Percy Press

Percy Press0:00

Hello, I'm Kristy Young, and this download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs.

Percy Press0:08

For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1974.

Percy Press0:18

This is a recording as it was being broadcast rather than the studio recording, and for that reason you may hear some interference and some degradation in the sound quality.

Speaker 20:29

As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumney.

Presenter0:34

This week, our castaway is Britain's senior Punch and Judy Showman, Pertie Press.

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Percy, how well could you take the lone winners on this island?

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Uh well uh

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I don't think I'd be too happy really, but I would enjoy it, I'm sure, for a little while.

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What would you be happiest to have got away from? Oh well, modern living conditions with the uh race and tear of landers traffic and uh

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Uh General Hassel and Battle.

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Perhaps it's because I'm getting older.

Percy Press1:04

No, that's not a

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You'll find it very nice and quiet on the island. I'm sure. Are you anything of a musician yourself? Do you play an instrument? No, I'm afraid I'm not really very musical. In fact, I sometimes regretted I

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didn't enjoy some kind of a musical education.

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I can appreciate some of the

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Yeah.

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Better glass music.

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I wouldn't call myself a highbrow, but I indicated I enjoy a bit of bar.

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Did you have any plan in choosing your eight records?

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Well, yeah, yeah, most of them of course is from a nostalgic point of view will take me back into parts of my life.

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occasions in which many occasions which I've enjoyed.

Percy Press1:40

Boy.

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Where do we start? What's your first record?

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Well, uh I'm very partial to Shakespeare.

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I'm thy loved Midsummer's Night's Dream.

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I always go every year to the Regent's Park Theatre when it's shown, it was shown there this year. I'm able to pick the night because I live so near Regent's Park.

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And uh I'd like

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For my first record.

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The overture from Midsummer's night 3. And on a nice warm night in that open air theater, it is an enchanting experience, isn't it? Yes.

Presenter2:57

Mendelsohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, played by the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, conducted by Rafael Kubelik.

Percy Press3:03

Uh Goodbye.

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What's your second disc? In my early days

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Before I became a punching beauty man, I

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Played a lot in musical, little bit parts, small parts.

Percy Press3:12

Elliot.

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I've got a great love of of the musical. Of course in those days there was a lot of musicals.

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And uh one

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One of the grandest real musicals, The Metropolitan in Edgar Road.

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And uh I very much like

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So here, Max Miller

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Max at the Met.

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Uh he's a to my mind a very great comedian.

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Risky but never filthy, like so many modern comedians are, not Max.

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He had a wonderful personality and certainly could put it across. Somebody called him the pure gold of the music hall. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 33:54

That's nice.

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She was but a village maiden.

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Who's to say she was to blame?

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But unless a wicked squire Took away her honest name.

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So she journeyed up to London, thinking to forget her shame, when another wicked squire took away her arm. Here, this is.

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I like the girls who do.

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I like the girls who don't.

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I hate the girl who says she will, and then she says she won't.

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But the girl I like the best of all, and I think you'll say I'm right, is the girl who says she never does. But she looks as though she go, here, this

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Max at the Met. Percy, are you a Londoner? Oh yes, I was born in Baker Street. Mm-hmm.

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Any precedent in the family for the entertainment business? None whatsoever. My people were in the building business. In fact, they had a business in Crawford Street, Maryburn. You told us that as a youngster you played small parts in music hall sketches and so on. W was that your first job when you were left school?

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Uh oh no, no, my first job I the only thing I was any good at school was art.

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And uh

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The careers master at the school. I went to a church school by the way, not very far from here, so we had a Magdalene's Oslo Street. And the uh the master used to find the boys' jobs. He got because of my art

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He got me a job to learn the art of mesotin printing.

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Putting the colour on the well actually of course mixing the colour as well and doing all the odd jobs you do a start as more or less an apprentice. But the the paint, mixing of this colour

Percy Press5:27

Cover on the film.

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a picture.

