Sooty Super Xylophone

NOTES	The story of Sooty began when Harry Corebett, no doubt desperate to entertain his kids on a holiday to Blackpool, bought a toy teddy bear. This was to eventually lead to an appearence on the program "Talent Show", shown on the BBC in 1952. Sooty's party trick was to play a Xylophone whilst uttering the magic words "Izzy Wizzy Lets Get Busy" ... I say "utter the magic words", but in fact Sooty was mute and could only be understood by Corbett himself who repeated Sooty's word ... jolly handy given Corbett wasn't a ventriloquist ;-) Mention "Sooty" to most people and you'd get the reponse "Sooty and Sweep", but Sweep didn't appear until 1957. The absence of Sweep plus the somewhat basic packaging suggests that this Xylophone toy is pre-1957. The toy was produced by Green Monk Products, who went on to release much better versions of the Xylophone. Hopefully the later products were a bit more in tune than this toy, which is about as accurately tuned as ??? after a right skin-full. The packaging suggests this is the equivalent of today's supermarket "low price" brand, as it was also available in a tin box with the lid showingthe same basic illustration as this example but with a bright red solid background which presumable was sold in the posher stores.
CURRENT STATE	Required a full and thorough restoration (i.e. replacing the elastic bands that hold up the notes).
WHERE FOUND	Off Fleabuy with three other toys for a total of £18. I wouldn't have gone out of my way to buy this, but it was part of a job lot that included the Muffin The Mule television, and since this Xylophone is kinda telly rated I guess it can stay a while.

The story of Sooty began when Harry Corebett, no doubt desperate to entertain his kids on a holiday to Blackpool, bought a toy teddy bear. This was to eventually lead to an appearence on the program "Talent Show", shown on the BBC in 1952.

Sooty's party trick was to play a Xylophone whilst uttering the magic words "Izzy Wizzy Lets Get Busy" ... I say "utter the magic words", but in fact Sooty was mute and could only be understood by Corbett himself who repeated Sooty's word ... jolly handy given Corbett wasn't a ventriloquist ;-)

Mention "Sooty" to most people and you'd get the reponse "Sooty and Sweep", but Sweep didn't appear until 1957. The absence of Sweep plus the somewhat basic packaging suggests that this Xylophone toy is pre-1957.

The toy was produced by Green Monk Products, who went on to release much better versions of the Xylophone. Hopefully the later products were a bit more in tune than this toy, which is about as accurately tuned as ??? after a right skin-full.

The packaging suggests this is the equivalent of today's supermarket "low price" brand, as it was also available in a tin box with the lid showingthe same basic illustration as this example but with a bright red solid background which presumable was sold in the posher stores.

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SOOTY "SUPER" XYLOPHONE