Muffin The Mule

• How old is Muffin the Mule?
  The answer is not at all straightforward. Read on.

Muffin the Mule is much older than most people appreciate, but attempting to pinpoint the precise date of his creation is an anomalous task that begs the very question of who Muffin the Mule actually is. Although he first came into being in 1946, the seeds of his existence were sown much earlier in 1933 when a new puppet was commissioned by the Hogarth Puppet Theatre.

• The Hogarth Puppet Theatre

The Hogarth Puppets were a touring puppet company owned and operated by husband & wife team Jan and Ann Bussell. Ann, a distant relative of the famous British artist William Hogarth, had been christened Margaret Ann Jackson but, whilst studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (R.A.D.A.), adopted the stage name "Ann Hogarth". This family name subsequently transmuted into the identity of the puppet company. Together, Ann and Jan became leading authorities on marionettes in the United Kingdom and gave many performances in the West End of London as well as throughout Europe - a very entrepreneurial lifestyle in those days. Sally McNally (nee Sally Bussell), herself an accomplished puppeteer, actress, and dancer, inherited Muffin from her parents when her mother passed away in April 1993. Until recently she looked after Muffin in his "retirement", although in reality he has probably been busier in recent years as celebrity guest at many exhibitions, presentations and in magazine features, than ever he was even in his heyday on television. Sadly, Sally herself died at the end of May 2004 after losing her battle against cancer. This article has been written with her prior consent and is now offered as a tribute to Sally and her talented parents.

• Jan Bussell

Jan Bussell was a television producer before the Second World War and after serving in the Royal Navy, returned to the BBC for a short while before concentrating all of his efforts on puppetry. Even in the early nineteen thirties he was acutely aware of the potential of the new media and got involved with many experimental broadcasts. One of the performance concepts of the Hogarth Puppet Theatre in those days was of a clown being kicked around a circus ring by a comical mule. Jan was always very particular about the smallest of details when planning new puppets, and so he produced drawings very meticulously for use as blueprints for the carvings. It was then the job of Fred Tickner, an accomplished Punch and Judy Professor, to skilfully sculpt the raw puppets from blocks of wood. So it came to pass that the mule was born into the world, but at that early stage he was merely an inert puppet, undefined and devoid of character. Although this marionette would ultimately be used as the Muffin the Mule puppet of whom we are so familiar, it is important not to mistakenly fall into the trap of thinking that this was the time of Muffin's creation. At this stage the puppet was a mere carving, nothing more, nothing less. Defining a personality and character for the puppet was under the remit of the puppeteer, not the wood carver. The new mule was destined for a more unsavoury role than that of the endearing creature that we would all later learn to love. So, for the time being, he remained nameless and unchristened.

With Ann working the clown and Jan operating the kicking mule, making it rather macho and a little aggressive, the circus act was an immediate success with children. The puppeteers, however, soon needed more demanding outlets for their talents. So, after their act had run its course and became a little stale, the mule was consigned to storage and was largely forgotten about. His companion continued in the circus for a while with clown accomplices Hoopo and Rufus. Meanwhile, the Hogarths were moving onwards with an ever expanding repertoire to perform Shakespeare plays, fairy tales penned by Oscar Wilde, ballet, and variety acts all over the world. They had already toured Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, India and Java by 1950 and then progressed onwards with further tours of Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, all under the auspices of the British Council. They were more than a travelling puppet company; they were veritable ambassadors for their home country, having audience with F W Doidge the High Commissioner for New Zealand during their tour in October 1952. Much later in 1965 they even gave performances inside the Arctic Circle following extensive touring of the United States of America and beyond to the uppermost reaches of Canada.

• Puppet Theatre

Puppet theatre had been popular from Victorian times with interest being particularly prolific in the half-century following the First World War. Its status ranked higher than mere children's entertainment. It had a cultural following that elevated it to the heights of a performing art. As one leading Russian proponent surmised in the thirties: "The puppet theatre is a theatre of moving sculpture. Puppetry is a synthesis of all skills. It stimulates life for today and tomorrow."

