Ventriloquist Dolls of the 1800s

Period

• Before the 1800s, ventriloquism was more commonly used in association with mystical, spiritual or occult-oriented efforts. This did change very late in the 19th century as Vaudeville acts became popular forms of entertainment. While ventriloquist acts may have incorporated some humorous aspects, performers where more keen to showcase their technique. This led, on occasion, to performers using more than one dummy at a time in a single act. This era spawned what is now the stereotypical imagery of the ventriloquist dummy, seated on the performer's knee and dialoging with her and the audience.

Materials and Features

• The dummies particular to the 19th century were not made out of ornate or uncommon materials. You can imagine that a struggling entertainer would not have had much money to lavish on an extravagant doll. Therefore, the heads of these dummies were often made out of either wood or paper-mache. Sizes for the dummies could be quite varied. Ventriloquism states that these traditional dolls could range from one foot to actual full human size and, in some cases, even exceed that.

Entertainers and Their Dummies

• While the roots of these ventriloquist acts and their corresponding dummies began in the late 19th century, it is really in the early 20th that we see the dolls and personas truly develop. Some performers became identified with a single doll or figure. Ventriloquist Fred Russel used the doll Coster Joe and the Great Lester used the figure Frank Byron Jr. Perhaps most famous of all is Edgar Bergan's dummy Charlie McCarthy with his tails, top hat and monacle. Dummies often possessed childish looking faces with and were granted distinct personalities or characters such as Nobbler the stable boy or the country 'yokel' Hodge.

Fun Facts

• Russian ventriloquist Gregory Donskoi is known to have employed as many as 11 different, human-size puppets in one act. On at least one occasion, he used his voice-throwing skills to use a live dog as as a dummy. The ventriloquism scene was also one where women and African-Americans could break social boundaries. Ventriloquist John W. Cooper was perhaps the first black man to do so, using a barber shop act with six seated dummies. In order to allow Cooper to function as the barber in the act, he produced a mechanism that let him operate each of the six dummies' movements with his feet.