Sooty is celebrating his 60th birthday today at the seaside with a few old friends.

It was in July 1948 when Harry Corbett came across the familiar glove puppet in a magician’s store on the North Pier in Blackpool. He bought the little bear for seven shillings and six pence (38½p) and turned him into a television star.

Sooty has enjoyed extraordinary popularity with generations of youngsters but there are some things that have remained constant.

He has always been shy about talking in public and mayhem follows whenever he gets together with Sweep, the dog.

He first featured on BBC television in 1952 and when his original master retired in 1976, he passed to Corbett’s son, Matthew. Richard Cadell, a former Young Magician of the Year, acquired the rights from HIT Entertainment last year.

As part of Sooty’s birthday celebrations he has been reunited with the shop assistant who sold the original puppet to Corbett. Bill Lamb, now 76 and a retired engineer, was selling the bears at the age of 16 while working in the store during the summer holidays because it was owned by a family friend.

He said: “I used to stand at the back of the shop with one on my hand and a wand in the other and do little magic tricks to try and sell them.

“Two blokes came in and stood watching for a while and then one of them said, ‘I can use that’. So he bought a couple of bears and off they went.

“I did not think any more about it until a couple of years later when I saw the bloke from the shop and a bear with black ears on television. I thought, ‘Hang on a minute, this is what I used to do’. I wish I had thought of that because I could have made some money.”

Sooty, a yellow bear with black ears, was mute to the audience but could communicate with Corbett by apparently whispering in his ear. The original bear was completely yellow, but Corbett covered his ears and nose with soot so that he would show up better on black-and-white television – hence the puppet’s name.

Cadell is determined to put Sooty’s name back in lights and introduce him to a new generation of children. Meanwhile, his message for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday has proved popular on YouTube.

Matthew Corbett, 60, said: “Having spoken to Richard about what he has planned for the future, I know he will ensure that Sooty will bring joy to the hearts and minds of a new generation of children, while creating nostalgia amongst those who remember Sooty so fondly.

“I am delighted that Sooty is in, or should I say on, the right hands.”

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