KELLY ASBURY
Author of
Dummy Days:
When Your Favorite
Ventriloquist Was
Always Within Reach

by J.C. Johnson / Comedy Profiles Editor T a l k i n g C o m e d y . c o m

The '30s, '40s, '50s and part of the '60s … those were the days when being entertained by a ventriloquist and his dummy sidekick was as close at hand as the end of your fingertips. When simply walking into your living room and turning a dial could magically make them appear just for your entertainment. At first it was the dial of the family radio and the voices of Edgar Bergen and his wooden sidekick Charlie McCarthy drifting from those grand speakers to fill the room for the whole family to enjoy. Later it was the television set and the voices and moving images of Jimmy Nelson and Danny O’Day and Farfel … or … Señor Wences and Pedro and Johnny … or … Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff … or … Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy. Yes the days when ventriloquism was as near as flipping a switch or turning a dial. Those were the Days … those were the "Dummy Days."

Where Have Those Dummy Days Gone?

Although Dummy Days author, Kelly Asbury, misses the days when watching a ventriloquist perform on a regular basis was as easy as one … two … three — Asbury says they’re still out there today, you just have to go out and find them. “The venue of television may not be where they are any longer, but ventriloquism is still out there. People are still performing. They’re making quite a living in Las Vegas and in Branson and on cruise ships. I just recently went on a fourteen day cruise this summer and there were two ventriloquists on the boat and both of them were sensational. It's still out there … very much so. You just have to look a little harder to find it now.”

Asbury’s interest in those earlier days, when dummies were everywhere, was reawakened several years ago when he and his sister were going through his mother’s house and belongings shortly after her death. “And at the bottom of a box I found my Danny O’Day doll and a picture of myself with all the dummies I had back then.” Along with his favorite toy dummy from his youth he found the record album that had come with it, Jimmy Nelson’s Instant Ventriloquism and Ventriloquism for the Beginner. Finding the doll and the instructional LP of Nelson's with all those photos of Jimmy Nelson and the gang gracing the cover brought back a flood of wonderful memories from Asbury's youth. “I was always a fan of Jimmy Nelson and puppetry when I was a kid. I was always so fascinated with it.”

In time, although a strong fan of ventriloquism, Kelly Asbury eventually laid down his toy ventriloquist dummies and picked up a pencil and a sketch pad. His skills as an artist would eventually take Asbury to the California Institue of the Arts and a career in animation. As he left for college, and his future career, his ventriloquism dummies were left behind at his parents' house eventually to be packed away where they would stay for decades until his mother's death. Asbury would devote the next twenty years to the animation industry working as a director, storyboard artist and designer for some of Hollywood's most popular animated films including Shrek, Toy Story and Beauty and the Beast. But as Asbury held the album cover with Nelson, Danny O'Day and Farfel's photos on the front all he could think of was how he was still as facinated as ever with the art of ventriloquism. And he wondered to himself where is Jimmy Nelson today?

Finding a Hero from Kelly Asbury's Childhood Leads to Writing a Book

With the help of the internet Asbury was able to get in contact with Nelson, who now lives in Florida. “I emailed him and he emailed me back and we struck up a bit of a friendship. As we talked and as he started telling me these show business stories from his career I began to realize that this man’s entire life … the backdrop of his life … was the story of early television. He really was one of the pioneers of those times.” Eager for more information about ventriloquism and other ventriloquists from that era Asbury began searching libraries and book stores. “And there really wasn’t anything out there that really satisfied my appetite. So I decided there’s a book here. That’s really the genesis of it.”

Once Asbury secured a publisher for the book, he began searching for other great ventriloquists from this era that might be willing to talk with him as well. “I was able to interview Jimmy of course and his wife and family. I was able to interview Señor Wences’ widow Taly. I interviewed Paul Winchell, I got several hours of phone interviews with him. I talked to Chris Bergen and Edgar Bergen’s widow, Frances Bergen. And I talked with Shari Lewis’ daughter Mallory Lewis.”

