Sydney George Hulme Beaman
Encyclopedia
Sydney George Hulme Beaman, born in 1887 and who died 4 February 1932, was an author & illustrator best known as the creator of the Toytown
stories and their characters including Larry the Lamb.
on 19 July 1929 in the Children's Hour
BBC radio programme.
The Golders Green Gazette noted that his studio at home had a model city peopled by Toytown characters, beautifully carved in wood.
Toytown
Toytown was a British radio series for children, based around a set of puppets created by SG Hulme Beaman, broadcast by the BBC for Children's Hour, which ran from 17:00 to 18:00 on the Home Service. There were also some short films made during the 1970s which were broadcast on ITV...
stories and their characters including Larry the Lamb.
Life and work
Toytown was first broadcast by the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
on 19 July 1929 in the Children's Hour
Children's Hour
Children's Hour—at first: "The Children's Hour", from a verse by Longfellow—was the name of the BBC's principal recreational service for children during the period when radio dominated broadcasting....
BBC radio programme.
Beaman conceived the idea of Toytown in the mid- 1920s. As an artist, he had started to make toys in a first-floor room in a rented house in Golders GreenGolders GreenGolders Green is an area in the London Borough of Barnet in London, England. Although having some earlier history, it is essentially a 19th century suburban development situated about 5.3 miles north west of Charing Cross and centred on the crossroads of Golders Green Road and Finchley Road.In the...
, recognising that the German market, which had been dominant in the period leading up to The Great War, was all but dead. He decided to focus on the Victorian theme of 'Noah's Ark', and it was from there that the 'Toytown' concept arose. Squarish angular figures were carved from solid wood, and painted in bright colours. From this, sprang a strip cartoon for a local paper, but this brought in very little cash, although it aroused a lot of interest in the district's schools.
During the early days of "the wireless", Beaman not only built his own set, but he also conducted classes showing youngsters how to do this, little realising that this new medium would make him everlastingly famous. It was not until 1928, however, that he produced his first book of 6 tales based upon the characters he had created. In the following year, May Jenkin, ("Elizabeth" in 'Children's Hour') discovered this, and dramatised 5 of the stories for radio. These were broadcast on 2LO2LO2LO was the second radio station to regularly broadcast in the United Kingdom . It began broadcasting on 11 May 1922, for one hour a day from the seventh floor of Marconi House in London's Strand...
as follows:
19.7.29 Proud Punch
1.8.29 The Tale of the Magician
16.8.29 The Tale of the Inventor
26.8.29 Captain Brass, the Pirate
11.9.29 The Giles Barn Gang & the Baby Brother
The Golders Green Gazette noted that his studio at home had a model city peopled by Toytown characters, beautifully carved in wood.