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Archive for the ‘Ray Guyll’ Category

Workings of a Ventriloquist’s Dummy’s Dummy

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

I don’t know why but over the past week or so I have had quite a few asking me about the ventriloquist’s dummy’s dummy and how they work.

First let me say this is not a new concept and the dual figures have been used by many and a younger Jeff Dunham did a great routine with a dummy’s dummy.

To understand how this works you must first visualize the control stick on the small figure. It is a standard head stick but it makes a right angle with a tube which runs through a hole in the body of the larger figure.

On the small figure in the place where the control lever would be it is replaced with a pulley and the control string rides around the pulley and through the tube into the larger figure.

With the string now inside the larger figure a pull on the string will actuate the mouth on the small figure. This is a very deceptive device and with a bit of practice looks very convincing.

Another method is to use the bladder control for the mouth similar to the way the Mack figures did early in the 20th century or the way the Insull pocket figures worked in the middle 20th century. The tube with the bulb is inside the larger body and when squeezed the small figures mouth moved.

I did discuss this with figure maker Ray Guyll and he confirmed to me both of these methods. He did say he has also made this type figure with remote control as well. That might be the best way because then there are no controls inside the larger figure to operate the smaller 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. 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

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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Posted in Ray Guyll, Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Figures | 1 Comment »

Happy Birthday Ray Guyll, Today’s Master Figure Maker

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Ray Guyll with “Kirby”

I am very lucky because I can never forget Ray Guyll’s birthday. Why you ask? The reason is because my own Dad’s birthday was November the twenty first.

I thought since it was Ray’s birthday I would shout it out to all of you who read the blog so you too can also say Happy Birthday to Ray.

Click below to hear friends who called in to give Ray some birthday wishes.

Ray Guyll Birthday Wishes: Play Now | Play in Popup

We also did some digging and found these wonderful shots of some of the superb figures that Ray has created both famous and not so famous for you to see. I think after you view these you will see why I call him the true Gepetto of our time.

Click here to see some of Ray’s work.

Dan

www.ventriloquistcentral.com
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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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Posted in Ray Guyll, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Figure (Dummy) Makers, Ventriloquist Figure Building, Ventriloquist Figures | 6 Comments »

Geoff Felix Cheeky Boy Figure

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Geoff Felix Cheeky Boy Figure

I only sell a ventriloquist figure when it becomes needed because of new purchases and such is the case now. I am happy to offer to you this fantastic Geoff Felix figure which is pristine condition. This figure which I recently acquired was restored by the master of figure making Ray Guyll. He has mouth movement, side moving self centering eyes and raising eyebrows. He has the flat bottom floating type head which gives you ease of head movement control.

His body is formed fiberglass with wood bottom and he sits perfectly balanced. He will come to you neatly dressed in his vintage cloths as pictured.

If you always wanted a supreme example of the English figure maker’s work this is it. You will have no regrets here the figure is what I would call brand new even though it is well over a decade old.

Asking price is $975.00 (plus $35.00 shipping and handling) but I am motivated so make your best offer and lets make a deal!!

Click here to see more pictures of the Geoff Felix Cheeky Boy Figure

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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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

Like this blog post? Buy me a coffee or send me a tip!

Posted in Dummy Collecting, Ray Guyll, Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Figure (Dummy) Makers, Ventriloquist Figure Building, Ventriloquist Figures | No Comments »

Figure Movements

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

I got to thinking about functions in ventriloquist figures and what movements have been done and what has not been done. I have gone over and over this in my mind and I just can’t come up with anything that has not already been done.

Just looking at my own collection of figures I can list the following , side to side eyes, self centering eyes, up or down movement eyes, crossing eyes all of these being done with levers, all around pendulum weight eye movement by movement of the head, raising eyebrows, lowering eyebrows, lever operated also the same function with weight movement, winkers, blinkers lever operated, wiggling ears lever operated, upper lip movement lever operated, stick out tongue lever operated, open mouth and stick out tongue together same lever, whistling effect by lever, mouth movement by way of pneumatics allowing you distance from the figure, fright wig lever operated, light up nose, wiggling nose lever operated, spitter, smoker, smoke out of the ears, crying eyes, hand shaker, crossing knee, kicking leg, walking and hat lifter. Quite a selection of functions but I also know of a few more functions that are not in my collection.

Ray Guyll produced a figure that the upper lip will raise on one side or the other to give the Elvis Presley style look, and it can also smile by pulling upwards at the corners of the mouth. Very ingenious lifelike movement.

So after reading this list of functions can you come up with anything that has not been done? Most of these functions have all been done since the 1920’s so nothing is new. Something interesting to think about.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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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

Like this blog post? Buy me a coffee or send me a tip!

Posted in Dummy Collecting, Ray Guyll, Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Figure (Dummy) Makers, Ventriloquist Figure Building, Ventriloquist Figures | 6 Comments »

Victorian Society Sees Ventriloquist Central Collection

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Everyone hates April 15th which is tax day but this year I had the pleasure of taking a group of about 25 people’s minds off the idea of having to pay their taxes. They all came to my home and had a meeting of the Victorian Society of Malden.

I can thank my wife and partner Helen for this talk because she bumped into the secretary of this group and gave her my card for Ventriloquist Central and after the secretary perused the site she called me and asked if I would do a talk and show the collection. I of course accepted.

They came and arrived at about 7:00pm and trickled in till about 7:30 pm and then had their monthly business meeting. After they finished their business meeting it was my turn to entertain. This group tries to find different antique venues for talks for their group throughout the year.

I began the talk by giving the group a short but concise history of ventriloquism. I will admit that I did use a script for this part of the talk because I didn’t want to give any information that was incorrect. I talked about how ventriloquism dates back to the ancient times and also it’s relevant passages in the Bible.

I then took a break and had the group follow me into the Ventriloquist Central Collection room. I have a pool table in the middle of the room and the figures are two and three rows deep all the way around same. I had them group around 3 sides of the table and I stood on the opposite side and from there discussed all the different makers from Shaw through to Selberg and Guyll. And picked figures to use for this portion of show and tell.

I showed the different style figures from simple mouth only movement to fully loaded figures and also had great fun talking about Frank Marshall and the famous figures that he created for the most famous of all the ventriloquists of the twentieth century……Bergen, Winchell and Nelson.

They all oowed and aahed when I showed the McElroy figures. They could not believe that two brothers in their early twenties had created these great masterpieces. They also flipped when I showed them the catalogue from Abbott’s Magic and they saw that a Deluxe McElroy was $105.00 in 1937. A kingly sum of money at that time.

After my talk I fielded some very interesting question about construction and mechanics and I was able to show a great Frank Marshall head which I had Ray Guyll send back to me specifically for this talk as it is in the middle of restoration. It was perfect to show what goes into building a figure and the mechanics of same. They only thing I did not discuss was valuation of my figures but I did field questions about pricing on figures made today.

All in all it was a very good time and I can say I had as much fun as the group did. It is the best part of putting a collection together, being able to show it off.

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

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

Like this blog post? Buy me a coffee or send me a tip!

Posted in Dummy Collecting, Edgar Bergen, Frank Marshall Figure (Dummy), McElroy Brothers, Paul Winchell, Ray Guyll, Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Figure (Dummy) Makers, Ventriloquist Figure Building, Ventriloquist Figures | No Comments »