"I always hold up the wooden actors as
constructive object lessons to our flesh & blood players"

George Bernard Shaw

There were scores of artisans engaged both in the production of plays and the scripting of publications for the edification of the public. Even the acclaimed author C S Forester had a dabble himself and wrote a biography in 1936 entitled "Marionettes at Home" and, whereas this work never did attain for him the literary popularity of Hornblower, it did pamper to the widespread public enthusiasm for puppetry in that period. Some of the principal production companies of that era included The Lanchester Marionettes, The Stavordale Marionettes, and the Eric Bramall Marionettes, with The Hogarth Puppet Theatre featuring prominently alongside them amongst the big names.

• Pelham Puppets

Having already achieved world-wide acclaim, the Hogarth Puppets had made the "big-time". Their advice and expertise was widely sought by anyone who needed to know anything about puppetry. So in 1947 when the now internationally renowned Bob Pelham founded his toy puppet company in a humble Nissen hut in Marlborough, it was Jan and Ann he consulted. Many people will have owned a Pelham Puppet in their childhood and those who joined the puppet club may recall that the members were all referred to as "Pelpups", while the patriarchal figure of Bob affectionately became known as "Pelpop"¹. Since the 1930's, Jan and Ann had been writing books about the techniques involved in constructing marionettes, so they were well qualified to offer Bob useful advice about how to make string puppets with simple but reliable joints. This design ethos was an essential element in the manufacturing process because, in those post-war days with ready supplies of first choice source materials not generally being available, the constituent parts of the puppet assemblies were gleaned from government surpluses from the armed forces' repository in Bristol. War veterans, many of whom were disabled, were gainfully employed in the skilful metamorphosis of munitions boxes into marionettes. Then later on, after Pelham Puppets had become firmly established in the world markets, both Ann and Jan wrote and published books of plays specifically for them.

¹Bob died in 1980, but his widow, Anne, kept the company going for a further six years when she herself retired. Under new management, Pelham Puppets continued to be made in Wiltshire until the factory closed in 1993

• Muffin the Mule joins the BBC

With the widespread and ever expanding interest in puppetry, there were many others who consulted the Hogarth Puppet Theatre to benefit from their acquired wisdom and expertise. It was just such a fortuitous liaison that culminated in the BBC's introduction of Muffin the Mule to our early television.

The BBC introduced trial television broadcasting to London in the Autumn of 1936, but reception was limited to the wealthy few who could actually afford to buy the sets and who happened to live within the 35 mile broadcasting range of the Alexandra Palace transmitter.

No television broadcasting was undertaken during the Second World War, but even after regular service had restarted in 1946 the occasion of watching television was quite a community event. Whole streets of people would typically group together around a single set to marvel at grainy 405-line images of what nowadays would be regarded as being very limited subject matter. A five-minute slot was allocated for younger viewers and was aptly named "For the Children". This was hosted by Annette Mills, the sister of Sir John Mills, who sang along to her self-accompaniment on the piano. After a while, she sensed that her act needed livening up, so she hit on the idea of having a string puppet performer on the lid of her piano to enhance the presentation. As a leading authority on the subject, the Hogarth Puppet Theatre was an obvious source of advice.

• Muffin the Mule gets christened by Annette Mills

Annette duly went along to talk over her ideas with Ann Hogarth and Jan Bussell and to enquire whether they would be willing to provide and operate a puppet for her show. After discussing various options, Annette chose two puppets from the several hundred marionettes not working at the time: the clown and the mule who were by now in their early teens. The clown she called Crumpet, and the mule was christened Muffin. As Sally McNally recalled: "Annette came to our house and met my mother, Ann Hogarth, and she asked if they could make puppets to illustrate her songs - no, they replied, but perhaps you could write songs to illustrate our puppets!"

