HISTORY FOR THE DUMMIES? (for beginners Ventriloquist)
The Ventriloquist dummy has a history but first let me mention puppets and dolls were around before the Ventriloquist dummy.
Ventriloquist Fred Russell is the first Ventriloquist to sit a Ventriloquist dummy on his knee this kind of dummy was given the name called a knee figure. Today when you see a Ventriloquist sitting with his Ventriloquist character on the Ventriloquist lap or knee or thigh this style was created by Ventriloquist Fred Russell.
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Before the Ventriloquist knee figure the Ventriloquist would sit many Ventriloquist figures in a chair on stage, the Ventriloquist would go from character to character in a dialogue and that was the first Ventriloquist act.
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As you can see here a very young Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen with the first Charlie McCarthy during around 1923 using two Ventriloquist figures sitting on his knee.
(Edgar Bergen 1903 to 1978)
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