Harry Corbett[1] OBE[2] (28 January 1918 – 17 August 1989) was an English magician, puppeteer and television presenter.
He had a younger brother, Les, a saxophonist, whom he played duets with, and who would sometimes appear on The Sooty Show.
Deafness in one ear precluded him from pursuing his musical ambitions to become a concert pianist, although he played the piano in the Guiseley fish and chip restaurant owned by his mother's brother Harry Ramsden.
The same year, in order to entertain his children while on holiday in Blackpool, he bought the original yellow bear glove puppet, then called Teddy, in a novelty shop on the end of the resort's North Pier for seven shillings and six pence (7s/6d) (which would become 37½p after decimalisation, not allowing for inflation).
Sooty and Corbett were also regularly featured on the Mickey Mouse Club in the United States in the mid-to-late 1950s.
[7] In early 1968, producers at the BBC told Corbett that, while he should remain as puppeteer, an actor should interact with Sooty.
In 1988, Corbett was the subject of This Is Your Life, commemorating forty years in the entertainment industry and the debut of Sooty.