So this is how it was arranged. Ann Hogarth had to decide how she was going to present Muffin; what kind of character he was going to be. She thought of him as she would a kindly, helpful, mischievous but loveable small boy with oodles of charm, who got into harmless scrapes that always ended fine in the end. In her mind she then conjured up and developed his personality and, in so doing, she created Muffin the Mule for posterity. Muffin the Mule - born 1946.

• A theme tune for Muffin the Mule

She wrote a twelve-minute script for her performance and Annette wrote the songs, including the famous signature tune:

"We want Muffin! Muffin the mule.
Dear old Muffin! playing the fool.
We want Muffin! everybody sing
We want Muffin the Mule!"

On the following Sunday the show went out live on the air, with Annette sitting at her piano accompanying Muffin, who pranced around legs akimbo on the piano lid in response to Ann's carefully co-ordinated control of him from behind a screen. Ann, through skilful manipulation and natural dexterity, transmitted the character and personality that she had created for Muffin, through the strings to the puppet and breathed life into him. It is quite astonishing just how many people believe that it was Annette herself who operated Muffin; presumably believing that she was activating his movements from key presses on the piano!

• When did Muffin the Mule first appear on TV?

At this time, in 1946, the new phenomenon was still localised to the London area and it was not until 1949 that Midlanders reaped the benefit of the broadcasts when the transmitter at Sutton Coldfield was commissioned, with Mancunians following on in 1951 with the Holme Moss transmitter, and the Scots in 1952 when the Kirk O'Shotts mast was brought into service. People living in Wales, the West Country, and even further afield had to wait even longer. The way in which geographical coverage was expanded gradually over a number of years leads to widespread disparity in peoples' recollections of when Muffin first appeared on television. Some steadfastly say it was in the nineteen forties. Others maintain it was in the fifties. In actuality both opinions are valid, depending on whereabouts the viewers lived.

• Muffin the Mule also featured on ITV

Muffin the Mule finally sealed his ubiquitous link within the minds of the public en masse with the sudden upsurge in purchases of sets in 1952 to receive broadcasts of George VI's funeral and the subsequent coronation of our Queen in 1953, which was viewed on the BBC by an estimated 20 million people. So, it is really quite remarkable that the image of him clattering his hooves on Annette Mills' piano has become so firmly ingrained in the public psyche, because their routine together was to last for only two years further, until Annette died in 1955 at the age of 61. On 29^th February 1956 Muffin swapped allegiances from the BBC to the newly formed ITV channel and did a total of twenty six performances with Sally as his presenter, but then he came back again to the BBC in mid-August 1957 for a final stint of shows.

• The last TV broadcast of Muffin the Mule on the BBC

This ultimate series formed a very fitting epitaph for the husband and wife team behind the Hogarth Puppets. Jan Bussell, the artistic talent who created the design concept for the mule, co-starred and sang alongside Ann Hogarth as she enthused the very essence of life into the character of Muffin during the last of his public broadcasts. Their synergy was complete.

• Puppet Friends of Muffin the Mule

During the three hundred episodes of his television career, Muffin appeared with many other string puppet friends including Peregrine the Penguin (or Mr Peregrine Esquire as he preferred to be known). Louise the Lamb followed on soon afterwards, and then Oswald the Ostrich, who featured with his best friend Willie the Worm. A whole host of other characters, which were already in the puppet theatre's repertoire, joined the motley crew. Sally the Seal (who strictly speaking was a sea-lion) was one of Muffin's first friends from his circus-performing days. Katy the Kangaroo and Kirri the Kiwi had already made their entrances during the earlier tours of Australia and New Zealand and no doubt Grace the Giraffe, Hubert the Hippo, Zebbie the Zebra, and Monty the Monkey went down well on the South African tours. Other friends included Otto the Octopus, Peter the Pup and Poppy the Parrot, along with a warm-hearted minstrel puppet known as Wally the Gog. All in all there was quite an entourage.

