Ventriloquist Central – A Tribute To Ventriloquism

When it comes to ventriloquism and its promotion there was none better than Fred Maher. He was a for real marketing genius.

Back in the early days you could look in any periodical from Boy’s Life to Look to Popular Mechanics and you would always find Fred Maher’s ad promoting his ventriloquism course. And he always had his side kick Skinny Dugan by his side to help with the promotion.

His course was so successful that his wife Madeleine Maher continued to sell it after Fred passed away and then Madeleine sold it to Clinton and Adelia Detweiler and he is still selling it today.

If you want this course I am sure Clinton would be happy to oblige. For more about the Maher Course, click here.

Fred Maher took many promotional shots of Skinny and these pictures were always retouched to eliminate the lines showing the mouth movement, the upper lip movement, the wiggling nose movement and the eyebrow movement.

I was fortunate to find an original sepia 8 x 10 photo of Fred and Skinny and these lines in this photo are not removed. It is a wonderful shot of one of the most famous McElroy figures and certainly one of the most favorite of all the McElroy fans. I hope you enjoy seeing this rare photo.

If you have any pictures of Skinny that you think the readers here at Ventriloquist Central would enjoy seeing please send them in to us to webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com and we will post them right away.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. His collection of ventriloquist figures now numbers over 100 figures of which there are over 50 Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Copyright 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to:
webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

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In the past I have written about the difference between ventriloquist collectors and antiques collectors and the proof was bared out today by an email I received from Greg Claassen. I have attached it below but before you read the email let me again talk about this subject.

Antiques can be put into categories and in the United States one of the most collectible categories is Folk Art. Folk Art seems to have a particular affinity to the upper echelon of collectors in this country and I think the appeal is because these items for the most part are hand crafted pieces and no two pieces are ever alike.

Except when it comes to ventriloquist figures it seems. You see when an antique dealer finds a figure such as a J.C. Turner the antique person will most assuredly think that this is a one of a kind hand carved figure and will usually date it from the turn of the 19th to 20th century.

We in the ventriloquist world of course know different. J.C. Turner produced figures in the 1940s and 1950s and were rather crude and were also done with duplicarving. The faces on his figures are almost always alike with very minor changes. These figures were actually a beginners pro style figure when they were being sold. They were sold through Abbott’s Magic Co. and many of the famous older ventriloquists started with Turner Figures. They also were painted crudely so if they were well used and kind of beat around and survived, when found by antique dealers, all of a sudden they are now Folk Art.

Now read Greg’s email to me and look at the pictures. If you want to follow up on this figure you certainly can. It is for sale!!!

Hi Dan,

I was traveling from Fond du lac, WI to Omaha, NE today. I stopped in
central Iowa at an antique shop and came across this Turner figure.
They had him priced at $2000. I think that’s a bit over priced, don’t
you? At least, I thought you might enjoy the pics.

Greg

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

P.S. Speaking of Turner figures, I have one on the Ventriloquist Marketplace…PLUS there are other NEW listings , so be sure to check them out…… Click here for Ventriloquist Marketplace

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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. His collection of ventriloquist figures now numbers over 100 figures of which there are over 50 Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Copyright 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to:
webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Brian Hamilton was a flash in the pan so to speak, as far as figure makers are concerned. He started at the age of 14 and at 15 he was making carved wood figures in the Marshall style. Unfortunately passed away at the early age of 28 on April 10, 1988. He was such an accomplished builder that he actually acquired all of Frank Marshall’s tools to do his work.

He carved heads out of wood and then went on to build figures out of Fiberglass. The McElroy brothers George & Glen took Brian under their wing and taught him a lot of their techniques in building figures and he made some very fine McElroy style figures of which there is less than a handful known. He also did repair work too. We can wonder what would have been had he still been alive and building today.

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Click here to see some of Brian Hamilton’s ventriloquist figures

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. His collection of ventriloquist figures now numbers over 100 figures of which there are over 50 Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Copyright 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to:
webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I received a very interesting email from Dan Leighly because of his watching my video about the Insull Pocket figures (Click here to see video).

It seems he was web surfing and came across this web site www.ezone.com and this site sells an Ipod unit that is a pocket ventriloquist. It closes it’s eyes to go to sleep and when you touch it his eyes reopen. His eyebrows raise, his eyes move back and forth and his mouth moves. If you shake him he is programmed with his own sayings. This is a very clever device. I believe that anyone who is into ventriloquism will love this. I wish I had invented it!!

Here is the link www.ezone.com and also a couple pictures of this cute little fellow!!

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. His collection of ventriloquist figures now numbers over 100 figures of which there are over 50 Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Copyright 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to:
webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Our ventriloquist brother Bob Abdou, has just sent this in to let everyone know that he will be performing for the 13th year in a row at the Beatles Fest.

Check out all that is happening with this great convention

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. His collection of ventriloquist figures now numbers over 100 figures of which there are over 50 Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Copyright 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to:
webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!