No this figure is not a member of the Ventriloquist Central Collection but I wish it were. This particular figure is owned by Lee Dunn who is a ventriloquist figure builder.
Lee told me about this particular figure and I asked if I could showcase it because it is a very rare possibly the only figure that Conrad Hartz built with winkers.
I am told that the original buyer of this figure pleaded with Conrad to do the winkers and after this one, Conrad would not do them again. Lets face it they are not easy to do.
This figure has a great face and I am sure you will all love seeing this very special figure.
Thanks to Lee Dunn for sharing him with us all.
Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com
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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. He created the Ventriloquist Central Collection. It now has over 100 ventriloquist figures and over 50 of them are Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com
Copyright 2012 by Dan Willinger
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Dan,
As a slight corection to your blog article, Conrad has not made many figures with this function, but the Lee Dunn figure was not the only one. I also owned a Hartz figure with “Winkers”. Very attractive little guy with Blue eyes.
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo200/bellytalker/EllisHartz3.jpg
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo200/bellytalker/EllisHartz1.jpg
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo200/bellytalker/EllisHartz2.jpg
Thanks
My first Conrad Hartz figure had leather winkers/blinkers in both eyes.
In November of 1982,I purchased this Hartz figure from a ventriloquist
in Baton Rouge,Louisiana….
Several years later I ‘swapped’ this Hartz figure for a Joel Leder figure.
In case you were wondering,the Hartz figure went to a magician in
California and the Joel Leder figure stayed in my collection until the
Summer of 2004 when I sold him to a well known member of the VENT
community.
In case you were wondering,I sold this rather unique looking Joel
Leder figure to Bob (Mr.Puppet) Abdou…
You can see ‘Rusty’ on http://www.mrpuppet.com
Now that is one beautiful figure!
Thanks guys for the info. I guess Conrad built a few!! LOL