'Dummy Days'

Book Chronicles the Golden Age of Ventriloquism

Listen Now: [18 sec]

Real Media|Windows Media Explain these links

View Gallery

See more photos and hear skits featuring Bergen and McCarthy, and other famous acts.

Courtesy Doug Preis/The Bergen Foundation, from 'Dummy Days'

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy were Hollywood royalty.

Dummy Days: America's Favorite Ventriloquists from Radio and Early TV

Morning Edition, September 12, 2003 · In their day, acts like Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy would keep audiences young and old as transfixed as the biggest stars on television today. It's hard to imagine that ventriloquists and their wooden sidekicks would be such big hits -- on radio. NPR's Bob Edwards talks to the author of a new book about the bygone era of ventriloquism.

In Dummy Days, veteran animator and director Kelly Asbury writes about a time when talking dolls and recycled socks were major stars.

In 1937, Americans began a Sunday night ritual that lasted three decades. They tuned in to the Bergen and McCarthy show. It was the top program on radio and Hollywood's top movie stars lined up to make cameos. They included Mae West, whose flirtations with McCarthy got her banned from NBC for 15 years, and Marilyn Monroe, who once became "engaged" to marry McCarthy -- a stunt that ended when the dummy couldn't submit to a blood test.

The arrival of television produced a new set of star ventriloquists, including Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney, and Senor Wences and Pedro, the famous head-in-the-box who's favorite phrase was "S'awright!"

But none was as enduring as Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, who debuted in 1957 on the Captain Kangaroo Show. Lewis went on to star in several children's TV shows in a career that spanned five decades, until her death in 1998. Asbury says she was more than just the best female ventriloquist -- she may have been the best ventriloquist ever because of "boundless talent and energy" and her ability to change with the times.

E-mail this Page

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No
Please send me updates from NPR.	Yes No

(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)