Whether you grew up during these times and want to remember these days or you were born too late and are curious to see what you missed out on … Kelly Asbury’s Dummy Days captures the time beautifully. There are wonderful photos, from the long and varied careers of each of the five famous ventriloquists profiled within the book, that decorate its pages. "Dummy Data" pages are included as a part of each of the ventriloquists profiled. So you not only find out about each of the ventriloquists you find out about all the ventriloquists' figures that played an important part in their careers. This includes the dummies that were overshadowed by those later figures that would come on the scene when these ventriloquists were catapulted to fame — with photos of each of the dummies. And for those that grew up when flip books were in fashion you will be charmed by the "flip book" corners and the chance to see these ventriloquists in action in old TV appearances.

The book Kelly Asbury created, was the book he was hoping to find but never came across during his endless search of libraries and bookstores … A wonderful coffee table book full of biographies of the five most famous ventriloquists in radio and early television … A part history book, a part biography, a part picture book — featuring over 200 photos many never before published … all these books and more rolled up into one colorful book. Asbury set out to create the must read book for every practicing ventriloquist, ventriloquism aficionado, baby boomer or anyone simply curious about the art of ventriloquism. And in the process Asbury did what many thought could never be done … he created a book inviting enough that it had cross over appeal way beyond the ventriloquism community … he created Dummy Days.

But most importantly Asbury set out to give these entertainers the respect he felt they deserved, but was often seemingly withheld them in histories of American radio, television, and entertainment. “All of them were extremely professional, very seasoned performers,” says Asbury of Edgar Bergen, Señor Wences, Paul Winchell, Jimmy Nelson and Shari Lewis. “And their dummies were like musical instruments. This was their job and their life.” So … treating them each with the respect due a master musician Asbury set out to uncover all the bits of information he was searching for and put them all down on paper so that others, like himself, could find everything they wanted to know about these five masters of ventriloquism all in one source. Everything they wanted to know about what Asbury considers to be the golden age of ventriloquism … those "Dummy Days."

Edgar Bergen

When vaudeville was dying there was a good chance that ventriloquism was going to die along with it. But one man with a vision saved ventriloquism from an early demise. He not only saved it but he raised it to an even higher level in the process. “Bergen realized that vaudeville was kind of passé,” relates Asbury. “And that vaudeville was seen as unsophisticated by the time it ended. Ventriloquism was thought of as becoming a sort of relic of vaudeville.” Bergen sensed if he were to survive as a ventriloquist he needed to find a way to upgrade the image of ventriloquism and to do that he had to upgrade his own act into something more sophisticated. “It was like starting over and Bergen had to pull himself up by his boot straps and rearrange his act and start at the bottom again.”

Inspired by the mascot of Esquire magazine ‘Esky,’ who was sophistication personified at the time, Bergen revamped Charlie McCarthy from the brash, quick witted, scrappy newspaper boy of his vaudeville days to the black top hat and tailed, monocle wearing, sophisticate that would capture the hearts or radio audiences across America. And Asbury thinks it is this successful transformation of Edgar Bergen’s act that saved ventriloquism overall. “Edgar Bergen really being the one person who did sort of survive the transition from vaudeville to radio … I think he really opened the door. Once he got his foot in, he opened the door for ventriloquists again. But I think there was a period there when ventriloquism was relegated to traveling tent shows and two bit joints until Bergen elevated the entire status of it. He raised the bar. No question.”

Señor Wences

The show must go on … that sentiment defines Señor Wences’ career. “That’s what show business is all about. It was sort of a can do attitude that I think you had to have to survive back then. You never knew what was going to happen,” says Asbury of performing live during the golden age of ventriloquism. The event that illustrates this best, in the course of Wences’ career, is also the event that brought about the creation of one of his most loved characters. In 1936, while traveling to a performance by rail, Señor Wences’ ventriloquist figure, Pedro, was damaged in a baggage-car accident. Left with only the figure’s head still intact and no other figures along with him for the performance Wences had to come up with something or he couldn’t perform that night. Wences found a wooden box with a hinged lid, backstage and fastened his severed head inside it creating a makeshift ventriloquism prop to use for the show. “With Winces it was … improvise with what you’ve got … find a way to make it work,” says Ashbury of Wences can do attitude.

