OUR STORY 

Frank Mumford is 93 and a "half" years old he's lived in a tiny flat in London's Notting Hill Gate since 1946 surrounded by the memorabilia of a life well lived.  Frank's not your ordinary garden variety 93 year old. He's special, not only because of his strong independent lifestyle, living alone as he approaches 100, but also because Frank and his late wife, Maisie, created one of the most glamorous Marionette variety acts to ever grace the stage. 

 

In the late 1940's and 1950's they played prestige venues all over Europe, including the Moulin Rouge, Paris,   London's Savoy Hotel, and the Sporting Club, Monte Carlo. He performed for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Prince Rainer of Monaco, was given a gold cigarette case by General Franco, dined with Jean Cocteau and joked with Josephine Baker.  This remarkable documentary tells Frank's story. The past, present and future, it's a tale of princes and puppets, bitter rivalries and betrayal, of joy and tragedy.

"One dark day last January, I met 94 year old Frank Mumford, I'd been invited to his birthday party by a mutual friend.  In the course of conversation it turns out that Frank has a cupboard full of old cans of film - "Oh I used to be in showbusiness a bit " says Frank.  The old film cans contained film of Franks BBC TV childrens puppet work from the 1960's, home movie shot in Cannes and London from the 50's and cinema and TV adverts from the 60's.  As a Documentary maker I knew I had to make this film."

Frank's decided to tell his story through the fantastic archive film and photographs that has been sitting in a cupboard in his small flat for over 50 years.  Now we want to get the puppets out of the attic, where they have sat boxed and untended for 20 years. This film's about a wonderful artist who belongs to a lost generation of performers from the time before TV took over the world.

Franks archive of film and photo's some of which you can see here on this site, is a remarkable record of a bygone era and artform of which he was (and is ) one of the foremost exponents. 

The Impact

• Franks story represents the history of a lost generation of Variety performers who played stages the world over in a time before TV. 
• The skills of the marionette artist are slowly disappearing and Frank is a master of a vanishing art  - help us preserve his work, tell his story and delight an entire new generation by making this window into an unknown world.  
• This is a film of a life well lived and it's not over yet.  This film has another purpose to remind people that the elderly, so often portrayed as a burden on society, are actually a valuable resource. 
  

What We Need & What You Get

We need this money to transfer the rest of the archive from Franks cupboard and get the archive from the French National Archives (they charge...a lot) film the puppets in glorious detail, we have to get them out of the attic and into a studio to film them in close up.

This part of the campaign pays for the Archive film and to get the puppets out of the attic and repaired.   

$10,000 sounds a lot, and indeed it is, but not in the world of filmmaking.

We aren't gonna get rich here and none of the money goes into the pockets of the team, it all goes on the screen.

If we don't reach our total goal don't worry. We will carry on until we have what we need...but the more you pledge the better (and quicker) the final film will turn out - if we exceed our total then the film will be all the more amazing !  

This film will be entered into Film Festivals worldwide and used for education, shown at museums, schools and Universities and maybe even on - TV - in the end. 

We have a list of "perks" our little thank you for helping to make this project a reality - they are over there on the right hand side of the page. 

Other Ways You Can Help

We know that times are hard and everyone wants your money so you if you can't manage $12 you can also help us by spreading the word to other people that may be interested (or just loaded) via the share tools and word of mouth. We are also willing to consider help "in kind" and are already grateful to our friends for helping  especially, Darryl Worby, Jennie Allen and Jeremy Keenan for all their help and support.

We would also like to thank some industry pro's who are donating services

TK ONE in Soho London for transfer of Archive film to digital format 

TC SOHO in London who are donating DVD authoring, duplication and online editing 

VMI Broadcast - for subsidised camera hire 

Please share this page with friends, coworkers, fabulously wealthy people, showbiz celebrities, people with a fascination for puppets, influential media types, lovers of everything retro and vintage and anyone else you can think of.....

You can email us at mumfordfilm93(at)gmail.com  if you want - we'd be happy to hear from you