Title:
Dancing vent RON CROWE
Description:
Hi, Tonya,
Glad to hear from you.
I received the Bennett figures from his daughter after Mr Bennett died. They were originally mounted on what resembled a table top. Underneath the top were a series of handles made from paint stirrer sticks of wood. At midpoint of each stick there was a hole drilled, and a long metal rod went through the hole. By depressing different sticks, you got the various movements you have already discovered.
I never got to meet Mr Bennett (not sure if his name ends with one ”t” or two.).
He had been working on his own, NOT in touch with other puppet or figure makers, for fear that people might use his combination of a solid head with inserted flexible mouth. IF he had been in communication with Los Angeles area puppet community, he probably would have learned that others also had experimented with flexible mouths in hard heads. Puppeteer Jack Shafton had done that in Hollywood.
Mr Bennett had rented a second floor space as his workshop in Van Nuys, and his daughter continued to store the puppet creations there for some time. I gather than Mrs Bennett complained about her husband spending so much rent money, and then his daughter took on the rent costs for some months, to the concern of her husband. The table units took up a lot of space, and when I got them for about $65, storage became my problem. I wanted to remove the figures for indoor storage of individual figures, but it took several months of the units being parked in my North Hollywood back yard, before the daughter gave me permission to remove the puppets from the table tops, and by then there was fading of costumes. There is an element of sadness to all of this history. Mr Bennett never found his audience, he did not become well-known, and people like Jack Shafton had also come up with rubbery mouths combined with hard puppet heads.
Strictly speaking, these were not conventional vent dummies. They WERE remote controlled by levers beneath the table top, you did not see a jaw line like Charlie McCarthy has. They COULD have been used with recorded sound track, but you would not see the operator who worked under the table out of view. But as you know, they had some interesting moves. They worked standing up, bolted to the table top.
In June it took 8 days to travel and work, now that my collection is in a new location. I will include photos of some dummies now in Seattle WA.
Glad to hear from you.
I received the Bennett figures from his daughter after Mr Bennett died. They were originally mounted on what resembled a table top. Underneath the top were a series of handles made from paint stirrer sticks of wood. At midpoint of each stick there was a hole drilled, and a long metal rod went through the hole. By depressing different sticks, you got the various movements you have already discovered.
I never got to meet Mr Bennett (not sure if his name ends with one ”t” or two.).
He had been working on his own, NOT in touch with other puppet or figure makers, for fear that people might use his combination of a solid head with inserted flexible mouth. IF he had been in communication with Los Angeles area puppet community, he probably would have learned that others also had experimented with flexible mouths in hard heads. Puppeteer Jack Shafton had done that in Hollywood.
Mr Bennett had rented a second floor space as his workshop in Van Nuys, and his daughter continued to store the puppet creations there for some time. I gather than Mrs Bennett complained about her husband spending so much rent money, and then his daughter took on the rent costs for some months, to the concern of her husband. The table units took up a lot of space, and when I got them for about $65, storage became my problem. I wanted to remove the figures for indoor storage of individual figures, but it took several months of the units being parked in my North Hollywood back yard, before the daughter gave me permission to remove the puppets from the table tops, and by then there was fading of costumes. There is an element of sadness to all of this history. Mr Bennett never found his audience, he did not become well-known, and people like Jack Shafton had also come up with rubbery mouths combined with hard puppet heads.
Strictly speaking, these were not conventional vent dummies. They WERE remote controlled by levers beneath the table top, you did not see a jaw line like Charlie McCarthy has. They COULD have been used with recorded sound track, but you would not see the operator who worked under the table out of view. But as you know, they had some interesting moves. They worked standing up, bolted to the table top.
In June it took 8 days to travel and work, now that my collection is in a new location. I will include photos of some dummies now in Seattle WA.
Artist:
Mr Bennett
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Automatic Estimated Date:
2025-02-15
Date Added:
2024-02-08 14:41:35
Date Added:
2024-02-08 14:41:35