Eugene Lambert
Encyclopedia
Eugene Lambert was an Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 puppeteer
Puppeteer
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, such as a puppet, in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or...

 from County Sligo. He was owner of the Lambert Puppet Theatre
Lambert Puppet Theatre
The Lambert Puppet Theatre & Museum is a puppet theatre located in Monkstown, County Dublin, Ireland. It is a family run business established in 1972 by Eugene Lambert, and hosts an international puppet festival annually. It used to produce children's television series on Radio Telefís Éireann,...

 in Monkstown, County Dublin.

He was noted for co-starring as O'Brien in the RTÉ
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...

 television series Wanderly Wagon
Wanderly Wagon
Wanderly Wagon was an Irish children's television series which aired on RTÉ from Saturday 30 September 1967 until 1982. Wanderly Wagon followed human and puppet characters as they travelled around Ireland visiting interesting locations, rescuing Princesses and generally doing good...

. Lambert's Puppet Theatre also produced the iconic children's television character Bosco
Bosco
Bosco was an Irish children's television programme produced during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was produced by the Lambert Puppet Theatre. Designed by Jan Mitchell, Bosco was voiced by Miriam Lambert initially; in later years Paula Lambert took over the character...

. He died in 2010 at the age of 81.

Career

As a puppeteer and ventriloquist from County Sligo, Eugene Lambert was long a stalwart of the Irish vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 scene, particularly in Dublin, although he also toured the country frequently with his wife Mai. His most common acts were with Finnegan, a mischievous storyteller, and Judge, a pensive dog. With the rise of television in the 1960s, the Lambert puppet theatre became a fixture in Irish broadcasting. In the early 1960s, Lambert devised a puppet series for children entitled Murphy agus a Cháirde ("Murphy and His Friends"). Murphy was a giant who lived in a magical kingdom. Its king, "An Rí", only had one problem - constant mischief from two witches, Feemy and Babóg. RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

 was the only station most people in Ireland could then access and Murphy's adventures were soon an important part of most children's viewing. Murphy himself appeared as the in-vision continuity announcer all through one of RTÉ's Christmas Day broadcasts.

In November 1963, Lambert drew international attention after he successfully acquired a driver's license for his puppet Finnegan. Lambert reported that he did so simply to show how easy it was for anybody in Ireland to obtain a license.

He later co-starred in the children's television series Wanderly Wagon
Wanderly Wagon
Wanderly Wagon was an Irish children's television series which aired on RTÉ from Saturday 30 September 1967 until 1982. Wanderly Wagon followed human and puppet characters as they travelled around Ireland visiting interesting locations, rescuing Princesses and generally doing good...

as the mischievous and greedy O'Brien, known for his child-like curiosity and cowardice in the face of magical events. Lambert and his family provided many regular (puppet) characters — Judge the dog, Mr Crow (who lived in a cuckoo clock), the mysterious Foxy Loxy, and the untrustworthy Ssneaky Ssnake. The series also featured Irish actor Frank Kelly
Frank Kelly
Frank Kelly is an Irish actor, singer and writer, whose career has covered television, radio, theatre, music, screenwriting and film. He is best known for his role as Father Jack Hackett in the comedy Father Ted. He is the son of the cartoonist Charles E...

 who played Dr Astro in the series, who later appeared as Fr. Jack Hackett in Father Ted
Father Ted
Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...

.

Another series created by Eugene Lambert was adapted from a children's book by Patricia Lynch, Brógeen Follows The Magic Tune. Brógeen was a leprechaun who teamed up with a fiddler who had heard a piece of music created by the fairies - and they wanted it back. The series was a great success and won several awards internationally. Some years later, when Lambert enquired about the 2" master video tapes, RTÉ admitted to having re-used them. Brogeen (and most of Wanderly Wagon) was gone forever.

Lambert Puppet Theatre and Museum

The Lambert Puppet Theatre
Lambert Puppet Theatre
The Lambert Puppet Theatre & Museum is a puppet theatre located in Monkstown, County Dublin, Ireland. It is a family run business established in 1972 by Eugene Lambert, and hosts an international puppet festival annually. It used to produce children's television series on Radio Telefís Éireann,...

 was established in 1972. Eugene Lambert founder and Director of the Lambert Puppet Theatre had an interest in puppetry from a very early age, making his own ventriloquist dummy Charley, which later developed into Finnegan the ventriloquist act. In the early years with Finnegan, Eugene toured UK and Ireland extensively and in later years he promoted Ireland for Irish Tourist Board, touring USA, Japan and Australia.

Lambert's Puppet Theatre was responsible for producing the popular 1980s children's television character Bosco
Bosco
Bosco was an Irish children's television programme produced during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was produced by the Lambert Puppet Theatre. Designed by Jan Mitchell, Bosco was voiced by Miriam Lambert initially; in later years Paula Lambert took over the character...

 who was an ever present fixture on the Irish national station.

Eugene and Mai Lambert had ten children two of whom predeceased him. Lambert supplemented his day job as refrigeration engineer with his "Punch and Judy
Punch and Judy
Punch and Judy is a traditional, popular puppet show featuring the characters of Mr. Punch and his wife, Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Punch and one other character...

", appearing in private houses and night time was taken up with appearing with his vent act Finnegan at Gala concerts and Dinners. The Lambert family participated in Jury’s Irish Cabaret for 7 years bringing topical puppet acts to the American audience.

Eugene and his wife Mai visited The Harlequin Puppet Theatre in Colwyn Bay
Colwyn Bay
- Demography :Prior to local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974 Colwyn Bay was a municipal borough with a population of c.25,000, but in 1974 this designation disappeared leaving five separate parishes, known as communities in Wales, of which the one bearing the name Colwyn Bay encompassed...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 and an International Puppet Festival in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

. Inspired, they decided to open a puppet theatre of their own, The Lambert Puppet Theatre.

Death

Lambert died at his home in Monkstown, County Dublin on Monday 22 February 2010, aged 82. His funeral on 26 February 2010 was attended by entertainers and politicians, with Liam Ó Maonlaí
Liam Ó Maonlaí
Liam Ó Maonlaí is an Irish musician best known as a member of the Hothouse Flowers. Ó Maonlaí formed the band in 1985 with his schoolmate Fiachna Ó Braonáin....

 and Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....

 singing at his Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...

 and a miniature Wanderly Wagon featuring in the ceremony.

External links

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