Hand Puppets History Although it is hard to trace hand puppets history, it is believed that they originated in England, in the 1700's. One of the traditional hand puppet shows, Guignol is all about workers in the silk industry of France. Laurent Mourguet, the creator of the show, was from a modest family of silk workers. Laurent started puppeteering by using other characters such as Polichinelle, but he quickly created his own characters, first of all the wine loving cobbler Gnafron, and then in 1808 Guignol.
Then, in the 1800's, the already traditional Punch and Judy show became a hand puppet show. Since its debut in England, on 9th May 1662, it had been a marionette show, but in the later half of the 18th century it began to become a glove puppet show. This made it much easier to travel around with and meant that companies began to tour with their shows. Punch and Judy has many variations which means that current events could be included in the various shows, and makes it a much more interactive puppet show.
One of the more recent hand puppet shows, The Sheri Lewis show was a TV show starring Sheri Lewis and her puppet Lamb Chop. This show was on TV from 1960 to 1963, and was one of the biggest TV shows of its time.
Created by puppeteer Jim Henson, the Muppet Show was an extremely famous puppet show which was on TV from 1776 to 1981 in Britain, and consisted of 5 series. In 1969 the Muppets were debuted on Sesame Street, a show created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, which was also about puppets. The Muppet Show featured famous hand and rod puppets such as Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.