All of the friends had different personalities: Peregrine was upper class and liked to organise things and boss the others about, Oswald was somewhat dim-witted, Monty was very mischievous, Louise was rather shy, Sally the Seal liked to dance, and Katy was quite house-proud. When the Hogarth Puppet Theatre went on tour to New Zealand, Kirri the Kiwi was made to develop an appetite exclusively for spaghetti, to allay fears from children that Willie the Worm might otherwise become part of the menu.

As well as accompanying Muffin in theatrical performances, the friends also featured in their own books & comic strips and were widely used in the branding of merchandise ranging from soaps & candles on the one hand, right the way through to crockery & furniture on the other. The TV successes also resulted in a series of Muffin the Mule films being independently commissioned by Jan Bussell for BBC broadcasting to keep Muffin in the public eye when the Hogarth Puppet Theatre went on tour overseas (from 1952 to 1963). Some of these films even found their way across the Atlantic to enthral American audiences, making Muffin one of the UK's first celebrity exports. Latterly, in 1987, a video compilation was made of some of the film extracts and, more recently in 2002, a DVD was released.

• Muffin the Mule toys

As far as toys were concerned, besides the Pelham Puppet of Muffin the Mule, there was also a die-cast string puppet version manufactured by Lesney Moko. These were very popular in the nineteen fifties but are now collectors' items. Both Jan and Ann wrote many books throughout the nineteen forties, fifties and early nineteen sixties, as well as scripting numerous plays. Jan must have inherited some of his talents from his mother, Dorothea, who had previously written a play for puppets entitled "The Cat and the Kingdom".

• Muffin the Mule at the White Barn

On retirement, the Bussells bought an old cob cottage at Whimple in Devon. The house had two or three outbuildings, one of which was a large white barn, and this was duly fitted out as a puppet theatre where they gave informal performances for the local community. Occasional workshops were held in which children were encouraged to get actively involved and exercise the strings for themselves. It was a puppet paradise.

• Sally McNally (nee Bussell)

For young Sally Bussell, living in the midst of these marionettes meant that she handled them almost on a daily basis. It was the perfect training ground for her as she honed her own performing skills, so it was no surprise that she later progressed to become a puppeteer in her own right and a devout actress and dancer. Her artistic talents had been evident from the earliest of ages, having given her first radio interview when she was just five, participated in the junior chorus in pantomime at the age of seven, and worked in children's television when she was thirteen. Before she reached the age of twenty, Sally had already performed for two seasons with the Donald Woolfit Theatrical Company, working in Birmingham, Dublin, Newcastle and London. This was all in addition to accompanying her parents on their world tours. The family's passion for puppetry and performing demanded total dedication and a very full and frantic lifestyle.

• The Muffin Club

Consideration for the wellbeing of children has always been part of the ethos of the Muffin the Mule story. To cater for his popularity in the 1950's, the Muffin Club was founded, with members receiving a badge and regular newsletter. The club was non-profit making and all income was donated to children's hospitals to buy radios and televisions.

• Muffin the Mule Collectors' Club

Although the original club shut down many years ago, a new Collector's Club was established just before the dawn of the new millennium. Adrienne Hasler, a former nurse & midwife and magistrate for the past nineteen years, who founded the club with the support of Sally McNally, caters not only for "collectors of Muffinabelia" (a very apt term coined by Adrienne) but for anyone with a nostalgic interest in puppetry on early television. In line with the earlier established traditions, the club donates its subscription income to children's charities. Sally was an enthusiastic contributor to the club's four-monthly newsletter until her untimely death at the beginning of last year and now her husband, Derek, carries the mantle with his own recollections for the newsletter.

• Muffin the Mule - the legacy lives on

It is sad to witness the passing of people who have dedicated so much of their lives with such passion to the entertainment of the public, and children in particular, but it is thanks to them that the legacy of Muffin lives on, and for that our lives are all the richer. As A B Allen (a contemporary of Ann and Jan Bussell) wrote in 1937, "Puppetry is not an adjunct to the craft-room in the perfection of technique and the creation of illusions. Puppetry is a branch of that greatest of all cultural forces - the literature of the nation - of all nations"