Ventriloquist Central - A Tribute To Ventriloquism

It is always a pleasure for me when I receive emails letting us know about upcoming events with members of our fraternity that are involved.

Today I received this great poster advertising our good friend Bob Isaacson who will be performing on April 5th. I thought this is something I had to put up on the blog for everyone to read and see.

If you are going to be in the area you should try to go and see Bob and Speedy. I wish I could!!

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Steve Meltzer from the Santa Monica Puppetry Center in California sent me this wonderful article which he wrote for the Puppetry Journal back in the spring of 1976. With his permission I am happy to share this nice article written about Paul Winchell’s life.

Mr Melter along with Kelly Asbury hosted the final performance that Paul Winchell did back on March 13, 2004. The picture you see (above) of Paul Winchell is one of the last pictures taken of him and Jerry Mahoney in performance mode (FYI…the Jerry that Paul Winchell is using was built by Ray Guyll). What a great treat to see this.

Thanks again to Steve Meltzer for sharing with of us here on Ventriloquist Central.

Click Here to See Article

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Boy am I excited. Today is the opening game of the baseball season Red Sox Nation and our boys are playing the opening game in Tokyo Japan playing against the Oakland Athletics. Our opening game pitcher was Dice K Masuzaka and he had a very rocky start to the game but by the third inning had found his control. A very strange thing to have to make sure I was up at 6:00am EST to be able to watch the game. Japan is 13 hours ahead of my time making it 7:00 pm in Japan. As I write this, we are currently in the 7th inning and are losing 4 to 3 to Oakland but I will keep my fingers crossed that we can pull a win out.
 
I love baseball season. How about you??

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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It is amazing how fast time marches on and it is already Easter. Seems it was Christmas just yesterday. Well we can’t stop time from traveling and Easter certainly came on fast and early this year. I, my wife Helen, my webmaster Steve and his wife, Carilyn, all want to wish everyone out there in Ventriloquist Central land a joyous Easter Holiday.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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A very few full size walking Frank Marshall figures are know to exist. I myself only know of 2 that are outside of my own collection, one being Champagne Charlie at the Vent Haven Museum, and another owned by Mr. Bob Abdou. I myself own 2 of Marshall’s walking figures and here is one of them.

I have taken some close up shots showing the way the mechanism is attached to the left hand so that while walking the ventriloquist can control the movement of the mouth. On this particular example it is done with a long lever up the arm attached to a cord which is then attached to a brass lever on the underside of the shoulder board and then again attached to the mouth lever on the head stick.

My other walking figure has this mouth movement accomplished by a squeeze bladder in the hand which runs to the mouth. That figure is currently being restored by Ray Guyll.
 
This figure is large and stands about 50″ tall. The legs are all basswood and are jointed as well as the arms which are also basswood and jointed. The arms are attached to the shoulders with metal straps to facilitate the weight when walking the figure. These do weigh in at around 20 pounds.
 
This fellow has moving side to side self centering eyes and also slot jaw. The paint and wig on the head have been redone, the paint is around 40 years old. I replaced the wig.
 
I hope you like seeing this rare figure.

Click here for Walking Marshall

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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 I grew up in the 1950’s so to me Paul Winchell was the man. I loved to sit in front of the TV and watch his show and dream of being in the audience. His shows always had such a variety of entertainment not only with guest singers or actors but even the commercials were entertaining. Then of course those great characters Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. Boy those characters were great and for me, and most of the kids, they were really alive. A good reason for this is that Paul decided to have those characters animated. Even though he gave them their voices and did manipulate the head stick, the arms moved just like mine and yours. This really brought them to life. We can credit this to Mr Jay Lloyd. He was the person who was behind the scenes and worked the arms.
 
Mr Steve Meltzer from California, a wonderful puppeteer in his own right, sent in these wonderful pictures of Jay Lloyd with Tessie, plus some recent pictures with Jerry from behind the scenes.

Thanks Steve for letting us all see these very rare pictures of one of the reasons that made Jerry such a smash hit in the early days of television.

Click here to check out Steve Meltzer’s website

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com
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Lee Dean a regular contributor to Ventriloquist Central has written a very fine article on throwing of the voice. He was taught ventriloquism by the Great Lester and does all the throat sounds that so many ventriloquists are unable to achieve.

If you take a few moments to read this article you will learn how to achieve these sound features in your ventriloquism. Thanks Lee for this very nice article.

Click Here to read Lee Dean’s “Lost Art” article

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com
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I have been asked many times which one of my figures is my favorite and believe me that is a hard question to answer because I love them all but….if I had to say which Frank Marshall creation is my favorite I must say that the Marshall Nosey that originally was owned by Jimmy Jedry, known as Little Eddie II, is my favorite.

I give this reason for my decision and that is, after making my first trip to the Vent Haven Museum and seeing The Nosey that belonged to Terry Bennett named Red Flannels, I said someday I hope to own a Marshall as nice as that one. I must tell you that I actually think that Little Eddie II is actually nicer than Red Flannels and that is because Eddie II has almost no dimples giving him the clean look the same as Paul Winchell’s Jerry Mahoney. Red Flannels has much deeper dimples.

Please take a look at Little Eddie II and take a look and see if you don’t agree with me. Here is a quick link to take you to see him!!

Click Here for Eddie II

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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All writings here are copyrighted by Dan Willinger and Ventriloquist Central. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

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It is so nice to finally have a long day again. Back in the olden days when we all worked on the farm and had to be up a 4 in the morning to go and milk the cows and feed the chickens I can under stand why we had to turn the clocks back but in today’s age I just no longer understand why we have to do that. In my humble opinion it should be daylight savings and super daylight savings. I just think we need more time in the light and not less. We are all much happier in the daylight, that has been medically proven and we all accomplish much more in the daylight so the turning back of the clock to make the day shorter just makes no sense to me.
 
On that note with the longer days approaching that gives much more time for us all to get out there and beat the bushes looking for that elusive vent figure that has been lurking in someone’s basement or attic. Yes I am talking about hitting those yard sales or house sales and digging up those unfound wooden fellows that are begging to be resurrected. I can’t wait to get started on the hunt. Here in New England these sales are just now starting and the weather is certainly changing so it is off to the races.
 
As of this writing I have only found toy figures in my yard sale hunting but I just feel it in my bones that this year that will change. I am hoping for a find that I can write about and give everyone the thrill that making that find gives. Of course those longer hours of daylight help with the search. So get ready to hit the road and find those hidden treasures.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com
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All writings here are copyrighted by Dan Willinger and Ventriloquist Central. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

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James Tattersall was a ventriloquist that may have been unique to the ventriloquist world. This performer was popular in England in the 1940’s and 1950’s and built all of his own figures and to my knowledge never sold or made his figures for anyone else. They are truly unique and are very large in size.
 
I myself was lucky enough to purchase one of his figures from a friend of his in England who was given one of the figures. I subsequently sold that figure to Bob Abdou aka Mr Puppet and it now resides in his collection. This figure is also pictured in the Tribute to Ventriloquism pages under Hard figure Makers. 

Click Here for Ventriloquist Hard Figure Maker’s Page

We were fortunate that our good friend George Boosey sent us in this great video of James Tattersall for everyone to see this clearly unique and very talented ventriloquist perform. I hope you enjoy this video.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

P.S.  ATTENTION Las Vegas Ventriloquists…I’ve been contacted by an international magazine that wants to do an interview with a Las Vegas vent.  If you are based out of Vegas and are interested, please contact me at dan@ventriloquistcentral.com .

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All writings here are copyrighted by Dan Willinger and Ventriloquist Central. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

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