Harry's Charlie McCarthy sketch put me in my"spend too much time searching for useless information" mode. Just to see what might happen, I entered "World's greatest ventriloquist." Paul Winchell's name popped up, along with several that I never heard of. There's Ronn Lucas. I watched some videos. He's very good, but too contemporary, too Las Vegas style for me. Edgar Bergen was credited as the performer who paved the way for later ventriloquists said to be "better" at it than he was. Some historians claim that Bergen and Charlie became an institution mostly because radio was their medium and we couldn't see Bergen's lips move. That makes steam and smoke come fom my orfices. Edgar Bergen was an absolute master of being two very different, totally contrasting characters at the same time, instantly switching from the bewildered father figure to the bratty kid. No one has done it better, or made a wooden alter ego more real and believable than Charlie was. It still works when we see him them. I just watched the 1938 "Goldwyn Follies" on TCM. Edgar and Charlie had several appearances. I don't know how much Bergen's lips moved. I was too busy looking at Charlie and wondering what he might say next that would make Edgar nervous.
Ah, good old Charlie. Just how old was that concupiscent little rascal? Bergen and McCarthy weren’t Daddy and Rollo, that’s for sure; nor was Bergen Educating Archie (the BBC’s radio ventriloquist act).
ReplyDeleteIf only Bergen had let his wooden pal branch out into serious drama. Picture him treading the boards: Charlie McCarthy IS Another Part of the Forest. He would also have worked Magic in Dead of Night (1945), don’t you think?