Seeing what he thought was a grotesque figure the stage manager threatened to fire Wences if he used it in his act. Wences went out with the box under his arm … although afraid for his job … told a few quick jokes and before opening the box’s lid said, ‘S’awright?’ The box flew open as the disembodied head of Pedro appeared to the surprise of the audience … Pedro said, ‘S’awright!’ and he slammed the box closed as quickly as he could. Señor Wences’ signature routine was born that day … the audience loved it!

Señor Wences was on the Ed Sullivan Show more often than any other ventriloquist … forty-eight times over the life of the show. “He was a tried and true crowd pleaser,” says Ashbury of Wences’ many Ed Sullivan appearances. “They could just set the camera up and let him go. They’d just say OK we need three minutes and he knew what he could do in three minutes. His act was almost always a variation of the same thing done in a different order, perhaps, but always pernetic, always fast and always entertaining.”

Paul Winchell

“Winchell enjoyed puppetry and ventriloquism growing up. It fascinated him and he got very good at it. Someone asked him to be on the Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour,” relates Ashbury. “I don’t think that he knew that he would end up winning it and then be offered a chance to make so much money.” Fourteen year old Winchell was only doing ventriloquism for fun but when Major Bowes offered him the chance to make more than twice as much money as his father was at the time touring with him … Winchell jumped a the offer. “It was this opportunity that came his way and he realized that it was the best opportunity that he had, at that moment, to make some money that was unthinkable in those days … and to travel.” One can say Winchell’s entry into professional ventriloquism was accidental in a way since he was not trying to make a profession out of it.

Paul Winchell has the dubious distinction of being the first ventriloquist ever to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan would go on to feature many vents over the years, and is considered a true friend of the ventriloquism community because of the extensive television exposure he gave vents in the '50s and '60s. Author Kelly Asbury even devotes a few pages of his book to Ed Sullivan’s influence on instilling interest in ventriloquism in American audiences while his popular TV show aired.

“Paul Winchell was really the Renaissance man of the ventriloquists when television came along. Winchell was the most innovative. He was a television pioneer in the true sense of the word,” relates Asbury. Once he got his own television show Winchell would often craft his own dummies adding innovative new ‘skills’ and physical dexterity the dummies. Whatever a skit called for Winchell would go to work trying to devise a way for his dummies to seem like they were doing the activity that was required … ride bikes, horses or sleds, swing from trees, strum a ukulele or play a violin. “Whatever caught his interest he dabbled in it … he learned about it,” continues Asbury. “He accomplished so much in his life because of this sort of pioneering spirit that was in his blood.”

Jimmy Nelson

Growing up in the‘60s no one had more of an influence on the author’s love of ventriloquism than Jimmy Nelson and his two sidekicks from the Nestle’s Quik Saturday morning TV commercials, Danny O’Day and Farfel. It was a Juro Danny O’Day dummy doll that was the author’s first toy ventriloquist doll. And Nelson’s instructional album Instant Ventriloquism and Ventriloquism for the Beginner was the album that young Asbury listened to as he sat in front of the mirror in his big sister’s bed room trying desperately not to move his lips. “Jimmy Nelson made some of the most enduring commercials of the early TV era. Every kid and kid-at-heart in America sang along with Jimmy’s droopy-eyed dog Farfel … N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestle’s makes the very best chocolate. Before long kids like me across the country were sitting with their figure on their knee, looking into mirrors and trying to emulate our hero.”

Jimmy Nelson got his first exposure on national television on the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1950. A mere 22 at the time Nelson had undetectable lip movement. Ed Sullivan who had seen many a vent praised him in his introduction … “watch his lips. You won’t see him move a muscle.” And Asbury says of Nelson, “When it comes to overall technique - lip control, puppet manipulation and quick voice changes - no ventriloquist has ever surpassed him. Nelson is the consummate professional. Though his work has been perfected over a lifetime, he makes it all as fresh as it was on his first Sullivan appearance.”

