Brian Hamilton was a flash in
the pan so to speak, as far as figure makers are concerned. He
started at the age of 14 and at 15 he was making carved wood figures
in the Marshall style. Unfortunately passed away at the early age of
28 on April 10, 1988. He was such an accomplished builder that he actually
acquired all of Frank Marshall's tools to do his work.
He carved heads out of wood and then went on
to build figures out of Fiberglass. The McElroy brothers George &
Glen took Brian under their wing and taught him a lot of their
techniques in building figures and he made some very fine McElroy
style figures of which there is less than a handful known. He also
did repair work too. We can wonder what would have been had he still
been alive and building today.
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1st REAL ventriloquist
figure head |
Brian at the Lane Technical High School (now Lane College Prep)
in Chicago performing at the talent night |
Brian surrounded by his assorted
figures/puppets |
Brian with his puppet Precilla |
Special thanks to
Todd Cameron Hamilton (Brian's brother) for sending
us these three pictures |
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