entertainments National Service
Association), an organization set up to provide entertainment to the troops.
During the war he served in the Royal Corps of Signals
and went to North Africa where he was first attached to the 2nd U.S. Army. Later
he was drafted back into the British Army for the invasion of Italy.
After the cessation of hostilities in Italy, Ron joined the Combined Services Entertainment and was broadcasting his music from Radio Milan. One of his songs written at that time, "Perdute Cose", became a hit on Italian Radio. During his time in Italy, Ron had become interested in marionettes, and in 1946 bought a set of tiny Italian characters. Upon demobilization, Ron returned to his young family in the UK, bringing with him the Italian marionettes. Ron, assisted by his his wife Joan, started making marionettes and performing with them, marking the beginning of a very successful career in puppetry, as Ron and Joan Field's Marionettes.
From 1949 to 1960, work with marionettes started with Harrods Christmas Toy Fair which led to many different productions and performances for private parties. These included a presentation at Buckingham Palace, and one for Peter Seller's children at the Mayfair Hotel. Peter enjoyed the show as much as his children did.
During the 1950s, Ron ran exhibitions for the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild. He also worked on his own elaborate puppet adaptations of plays such as Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella. The latter was performed at The Torch Theatre, London.
Over the period 1953 to 1962, the Fields did many television commercials. During this same period, summer seasons on Blackpool's North Pier, and Christmas shows were staple faire. And if that wasn't enough, there were also Cabaret and Variety performances, mainly by Ann and Joan. These presentations used 3 foot high marionettes, some of which mimicked well known entertainers. Ann and Joan usually toured independently, performing at such venues as Hull Continental; Alhambra Theatre, Bradford; the Met, Edgware Road, London; Chatham Empire; the Pier Theatre, Bognor Regis. Ann shared the bill with many well known stars of the theatre, Max Miller, and Morecombe and Wise, to name just a few, and toured many American forces camps in the UK, while Joan toured Germany entertaining in the US Air Force bases. Later Ann and Judy developed a double act.
From 1955 to 1963, film and television work included, Oh What a Lovely War, Cookie and Quickie, and Bim (a satirical series written and performed by Joan for Granada TV). Ann and Judy appeared on Cliff Richard's Saturday Spectacular, and were puppeteers for Rip Van and Winkle (pilot), Circus Series (pilot), and The Telegoons (pilot).
Ever involved in creative endeavours, of which puppets were only one aspect (albeit the most important one), in the early 1970s the Field family were encouraged by London's Highgate Society to stage an exhibition of their works. It was billed as, "Contrasts" A Family Exhibition. The work of Ron & Joan Field and their daughters Ann & Judy--puppets, pottery, painting, collage, ceramic, sculpture.
The success of the Contrasts exhibition in Highgate led to Ron opening the Brunswick Gallery in Judd Street, WC1, London. The gallery featured the work of talented artists in many different styles, including etchings, drawings, mixed media, collage, paintings, and bronzes.
This account of the intertwined careers of Ron Field and the rest of his family, only scratches the surface, but attests to the fact that Ron was a very clever and creative man with a vast practical knowledge and technical skills to match, also able to pass on his enthusiasm for the arts to others. A lot more information about the famous Field puppeteer family can be found at www.puppethouse.co.uk,a very enjoyable website designed by Ron's daughter Ann and Ann's son Paul Perrin.
Electronic Puppet Lip-Synch:
In the late 1950s, a pilot for a series of Circus films was made
which used a prototype electronic lip-synch mechanism invented by Ron and built
by his friend Chris Meader, an electrical engineer. This lip-synch system, patented in 1962, was installed in all of the Telegoon
rod puppets. The electromagnetic lip-synch solenoid could be operated either manually
with a contacting switch, or (preferably) automatically with an electronics
module which processed speech syllables from a magnetic tape or microphone into
electrical impulses which were used to drive the solenoid. Recently
uncovered historical evidence suggests that Ron Field may have invented and used
electronic lip synch several months before Gerry Anderson of AP Films introduced
his own much vaunted Supermarionation system (See FAQs
for more discussion of this topic).
The Telegoons:
The Telegoon puppets, used in
the BBCtv series, The Telegoons, were
developed by Ron Field and Ralph Young. They were assisted
by David Young (director Tony Young's younger brother) who became puppets supervisor for
the series. A feature newly developed for The Telegoons
was a pair of eye solenoids for electrically opening and closing the eyes of the
puppets. Although this feature could have been controlled automatically from a
separate control track on the magnetic tape, similar to Ron's automatic electronic
lip-synch technique, in The Telegoons it was always controlled manually with a pair of switches.
Side-to-side eye movement was controlled mechanically in the usual way, with a thumb lever on the
main control rod.
Ron Field, his wife Joan, and their daughter Ann Field were the only puppeteers on the pilot film of The Telegoons, The Lost Colony, which secured funding for the series from the BBC. The Fields were asked if they would be the puppeteers for the series, and when offered a part of the profits, they agreed.
A subsequent dispute between Ron Field and the producers of The Telegoons over the terms of use of his electronic lip-synch system resulted in Ron and Joan Field not working on the main production, and also delayed the introduction of the lip-synch system during the filming.