Many of today’s most popular ventriloquists who grew up in the‘50s and‘60s learned their craft as children by listening along with Jimmy Nelson’s instructional albums. Nelson probably did more to keep the art form alive and pass it on to the next generation than any other ventriloquist of his day. In his book, Dummy Days, author Kelly Asbury quotes ventriloquist and director of the Vent Haven International Ventriloquists Convention, Mark Wade, as saying of Nelson…“Without those Nestle’s commercials or his Juro Danny dolls, kids growing up in the 1960s might have never been interested and there might not be any ventriloquists today.”

Shari Lewis

When we think of Shari Lewis we think of Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy but before there was a Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy there was a Samson, Taffy Twinkle and Dinky Twinkle. “I didn’t know that Shari Lewis performed with hard dummies before her sock puppets,” admits Dummy Days' author Kelly Asbury. Before there was a Lamb Chop Shari Lewis had success in local New York television hosting several of her own TV shows working with typical wooden ventriloquist figures. That was one of those unexpected pieces of information Ashbury uncovered while working on his book, that he found so fascinating. Part of what makes the book such enjoyable reading.

Although Shari Lewis was already finding success with her wooden dummies it was a trio of lovable sock puppets that would separate Lewis from the rest of the crowd and bring her nationwide celebrity. Kelly Asbury says of Shari Lewis’ work with her now famous sock puppets … “Her soft sidekicks did more than just open and close their mouths to the scripted dialog, they enunciated their words with unprecedented lifelike mouth movement.” Asbury feels that it was the facial expressiveness of Shari Lewis’ puppets that was one of the most significant elements of her act. “She really was able to manipulate their faces and make them animated. That’s a testament to what a good performer she was. This multi-talented performer created an entire show business empire out of a few old socks. She was amazing.”

America’s Favorite Ventriloquists
of Early TV and Radio … and More

You can’t quite tell the whole story about Ventriloquism, during what Kelly Asbury considers to be it’s Golden Age in America … those Dummy Days, by merely profiling the most famous ventriloquists of that time. So Kelly Asbury goes one step further. In his book there are also small sections covering non-vents that where so important during those "Dummy Days." People like … Ed Sullivan — the ventriloquist’s best friend — who’s TV show during the '40s, '50s and '60s showcased more ventriloquists than any other variety show in TV’s history. Then there was … Frank Marshall — America’s Forgotten Geppetto — who carved ventriloquist figures for so many of the top ventriloquists during the Golden Age of ventriloquism. And who could forget … The Juro Novelty Company — supplier of dummies for all — the toy company who manufactured a wide selection of the most popular dummies of the day so children across America could emulate their vent heros with mini likenesses of their famous dummies. And of course … Vent Haven — a most unique American museum — that is devoted to giving a home to any and all ventriloquist dummies after they’ve retired or their human partners have passed on, while allowing the public to continue to view dummies after their years of entertainment have come to an end.

“If there’s anything that I hope to achieve with my book,” says Asbury. “Its for people to hopefully see and to discover, if they don’t remember, … that ventriloquism is, at it’s best, an art form. And the five people that I cover in my book were really as good as ventriloquism gets. These performers were in the league of Bob Hope, Milton Burle, and Sid Ceasar … with show business careers that are just as admirable.” Before Ashbury wrote his book, Dummy Days, the five greats he profiled were already recognized as great ventriloquists. Now that Asbury has taken a more in-depth look at these five great ventriloquists’ careers hopefully those profiled within the book, will not merely be seen as great ventriloquists … but as all time great entertainers, as well.

And as the author longs for times gone by when ventriloquist dummies were seemingly everywhere, he looks towards the future as well. Jeff Dunham and his insult-slinging, grumpy old partner Walter … Ronn Lucas with his dragon-pal Scorch … Dan Horn with his feisty geriatric Orson, all headline major showrooms in places like Las Vegas, Branson, and Missouri. “They represent more than mere throwbacks to a bygone era,” points out Asbury. “They are living proof that a comic and his dummy can play in the big leagues even now. I like to believe they represent the future of this art,”says Kelly Asbury of the ventriloquists that are leading us into the Dummy Days which, Asbury believes, are coming once again for Americans.

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