Ventriloquist Central – A Tribute To Ventriloquism

It seems that most of the makers of Figures back in the so called Golden Age of ventriloquism created different size figures but only a couple made figures that were true fully functioning figures just like the full size figures.

Of course Marshall created the Tommy Knots figure which stands 18″ tall and Madeline Maher sold a figure which the catalogue labeled as Tiny and that figure too was 20″ tall. Tiny though was a converted toy which had standard ventriloquist controls ala the head stick instead of the pull string out the back of the neck.

Today I am pleased to present another maker’s 18″ creation of which I only know of one other but its whereabouts eludes me. John Turner figures were a staple for the beginner ventriloquist back in the 1940’s and 50’s and I have had many of his creations in the past but never saw a fully functional 18″ figure until I purchased this little fellow. He only has mouth movement but he has Turner’s standard looking face with his marble eyes and even his shoes are made by turner using wood and hard leather. I believe the clothing you see him inn as a cowboy to be original. He is virtually an untouched just as he came from Turner’s shop. I love this little guy.

Click here to see tiny Turner Ventriloquist figure

Now I mentioned I know of one other miniature Turner and it was owned and used by Loring Campbell and I have included a wonderful picture showing Mr Campbell holding his tiny Turner Figure.

Where is this Turner figure now??

If you would like to see more information about Loring Campbell including his brochures, check out “The Ventriloquism Historical Information Collection, Volume 1.”

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. He created the Ventriloquist Central Collection. It now has over 100 ventriloquist figures and over 50 of them are 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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Interestingly enough I was asked if back in the olden days whether different makers sold each others figures. I said to myself that is a great question and the answer is a most definitive YES.

The first that comes to my mind is Madeline Maher. She sold reworked toy figures but also sold Insull figures and never made mention of that in her catalogues. She did put the Insull heads onto her own bodies as well as the reworked toy heads.

Madame & George Pinxy also sold figures as their own when in fact they were made by others. I have a great Mack figure which was reworked and sold by Madame Pinxy and you can see that on the Mack page of Ventriloquist Central Collection.

The attached pictures below is of a wonderful Frank Marshall girl figure which Pinxy put his burn mark into but it is clearly an all original Marshall figure.

Finis Robinson in his catalogue actually pictures a Frank Marshall figure and calls it his own. In this case I believe if you ordered this figure you would have received one of Finis’ figures and not a Marshall but he certainly used Frank’s work to promote himself.

Using others work is nothing new and has always taken place. I used to deal in antique clocks and loved the fact that two Boston based clock makers Waltham and E. Howard & Co used to sell each others products but put their own names on them.

Wonderful Frank Marshall girl figure

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!

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

***************************************************

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!