Apart from a few experimental scenes (some of which can be found in The Terrible Revenge of Fred Fu-Manchu, s02 e13, made towards the end of the 1st filming series) Ron's electronic lip-synch was not used until the 2nd filming series. The above-mentioned dispute almost certainly hinged around money, of which there was relatively little due to the low (for this type of film) filming budget. As one crew member put it, "Speaking the plain truth - and you know how much I love the Goons - The Telegoons was made on a shoddily low budget." That Ron's synch system was used at all was due not so much to compromise, as dire necessity. By midway through the 2nd filming series, the original puppeteers (who could all do quite good manual lip synch) had left, leaving a crew of "newbies" who had little experience of puppetry, let alone moving the lips at the same time as manipulating everything else.
And as if to add injury to insult, and indicating the extent of the lip-synch dispute, none of the Fields were given a screen credit for their puppetry in the broadcast version of the pilot film, and Ron was not given credit for his role as principal puppet builder. While the Fields would certainly have been properly credited in the original pilot film, The Lost Colony, shown to the BBC in 1960, no copy of this film is known to exist, and it was never broadcast in that version.
Nevertheless, with a little detective work on my part, aided by the surviving 4-page script entitled 'Tales of Manhattan' (Opening Sequence), and a viewable copy of the final broadcast version of the pilot (which was, by-the-way, still called The Lost Colony), I have concluded that additive changes to the pilot film were fairly limited in scope. The major change was the cutting of more than 18 minutes of footage to bring the 33:00 run-time down to the required 15 minutes. The only new material added was a 1:26 opening sequence involving Christopher Columbus and a new use for bottle corks, followed by a 0:13 linking scene with Grytpype-Thynne as narrator. One deletion, a 1:12 mid-Atlantic scene with Neddie in a zinc bathtub, deserves particular mention because it shows up again in Napoleon's Piano, the 12th episode to be filmed (See Tele-Goonography section for more details). The puppetry and animation end credits were also changed. Thus the end credits for the broadcast version of The Lost Colony imply that the three new puppeteers who did the 1:26 added opening sequence (see TeleGoonongraphy), also did the rest of the episode, which was filmed three years earlier.
The following points establish that the three new puppeteers (or "assistants" to Ralph Young as they were credited) did not do the whole episode:
The pilot film was made in early 1960, three years before
the main production, including the new opening sequence for The Lost Colony
episode, was filmed.
We also have the testimony of the Field family members that
they were the only puppeteers for the pilot film. When
Joan and Ann Field recently viewed the broadcast version of The Lost Colony,
they did not recognize the 1:40 opening sequence, yet could point out many specific
production details concerning the rest of the film.
The extant short 4-page script entitled,
THE TELEGOONS
'TALES OF MANHATTAN'.
(Opening Sequence).
is also an important piece of evidence. At the end of this 1:26 script
(which was performed by the three new puppeteers, Joan Garrick, Jane
Phillips, and Pat Ronald), is a
13-second linking scene (with the Grytpype-Thynne puppet) which was the
first puppeteer task given to John Dudley on first joining the production in
January 1963. It is interesting that this linking scene was given to John
Dudley and not the three new puppeteers of whom there was no sign, other
than a fully set up studio.
Following the above-mention linking scene, the opening
sequence script ends with the following
lines:
Signature Tune and
Captions.
The Telegoons Present
'Tales of Manhattan'
---ooOoo---
This is the starting point of the original pilot film, and is the only
episode to say "The Telegoons Present", as would be appropriate
for a pilot film, but not a remake to be shown as the 2nd episode. Therefore
this title screen is almost certainly unchanged from the pilot film.
The already slim production budget would not have allowed the whole episode to be redone. What footage could be reused, was.
In spite of the dispute over the use of the electronic lip-synch, Ron's daughter Ann who had helped with the puppets and puppetry in the pilot, joined the production and was a puppeteer for many of the episodes (for which she did get screen credit). After Ann left the production near the end of the first filming series, Ron's lip-synch was used for the entire second filming series.
Ron's wife Joan helped with
modifications to some of the puppet costumes and Ann worked with Ron to develop
the puppets' rubber hands, and Eccles' worn-out looking boots (seen
here).
Publications:
Hansel & Gretel. Puppet Press,
London (nd) (Typewritten play for marionettes or hand puppets in two scenes)
(with Joan Field)
Puss in Boots. Puppet Press, London (nd)
(Typewritten play for marionettes or hand puppets in two scenes) (with Joan
Field)
Jack & the Beanstalk. Puppet
Press, London (nd) (Typewritten play for marionettes or hand puppets in three
scenes) (with Joan Field)
The Fool's Crown. Puppet Press,
London (nd) (Play for marionettes and hand puppets. in two scenes) (includes
some general notes on production by H W Whanslaw the well-known Puppeteer
and Modeller)
Patents:
GB 965,916 Improvements in Dolls, Puppets, Toy Animals and
the like
Application date March 22, 1961
Date of filing Complete Specification June 22, 1962
Complete Specification Published Aug. 6, 1964
GB 965,917 Improvements in
Dolls, Puppets, Toy Animals and the like
Application date March 22, 1961 (divided out of GB 965,916)
Date of filing Complete Specification June 22, 1962
Complete Specification Published Aug. 6, 1964
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