Ventriloquist Central – A Tribute To Ventriloquism

The past few months I’ve done a couple of blogs about ventriloquist figure headsticks, if you missed them, here they are:

Ventriloquist Figure Headsticks & Controls

Ventriloquist Figure Headsticks – What Is Your Choice?

Since doing the last blog about headsticks, I have been asked by quite a few people if I could go into a bit more depth with the description of the head stick especially the McElroy Cradle style. I have therefore taken the following pictures of the cradle for you to see and before you ask the answer is yes, this is an original cradle.

As you can see in the photo the bottom of the cradle has a long shaft that actually slides into the head stick and then there is a locking device on both the cradle and bottom of the head stick to hold the head stick on. The movement of the head stick inside the body now has a free moving system that allows side to side or back and forth movement and this also facilitates the movement of the weighted floating eyes inside the McElroy head. I do hope this answers all your questions on the McElroy cradle system. It was truly unique and wonderful.

The ball and socket style head stick setup is today the most used in the vent community. It too allows for the ease of movement in any direction but if you use a headlock it will impair some of the movement.
The Insull style floating head stick was very popular but as I said I can imagine that performing for any length of time, even though the heads were made of Paper Mache, would certainly take a toll on your arm. You have to support the head from inside the body holding the head in the correct position. Although it was done for decades I still think it had to be uncomfortable.

On another vent blog there was statements that Marshall used a very weak headstick and that with use they would break and fall apart. I think that it is true a few may have been abused and did fall apart but on the whole that was a misstatement. I have way too many Marshall figures with original headsticks with no problem so I think that to say they were all bad because of one or 2 is wrong.

I have Johnny Main’s figure Archie which was used every day for over 50 years buy a working pro and it is in fine condition. I think that on a few of Marshall’s head sticks the center bore which was done to accommodate the control strings to pass up into the head may have been bored off center to cause a weak side wall which then would give way but to say they were poor head sticks in a wrong statement. In fact most makers copied the style. I have pictured the Marshall head stick for you to see.

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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As I peruse the Ventriloquist Central Collection I ask myself over and over again which figure would I consider my favorite. This is a very hard choice to make because all of the figures are special to me or they would not be part of the collection.

Now if you asked what maker is my favorite I of course will answer Frank Marshall but there are figures in the collection that were made by Mr Marshall that I would certainly place way down on the list of favorite figures even though I love them.

Of course everyone who knows about Ventriloquist figures and makers says to me “Oh you must love your McElroy figures!” And while that is true I love them I again am asking if one of them is my favorite figure?!

The past 2 days we posted about Ken Spencer and there are seven of his creations in the Ventriloquist Central Collection. His creations are really great because they certainly say “Dummy” and in no way make you think they are a real person but in the right hands they become animated Cartoon style characters. They are Sooooo cool.

Well I guess I must choose a figure I like best and I think I have to admit as I walk back and forth through the collection the one figure that keeps pulling me in is the figure used by Johnny Main called Archie. He has such a great face and is a loaded Frank Marshall creation and he just makes me feel great when I pick him up and hold his control post. I guess I have to say he is my favorite….well today!!

Click here to see Johnny Main’s “Archie”

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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

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

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

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Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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

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

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

There has been much discussion on the placement of controls for ventriloquist figures on their respective head sticks. I find this most interesting because as a collector the placement of the controls means nothing because I am not performing but much has been made about first finger or thumb control for the mouth movement and also much talk about other controls for added features.

Of course since I collect, figures with multiple functions are of course more valuable and also rarer in the antique figures. Most of the figure makers right up to present day offer all sorts of functions, but I think the movements that are most important are mouth and eyes.

I know everyone is going to say all that is needed is the mouth control because as long as you can give your figure the right kind of movement his moving mouth will take care of the rest of the effect. Edgar Bergen was the master of course for this.

Jeff Dunham today does a fantastic job breathing life into Walter and he has mouth movement and raising eyebrows only. People will say his eyes move too but not so. They do not.