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I became ill and the doctor advised that I have to leave that job and find a more open-air life.

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Yeah. So then there was a period of course we go into this is during World War One of course.

Percy Press5:46

Yeah.

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Because when war broke out.

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I was twelve, you see. It has to be about nineteen sixteen when I started working.

Speaker 35:54

Is

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So what did you do when you left the Metzo tenting business? Uh well I had a period of many oh I worked as a lift boy at Carmelite House, got another job as a commie waiter at Simpson's restaurant in the Strand. That was a great film because I used to put on one of the things was putting on Jimmy Wild's overcoat.

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And of course he uh he he was the champion at that time and there was a great field put on him.

Percy Press6:21

Come on, right?

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And um several other jobs. I didn't last any of them very long until I got the Fours, the picture dealers in Piccadilly.

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They're again at arts, you see. Yes. While I was there, I used to on lunchtime go up to Berwick Street Market. My mother used to give me a shilling for my lunch.

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And I I used to buy fruit and what have you.

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And I used to watch the street entertainers, then.

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Ventriloquists, handcuffed kings. The magic particularly attracted me and I'd learned I used to watch one particular conjurer many many times and I learnt his tricks and I practiced them. I could do them so eventually of course I started off doing a few magic which I found I could do very well. Yes indeed, I know you that you are a very accomplished conjurer and illusionist indeed.

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So you started doing the bits of music hall work as well? Yeah.

Percy Press7:10

Uh

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For the musical jobs I had a bike, used to cycle to the various theatres like the Bedford, or sometimes as far as way as the Queen's Poplar, see, and change it on the bike, you know, unless it you know, taking the ties on one show, because frequently when you ride at the theatre you don't have very very much time, of course. I only had these three little parts, page boy when nothing to say there in one scene.

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Telegram boy and another, which I had a word to say. I used to have to point at the prisoners in the dock which the novel and Jerry said, Look at that funny face, look at that funny dial, if I had a face like that I'd borne it They used to say, Picanani ate me a message and I used to put my fingers up through my nose and they used to get a very big laugh.

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It wouldn't today, of course, it is in those days. And you used to do your countering, where, in clubs? Well, yeah.

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Clubs, yes, which was many, working men's clubs, uh seven and six at the time.

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And of course Christmas time there's a lot of schools, Christmas breaking up parties.

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which you did a much longer show and got a much bigger fee, like a guinea or guinea and a half, you see, we're getting quite classes up, but you better be do much longer. And it was there I really I got my first introduction to Punch and Judy at these schools.

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'Cause frequently there would be a punch and duty operator, a man named Sam Bridges, uh who used to operate at Camberwell and Brixton and I used to help him pack up, not with any idea of taking up punch.

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But simply because uh he was a nice old chap and uh we used to go and have a drink after the show, he used to say you want to think about taking up planting duty, but

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At that time I wasn't a bit interested. I was more engrossed in the magic, really. When did you decide that you wanted to be a a punch man? Well, uh that occurred very, very suddenly one day. I was walking through Bernard Street.

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and a firm of music publishers named Kirwin and Company.

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It had a window display of hand puppets.

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I became rooted to this window display and I looked at it.

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And then for the first time I saw puppets in another light altogether.

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And I thought, here's something I I can do something with.

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And I thought, I'll d I know, I'll do a modern punching duty show.

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And I knew where crossed the fine old Sam Bridges, because every Thursday was at Brixton Market.

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And that week I went and sorted out old Sam and said, Sam, I'm going to take up Fancy Judy.

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He said, Good for you, Percy. You'll find you'll always go living. And incidentally, that's been very true. Never looked back since. You're a Punch and Judy man, so let's break off the for your third record. What's that be?

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My Blue Heaven

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And uh

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There used to be a man of that time, called Whispering Smith. Whispering Jack Smith. Marvelous.

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Be

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You see a smiley face applied.

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Oh.

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A little nest that nestle where the roses blue just mark

Speaker 210:07

Yeah, yeah.

