Joop Geesink is Power puppet of Dollywood
1961
Joop Geesink knows how to play people and puppets.
This article from the REVUE gives a nice impression of the way the Dutch press looks up at the successful businessman/ film magnate.
Joop Geesink - Power puppet of Dollywood
Pictures:
Pag. 23 Joop Geesink, Still from Piccolo, Saxo & Co
Pag. 24/25 Collage from various commercials Ballantines Beer. (Editor's Note: this is not especially set up for the collage, as the editor of Revue writes. It's a collage from two different commercials for this beer brand).
Pag. 26 Behind the scenes at Story Of Light, An unknown employee to the left, to the right: Cor Icke
The complete text in HTML:
JOOP GEESINK would successfully star himself in one of his colorful puppet animations. He is a round man; with a round character and also round in terms of figure. He is amicable, he laughs a lot and his face shows the same pleasant expression Oliver Hardy showed when in his best moods in his movies. One can easily make a playful looking puppet from Geesink’s image. All other puppets would show admiration and honor for this “star-puppet”, because the successes in his life followed each other in a fast pace as the images on a filmstrip. “Dollywood”is what Joop Geesink and his brother Wim call the film studio full of activity and where they are the proud chiefs of board. Joop only rarely sits behind the massive desk in the boardroom of Dollywood. He travels across the world with laughter, busy gestures, bravura, seriousness, sucking on big cigars and negotiating with captains of industry about the construction of his famous commercials. His sales qualities are not insignificant. He spoke enthusiastically to an Italian industrialist about his plan: manufacturing puppet animation, based on the exciting adventures of the count of Monte Christo. Joop chatted and chatted. The Italian was moderate, but his gestures revived medieval times, he fenced with clear words and gestures, The Italian looking puzzled. But finally the industrial understood Joops intentions. "Nice idea." the Italian said, "but, ehm... I have never heard of the count de Monte Christo.. ".
Joop Geesink felt as disappointed as a football player, who wants to score the winning goal, but kicks against a flat football. The disappointment was unnecessary. Joops quick gestures, his enthusiasm and his many words made a big impression on the industrialist. Without hesitating he said yes to making this puppet animation Dollywoods "Head - puppeteer" had just made another success.
Subscript
Above: Joop Geesink, the Head-puppeteer of Dollywood, clearly shows he knows the ropes. His field of activity: the world.
Below: A snippet from a commercial that lasted 30 minutes for Philips. These instruments from the symphonic orchestra are playing themselves.
Sets for Parisian palaces
Joop Geesink speaks Dutch with a sing-song accent, within which inhabitants from The Hague can reveal their descent to their Dutch fellow citizens. In the chic residence his stunning career started. Joop was a virtuoso designer and established, still before his twentieth birthday, a private company on the Spui, that extends itself right in the Centre of the Hague. He did this with his brother Wim. The brothers manufactured the colourful placards and posters that adorned cinema hall facades: wide-shouldered men who rescue narrow-shouldered ladies from the gaping mouths of crocodiles and other very eloquent scenes, which already revealed the tantalizing contents of the movies in advance.
But crafting these masterpieces could not satisfy Joop in the long run, he wanted to achieve more. Therefore Joop Geesink designed sets for large-scale shows. For his sets, the legs of revue girls stretched far up and there were sketches, in which the revue-comedians did their utmost to offend each other to everyone's entertainment. Joop designed the sets so talenten, he was invited to design the sets for the Folies Bergère, the famous casino in Paris. These were honourable assignments, because the managers of these entertainment palaces examined the legs of the charming dansers just as careful as they checked the decoration of the setting.
Joop passed every hard test splendidly. Het returned to the Netherlands to accomplish the evenly important national assignments. Joop designed the set for one of the rare pre-war movies “de Spooktrein”(Haunted train), in which Jan Mus starred. He also founded a advertising agency, where eight employees did their best to support “master Joop” in his ideas and business activities. The group of employees augmented to one hundred and fifty employees, who now take their place at the desks at Dollywood.
