When I was a child, I spake as a child…without moving my lips.
My Dad was a magician and Punch and Judy puppeteer, and like most people in show business wanted his children to follow in his footsteps. My older brother had been a unicyclist, and somewhere along the line, I had seen a vent act on TV and discovered an old plastic Danny O’Day figure among my dad’s stuff. I apparently was good enough that my parents bought a real, hand carved vent figure (the industry term - they get annoyed if you call it a “dummy” in the same way that a policeman wears a “shield” not a "badge).
So much of my childhood was spent as the middle act between my Dads magic act and his Punch and Judy show. I quit doing it when I was a teen. I was technically very good, but when I was a child, I had no sense of humor. At all. So the whole spectacle was pretty awful. Now I have a pretty decent sense of humor, but have no desire to be a ventriloquist.
Anyway, this was all far from my mind until last week, when my sister left her husband. And one of the things in her basement was my old vent figure, Danny. It was built by Foy E. Brown, and the inside has “FEB Figures” burned into the wood of the body cavity. Here is an image of it full-sized, and here is a close-up of the face.
My sister did a little checking and got some guy offering her $300 and he kept pestering her to move quickly. So I did a little searching, and found some guy who had paid $2000 for a more sophisticated figure from the same maker.
Anyway, this was a part of my life that is very firmly in the past. I was a ventriloquist, but I’m well now.
Did the “figure” give you horrible dreams at night? I went cold all over when I saw it. He makes all the dummies I’ve seen on Goosebumps or Twilight Zone look really cute.
Yeah, some Hollywood screenwriter could make this into a horror movie. I spoke to my wife about this, and she told me that she was the one who saved it from me throwing it out. She gave it to my Mom, and my sister inherited it when my Mom died.
Yeah, I understand that you’re not planning to reenter show-biz – but can you still ventriloquize? (What’s the verb – “throw your voice”?) Is it or is it not like riding a bike?
twicks, who recently resumed tap lessons after a six-year hiatus and is astonished at how much muscle memory she has
Yeah, I looked in the mirror, and I can still talk without moving my lips (pronounced “lits”). The “throw your voice” thing is a myth. The illusion is based on people believing the thing you’re holding is speaking.
The problem is, how do I find all the people who saw a very talented magician and puppeteer accompanied by an unfunny child ventriloquist some time in the 1970s in the Kansas City area?
If you saw my act, my sincere condolences and I humbly beg your forgiveness.