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And baby makes me

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But a happy end.

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Happy news.

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Whispering Jack Smith. Now when you started in the Punch and Judy business, you could set up the booth more or less on on any street corner, but I suppose the noise and traffic has long ago put a stop to that sort of thing. Oh, it has, yes. Of course oh punch is covered by certain Acts of Parliament, you know.

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Is he? Yes. For instance, uh we can do a punching duty in any churchyard in the country.

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And that goes right back to Charles II.

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Now when you started you had to learn to use the swazzle for for for Mr. Punch's voice. What?

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What does this wastle look like? Well, it's a little uh two um uh metal pie pieces of metal.

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Which is a rather closely guarded secret. Yes. This is a non-corrosive metal, by the way, see? You see, a piece of tape, simple piece of tape. Isn't there a great danger you're going to swallow it?

Presenter11:08

Uh well, I've never swallowed but I've got it down here and managed to score. Halfway. Yes, and uh my one of my sons, he uh got it well down and

Percy Press11:11

Yes.

Percy Press11:12

Hopwood.

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While he was doing the show

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And he actually inside the bool had to get on his head and and he got it down that way. And then still continue with the performance. Have you got your swuzzle with you? Yes. Let's just hear a little bit of Mr Punch's voice.

Presenter11:32

Oh yeah. Hey, Movie.

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It's a wonderful sound, Pertie. It takes us all back to childhood. It really does.

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So you used to work on all sorts of pitches. When did you move to a settled place?

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Uh well, I've been r uh rather settled for many, many years now when uh like Hastings, I mean, for twenty three years, but I've also shown I see there's a deal, Ramsgate, Hernbay.

Presenter12:08

Um just to mention a few of it. Of course some of the West County resorts.

Percy Press12:11

Yeah.

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But principally around the southeast, uh and in the winter?

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In the winter, well I operate at Madame of the Swords in the winter, you see. It together with my sons.

Percy Press12:20

Uh

Speaker 212:20

Yeah.

Percy Press12:20

Uh

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We start there mid-December until about the middle of January, doing five performances each day.

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A short performances. And children's parties of course. Oh yes, children's parties, including the Lord Mayor of London's annual children's party.

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Every year I've lost count of how many years I've been to the mansion house.

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Let's have record number four now. Watch that to be.

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I'd very much like to hear that very great artist Gracie Field.

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Sing a lovely number.

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Punch and Beauty Show.

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The blow, but slay him low and he is

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It below and the he is deep no more.

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Now the show is very nearly over, how we hate to see it end.

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For the figures, come back for the finished in the play decorations.

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Of all the things that tickled every fancy in the days of long ago.

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There were none that made us quite so happy as the punch came kinky choking.

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Gracie Field.

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During the war, Percy, you played Punch and Duty to the forces, and I believe you switched the script, brought it up to date. You had Hitler as one of the characters. That's quite right.

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It suddenly struck me the punch has got to go away from me. It's Elizabethan.

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Motley

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And the

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A baffled rest. So I set to make a baffled rest for him.

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And Julie, I promoted her to an affi.

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I del deleted the policeman and made him a red cap, which since he then became a very great success every time he got knocked out, particularly when he's shown it to the forces.

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And the clown was the army cook, which brought in the lot of army gags.

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You say you have two sons both doing Punch and Judy. Oh, yes, yes, yes. So you've started a a dynasty, really? Well, yes, yes.

Percy Press14:07

Oh yes, yes, yes.

Percy Press14:10

Yeah.

Presenter14:11

You mentioned um Charles II. How far back in history does Punch and Judy go? Well, uh of course the uh first record of Punch is uh dear old Sam Pepys, written in his diary, the fact that he saw a puppet show in Covent Garden.

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In May

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1662. But before the days of Pepys, uh Punch and Julie had come from Italy. Oh, it wasn't Italian, it's part of the Commedia dell'Atti, yeah.

Percy Press14:35

Oh yes, well

Percy Press14:37

We have made it a lot, yes.

