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Bertie the Bunyip was the lead puppet character on the popular American children's television series The Bertie the Bunyip Show[1] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which ran from 1954 to 1966.[2] He was portrayed as a brown-colored character with the ears of a kangaroo and a duck-bill-type snout. For children he was cute and friendly, getting into harmless situations.
Created by Australian Lee Dexter (1905-1991), Bertie was a bunyip (a mythological Australian creature), described by Dexter as "a cross between a bunny, a collie dog and a duck billed platypus."
Bertie's enemy was an aristocratic fox by the name of Sir Guy de Guy. A newspaper article published shortly after his death featured an interview with Lee Dexter, who noted that Sir Guy was named after the ubiquitous TV Guide - but this turned out to be just another bogus attempt to cash in on the notoriety of Dexter's puppets, and there was a protracted struggle for ownership of the puppets. Dexter suffered from Alzheimer's Disease in his later years and was confined to a nursing home in southern New Jersey; he was unable to shed any light on his puppets including who should get them.
Further reading
- Hi There, Boys and Girls!: America's Local Children's TV Programs by Tim Hollis, University Press of Mississippi (2010)
- Row House Days: Tales from a Southwest Philadelphia Childhood by Jack Myers, Infinity Publishing (2005)
References
- ^ http://www.tvacres.com/creatures_bunyip.htm (retrieved March 18, 2014)
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-07-31. Retrieved 2006-09-10. (retrieved May 4, 2017)