The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Today, I ran across this phongraph toy, which from all practical appearances is basically a Siam Soo with a facelift. Has anyone ever seen one of these? Is this a repro that someone copied after a Siam Soo? The face and body are handcarved and the mechanism is exactly like a Siam Soo other than a few details. I am puzzled...

I think that may be 'Siam Cher'.

"I think that may be 'Siam Cher'."

You may be right... but, whoever she is, she works well.

Looks like a reproduction.

i think charley weatherbee made a few siam sue type reproductions but i have never seen one so i don't know if tthat is what you have.

JohnM wrote:I think that may be 'Siam Cher'.

That is so very funny.
Perhaps it should be 'Ceylon Cher' since Sue claimed Siam. Even a working reproduction makes an interesting toy.
Nice.

Thanks for the comparison pics, John... it is Ceylon Cher after all.

Stephen_Madara wrote:i think charley weatherbee made a few siam sue type reproductions but i have never seen one so i don't know if tthat is what you have.

I just bought one of those on Saturday- mechanism is just like yours, and I'm certain the doll is a genuine Balinese rod puppet. Since Charlie put this together it has a certain interest of its own:

Stephen is correct. Charlie took old puppets and built Siam Soo mechanisms for them. I had one purchased in the late eighties (best guess) and it worked very well at about 25% of the cost of an original Siam Soo. If I remember correctly it was a little bigger than an original. It was good to see Charlie at the Orlando show last winter. He's quite a character and a great guy.

Jerry Blais

Roaring20s wrote:

JohnM wrote:I think that may be 'Siam Cher'.

That is so very funny.
Perhaps it should be 'Ceylon Cher' since Sue claimed Siam.

Ceylon Cher.jpg

Even a working reproduction makes an interesting toy.
Nice.

Hmmm...Cher and Cher alike?