The Face of Ventriloquism

Ok the title got your attention but what I was really thinking about are the faces of the ventriloquist figures in the Ventriloquist Central Collection.

I must admit that even though all the faces are different there is a commonality which spans a vast majority of the figures and that is that the look is kind of that boyish, impish, cheeky look.

Now that does not mean they are all cheeky boy figures but just that from the early 1900’s through until I would say (my opinion) the 1980’s most of the figure makers did this style face and it was the most popular. It was done by Mack, Marshall, Pinxy, Spencer and Coats.

It does seem that once we get to the 1980’s and beyond there is a much more varied look in the faces you see in the vent figures.

I have not purchased many figures from the later part of the twentieth century because of my “wood” fetish but lots more varied faces done in the cast figures and the custom built figures.

Just look at some of the faces done by Bill Nelson or Dan Payes. These are so different than what you could purchase as a ventriloquist fifty years ago.

I guess I am going to have to start adding some of these more unusual faces to the collection.

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 2010 by Dan Willinger

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This entry was posted in Dummy Collecting, Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Figure (Dummy) Makers, Ventriloquist Figure Building, Ventriloquist Figures. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to The Face of Ventriloquism

  1. Lee Dean says:

    I still say there should be a way to stamp them out, take the work out of it, and all left to do is the finishing, including internal workings, clothing, and an instruction booklet ready to go. The next time at Walmart go by fishing section and look at the Rapala baits, balsa wood stamped with hanger assembly installed. I might make such a stamper machine that will with one fell swoop create a Cheeky and send it to you for collection.

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