Ventriloquist Central - A Tribute To Ventriloquism

I feel it is my duty to alert everyone to things like the fraudulent auction on eBay yesterday. I only wish I could do more for the ventriloquist community. I immediately recognized the Mortimer picture as having been a figure that was owned by Bill Nelson and he had a very hard time about 8 months ago with this scammer trying to sell using Bill’s pictures. He and I thought this guy was taken down but unfortunately he reared his head again.

Last time he had hacked into Bill’s bidder list and was using them to do the fraudulent sales. This is why I wanted everyone to know not to bid. This hacker is good and once he has your eBay name he somehow is able to get your password and then repeats the procedure.

Always remember the add age ” If it sounds too good to be true…..” You will never find a Mortimer Snerd figure for a starting price with no reserve for 99 cents or 9.99. It just isn’t going to happen. Also any sale that asks you to contact them outside of eBay for a quick buy price, well the bells and whistles should be going off.

I appreciate all those that emailed me thanking me for the update but I just want everyone to be safe in this internet world in which we all now play.

Ebay was contacted by me and others I am sure, and the listing was taken down in just a few hours after being listed. I also contacted the seller whose name had been used and told him he had to contact eBay to change his user name and password. Hopefully this will not happen again very soon.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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I simply must alert everyone that there is a scam artist who is trying to sell a Mortimer Snerd figure on ebay and it is a scam sale. If you look at this link you will see this figure.

http://tinyurl.com/48abq9

It is a wonderful figure but the add is totally false. DO NOT BID !! AGAIN CAUTION DO NOT BID!!! This scammer has a method of getting your name and password so stay away!!!

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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I have been having conversations with quite a number of people concerning the Vent Haven Ventriloquist Convention and how expensive it will be to attend this year. With the price increase of gasoline and jet fuel the costs have sky rocketed over the costs of previous years.

With this in mind my Webmaster Steve and I decided to run another pole and see what everyone thinks about going this year so look at the top of the right hand side column and give us your vote on this very important poll.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Many people have differing views about Edgar Bergen and his ventriloquism techniques. But none can argue with his marketing abilities.

Back in 1949 this picture and article appeared in publication to promote the Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy radio series. I thought you might enjoy seeing it.

UNITED DUMMIES OF AMERICA

Charlie McCarthy organized his wooden-headed friends into the “United Dummies of America” at a recent dinner meeting in Hollywood, for the purpose of demanding “a decent amount of security throughout our lives, from the forest to the fireplace.”

Fed up with his skimpy 75-cent-a-week allowance from Edgar Bergen, McCarthy rallied his brothers-under-the-bark with the battle cry, “Dummies of the world, unite-you have nothing to lose but your voice.”

“Ventriloquists,” he added, “are a dime a dozen-but only God can make a tree! “

Bergen was finally permitted to reply to Charlie’s ringing speech, although a number of the dummies including Charlie-yelled, “throw him out.”

“Friends,” Bergen began, “money isn’t everything.” His words were lost in a chorus of boos from the assembled dummies.

Finally, Bergen broke down and offered–on behalf of the ventriloquists a revision of their basic wage scale. Instead of the prevalent six-bits a week, Bergen offered $3 a month.

Tumultuous cheers went up from the dummies. Swiftly they voted a resolution approving the offer.

It was only after Bergen had left that Charlie got his multiplication table to working sufficiently to discover that they had been gypped and the meeting broke up in an uproar.

The unique conclave of dummies was, of course, designed as a publicity springboard for the opening of the new Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy radio series for The Coca-Cola Company. The press turned out in strong fashion, outnumbering the ventriloquists and dummies.

Newspaper radio editors, columnists, fan magazine writers and photographers, wire photo men, radio commentators, and Hearst newsreel cameramen were among those attending assuring wide national coverage of the event.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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There have been some questions by some of our readers as to sales ads which were put out to the public by Frank Marshall. Unfortunately I do not think that there were many.

One of the more common ads was for his Ricky Tik figure (click here for ad) and another was for the Tommy Knots figure (click here for ad).

The one I have pictured here might be the best example of his sales ad (from 1950) because he does incorporate some great marketing of himself. I think it is a great presentation for his figure making work.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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My present owner Dan Willinger had a very hard time but did in fact have to let me know that my partner of over half a century, Cy Leonard, has left us and gone on to the big stage in the sky. I have deeply missed Cy’s warm hand on my controls even though Dan has made me feel very comfortable here in his home with all the other members of his collection.

My time with Cy Leonard was terrific and he cried for me too when I was knocked off of a chair and sustained severe damage. I know he is up there with some great friends, Johnny Main, Edgar Bergan to name a couple and they are passing stories of the great times they all had.

I miss Cy as I know the whole ventriloquist community does and I know he will always be remembered with love and fond memories of our time together.

Cy Leonard 1926-2008

Rest in Peace my old Friend.

Happy Hazard

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I hope you have noticed but if you haven’t Steve and I have made some changes to Ventriloquist Central. We have added some pictures and in general have updated the web site to better serve you. Although only a few of these changes are visible to you I can tell you that Steve has spent hours and hours behind the scenes to make the site more user friendly and easier for you to navigate.

We have put out our guide on ventriloquist dummy building and it is a sensational source of information developed for anyone who has the desire to build a figure but didn’t know where to start. This course covers it all.

For more information, click on the link and read about it. You will be glad you did.

Click here for more information

I have been receiving quite a few emails from people with ventriloquist figures that are possibly for sale and I want to thanks those people for thinking of me. I am always interested in purchasing figures so keep those emails coming into the site.

We have some great new surprises in store in the very near future so don’t be a stranger and check back with us often to see what is happening here on Ventriloquist Central A New Tribute To Ventriloquism.

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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We did an interview with Ray Guyll a few months back (these are the same interviews that are bonuses with “The Ultimate Guide To Building Your Own Ventriloquist Figure, Volume 1″).

I wanted to play this very short clip where Ray is talking about Ventriloquist Central and the figure building guide.

Push the play button to hear

Thanks, Ray for the nice comments.

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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At last years VentHaven ConVENTion I had the pleasure of meeting ventriloquist Ed Thomas from Florida. He’s a very intersting person and it was a joy spending time with him.

Ed has a new promotion video and he sent the information to us at Ventriloquist Central. I thought I would share it with you.

Thanks Ed for sending this to us.

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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Over the past week or so you may have noticed a banner that we have been showing which gives you a link to a page talking about “The ULTIMATE Guide To Building Your Own Ventriloquist Figure, Volume 1”. I thought since many of you may not have clicked on this link I would provide it here within this blog.

Click here for “The Ultimate Guide To Building Your Own Ventriloquist Figure, Volume 1.”

Building a dummy can be a challenging task to say the least but my webmaster Steve Hurst, who worked with and learned from the Master Builder Ray Guyll, has put all his knowledge into this 11 disc set of Cd’s and Dvd’s (including bonuses). And believe me they are great. Everything you ever wanted to know about building a ventriloquist figure is here from sculpting, casting, painting, and mechanizing your own ventriloquist figure.

This will keep you at your computer screen for over 4 hours and gives you both video instruction as well a photos to go by. Everything you need is included in this course right down to the resources needed for purchasing the materials needed to do your project.

You know I have been a collector but now that I have watched this set of instructional dvds and cds I know that with some time I too could build a figure from start to finish and would have no questions left unanswered.

When Steve told me he was going to put this course together I said this is great because there can never be enough information about this great art and I must say Steve has outdone himself. I am sure once you receive your set you will be giving Steve accolades too.

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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