Many say that the controls become confusing when there are too many functions and that may be so for the beginner, but with lots and lots of practice the controls become second nature. You must remember that the added functions other than the mouth and eyes are used very infrequently and just to really emphasize an expression.

Now with the Marshall figures his ” chop stix ” levers were placed in a very effective design and are really not very hard to learn. His mouth lever was either on the right or left side of the post with the eye control placed in the front center of the post. Easily used by either hand as far as I can tell.

Opposite side to the mouth was usually the levers for the closing eyelids. if the figure had an upper sneer effect that lever was placed behind but next to the mouth control so that you could pull both together to give the wide open mouth effect. If the figure had double winkers/blinkers those levers were also placed next to each other. So the use of these levers were not all that hard to learn or find.

I have given a picture of this style Marshall head stick for you to see. One is fully loaded the other is just mouth, eyes and one eye winks.

Simple Marshall Loaded Marshall

Ray Guyll, one of today’s premier builders, still uses these style controls on his figures and also still does his controls with the use of cord. He can do all direct linkage but will tell you that is simply not needed. If your direct linkage breaks when you are on a job you are lost. If a cord breaks you can repair it on the spot. I guess I will correct that and say most of the time you can repair it on the spot.

There has been talk of the inline control systems that are now being used by makers like Selberg and Alfaro and Cowles and those are great but they present the same thing as the old style. You MUST learn where each control is located before you can perform with them comfortably.

Everyone talks about McElroy controls and these figures had the floating all around eye movement so the performer didn’t have to think about the eyes. The mouth control was on one side of the head stick and the upper sneer on the other side of the head stick.

The rest of the controls were in the box with typewriter style keys and those you really had to work with to learn how to use but for the most part the mouth was the function because the eyes moved on their own. I have included a picture of these controls too.

McElroy (Front) McElroy (Back)

So to sum up, from my observations and collecting I think it makes no difference how many functions your figure has, you must practice practice and practice some more until your figure moves and responds without you even having to think. A very hard feat to accomplish but once learned you have created the illusion the pros have under their belts.

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

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

I had a great email last week from Bernie Kallman. He is the previous owner of the Marshall/McElroy figure now in the Ventriloquist Central Collection.

Marshall/McElroy Figure

He was pleasantly surprised when he saw the video of me showing Dizzy Dugan and the interior mechanics. He thought it was great.

Marshall/McElroy Video #1

Marshall/McElroy Video #2

He told me of some of his ventriloquile experiences and I thought it was so interesting that I asked him to write it up in his own words and I would put it up on the blog. So here is Bernie’s story…..

“Born: Chicago, Ill moved to Menasha, Wi around 1945 Married/Wife Cheryl /Saw Bob Neller for the first time in Appleton, Wi at a Synogog show around 1950. I was so impressed with what I saw that my Aunt got me a Jerry Mahoney dummy with a small instruction booklet…..I put my first performance on for a school show when I was about ll years old. After that I started doing birthday parties. Somehow my family got in touch with Bob Neller who lived in the next town and he agreed to sell me his old Frank Marshall dummy that he no longer was using for $75.00. About a year later he tried to trade the dummies body for another one but I decided that I was happy with the one I already had. When I was about14 years old I appeared twice on a local TV station WTMJ called the Wisconsin House Party and from that was invited to appear in a Parade in the city of Oconomowoc, Wi. When I was 15years old I visited family in Los Angeles and while there I decided to look up the Great Lester who lived in a seedy upper apartment in downtown L.A. . He must have been in his 80’s. He was very friendly and spent a couple of hours giving me pointers. I also asked my cousin to drive me to the home of Edger Bergen where his daughter offered to take me in the house to met her famous father……stupidly I begged off mentioning that I would like to come back with my dummy that I had forgotton to bring with me….I left my name and phone number so Mr. Bergen could call me to set up another meeting… sadly I never got that call back.

I moved to Los Angeles around 1960 for 10 years……I did get an offer from a writer to appear in shows that he would set up for me but I sadly turned him down and always wonder how my life would have changed……Currently I am semi-retired where I manage about 12 commercial buildings and collect antiques.”

Bernard Kallman

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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

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

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