Magic of Punch and Judy Lures Trouper Back to Act

During the Great Depression, Ted Robertson, then a 17-year-old high school student, earned money with his Punch-and-Judy puppets.

He’s performing the same act today.

Now 79, retired and still yearning for the acting career that has eluded him all his life, Robertson has returned to performing Punch-and-Judy shows for children and adults.

His most recent performances were at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, the Fullerton Arboretum, shopping malls and private parties.

Robertson, who has a degree in economics from Knox College in Illinois where he sometimes performed Punch-and-Judy shows, is accompanied in the act by his wife of one year, Elli Robertson, 56.

She is the voice of Judy and the baby, two of the eight characters in the show, which dates back to the 16th Century.

The others are Punch, Henry the doctor, Jose the constable, the Devil, Toby the dog and Alligator.

Robertson said all his characters were carved from basswood by Frank Marshall, who crafted Charlie McCarthy for the late ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.

“I could only afford to buy one at a time. The Depression was a terrible time for everyone,” he said.

The characters are still dressed in the original clothes made in the early 1930s.

“I kept the puppets all these years and decided last April that I wanted to get active in something besides playing golf,” said Robertson, who spent much of his life in a Chicago family business that sold soap.

He thought performing the show again would be different and a way to make some money (he charges $100 a performance), but more important, he saw it as a chance to put smiles on the faces of children.

“To see and hear the children react after the show is like a rainbow in the sky,” he said, noting that the audience is hidden by the stage. After each show the children are invited to meet, talk to and touch the characters and see how they move.

It was also a new adventure for his wife, studying for her master’s degree in psychology at the Orange campus of the California Graduate Institute to add to her degree in sociology.

“It’s a lot of fun and a lot different from anything else I thought I would do in my life,” she said. “When I hear the laughter, I get so excited. I feel like I’m back in high school.”

After her graduation, the one-time advanced instructional aide for the Anaheim City School District plans to work with adults suffering from brain injuries.

What the children see and hear at the 25-minute performances are a version that is somewhat less raucous than the original Punch-and-Judy show.

“We didn’t want to show any form of violence. We wanted to show more love,” he said. “I want a kindler and gentler show.”

For the past decade, Robertson has been an outspoken advocate for the preservation of old movie palaces, especially those in Chicago, near where he was raised.

“We also have to be aware that great theaters here like the Egyptian, Pantages and Wiltern must be saved,” said Robertson, a member of the Theater Society of America, which is supporting the movement.