{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1271195"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1271195/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GP3077/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GP3077/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2013GP3077","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GX5725","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1271195/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1271195","accessionNumber":"S.3489-2013","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This shows the Punch and Judy Professor Percy Press Senior (1902-1980) outside his booth while he was performing in Munich in April 1973. Known as the uncrowned King of Punch and Judy men, Percy Press Senior had a pitch on Hastings Pier for many years, and performed regularly in London outside Madam Tussaud's. His show was traditional, fast, and funny. His comic timing and puppet manipulation was superb, and his specialisation was the difficult trick of swirling each puppet around the slapstick.\n\nPercy Press left school at fourteen during World War l, and after a series of jobs including one at a printing firm and another as a tricyclist for Sylvester's Circus, started a street conjuring in 1918, encouraged by the street performers he saw in Berwick Street Market. After his first show on Hampstead Heath on Good Friday 1918, he started working a pitch in  Tottenham Court Road. He worked as a street conjuror for years and once recalled: 'Street pitching was not easy. There was a kind of bond, a freemasonry, on the streets then because life was so hard. Buskers would tell each other where the good pitches were, for example, although if someone has a recognised pitch you wouldn't trespass on it.'\n\nPercy Press was inspired to start his Punch and Judy show by helping the Punch professor Sam Bridges pack up his show, and by seeing an impressive display of puppets in a shop window in London's Berners Street.  Wanting his to be a traditional but topical show, when Percy Press entertained the troops during the war, his Punch wore battle dress, his clown was an army cook, and Jack Ketch was Hitler. As Percy Press said when interviewed in November 1974: 'It's important that Punch continues to change and grow with the times. Perhaps it's because he is different but always familiar that he remains popular today.'\n","physicalDescription":"Photograph of 'Professor' Percy Press (1902-1980) holding Judy and Baby in his left hand and Mr. Punch up in his booth with his right hand, in front of the crocodile. A note in pen verso, probably by Percy Press reads: 'In Munich. April 1973. Not Poppa Schmidt but Poppa Press.'","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"x43821"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"photography","id":"AAT54225"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Photograph","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Children & Childhood","id":"THES48980"},{"text":"Puppetry","id":"THES266219"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2013GP3077","2014GX5725"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES356623"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photographs","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Munich","id":"x29009"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"April 1973","earliest":"1973-04-01","latest":"1973-04-30"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Gerald Morice","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"17.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"11.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"In Munich. April 1973. Not Poppa Schmidt but Poppa Press.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"The note verso refers to the fact that Munich, where this photograph was taken, was the home of Papa Schmidt's puppet theatre that Papa Schmidt (Joseph Leonard Schmidt) opened in 1858."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph of 'Professor' Percy Press (1902-1980) with Judy and Baby, Mr. Punch and the crocodile. Black and white photograph, Munich, 1973. Gerald Morice Collection.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Press, Percy Senior","id":"AUTH327777"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"Punch and Judy Show","id":"V353"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.3489-2013"],"accessionNumberNum":"3489","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2013,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-14","recordCreationDate":"2013-08-28","availableToBook":true}}