Presenter14:39

Of course Panzer is really uh all over is all o all over the world, you see. I mean it's in Germany it's Casper, and it's Caspel in in Austria, in Turkey Caragros, Jan Clanson in Holland, the Polishinelle i i in in France.

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And, um, more or less all over. It's a very horrific story. That villainous Mr. Punch kills his wife, he kills the doctor, he kills the policeman.

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Hangs the hangman, he throws his baby downstairs.

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Uh do children ever try to stop him? Oh no, no, no, funny. They all finish up on Fancy's side. Yes.

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But Pudge, you know, really, is akin to God.

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Because it's a patch here.

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There's no time for nagging women.

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So wallop?

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Crying babies, right?

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Out the window, down the field.

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The law of course, no time for the law, uh or medicine.

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And uh in the original play you have a fight with the devil, again of course from which Punch scored. He vanquishes the devil. He van yeah, yeah. Is Punch still as popular as he ever was? Oh I should think so, yeah. Yes, we get in very de big demand all over the place.

Presenter15:47

Dozens and dozens of holiday camps all over the country and they nearly all have a function duty operator during the season, you see. So there's really quite a few. Good, good. Let's have record number five, Pertie. What's that? I think I'd very much like to hear.

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Bestaboo singing that beautiful ballad, Because.

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Light and darkness

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Time to play

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They make God a lot before.

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Webster Boo.

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Percy, we're talking about the various versions of punch.

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That goes on in other countries. You've played in a number of countries yourself, haven't you? The British country. Yes, yes, the real tradition.

Speaker 216:45

Yeah.

Percy Press16:45

The British

Speaker 216:46

Uh

Percy Press16:46

Uh

Presenter16:48

In fact, when I go abroad now, it is solely for purpose to present traditional British punch and yulie. Which countries have been told? Well, I've been to, France?

Percy Press16:55

Well I'm

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Monaco. I was there for a British week.

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I was performing in the Casino Gardens there. Very, very popular, the show was.

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And uh then also Germany. In fact, uh last year I was in uh Germany Munich.

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In the Strahd Museum, which incidentally is the largest puppet museum in the world.

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But of course, uh

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My great event last year was taking Punch and Judy to Japan. To Japan? For three and a half weeks. Yes. Played both the islands, north of the two islands.

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Six cities, twenty-two performances.

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It was a tremendous success because

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The whole of Japan had never seen a Punch Judy.

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Punch is really such a visual entertainment, I have no qualms whatever I take in any part of the world, because people can follow the action.

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Let's have record number six. Well

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I've been to Japan. I like

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Excerpt from the Mikado.

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Why are the flowers that bloom in the spring?

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The flowers that bloom in the spring, Tranda, we promise of merry sunshine, As we merrily dance and we sing, Tranda, we welcome the hope that they bring, Tranda, all the star full of roses and wine, All the star full of roses and wine, And that's what we mean when we say that a thing.

Speaker 218:13

Yeah.

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Is welcome to law

Speaker 218:14

Love that room in the dream

Presenter18:18

Randanza Dahl, Randana Dahl.

Speaker 218:18

Randall, Randall, the clouds that move into screen.

Presenter18:32

The flowers that bloom in the spring, colour have nothing to do with the case. I've got to take under my wing, colour, a most unattractive old thing, colour, with a caricature of a face, with a caricature of a face. And that's what I mean when I say all I see. Oh, bother the flowers that bloom in the spring. Cola la la la la la tala la la la la la. Oh, bother the flowers in the spring.

Presenter18:56

For flowers that bloom in the spring, Thomas Rand and Peter Prepp.

Presenter19:01

On this desert island, Thatty, would you favour a spo

Speaker 219:04

Uh

Percy Press19:05

You've been listening to a download from the Desert Island Discs archive.

Percy Press19:09

Unfortunately, this extract from the original programme is the only material remaining in the BBC archives.

Percy Press19:16

For more downloads, please visit the Radio4 website.