Interestingly some questions were asked about the Charlie McCarthy figures that were sold back in the 1930?s and asking how to tell the difference.
First of all there was only one officially licensed company which sold Charlie Mccarthy toy figures and that was Effanbee. The likeness was exact to that of Charlie McCarthy and they sold these figures in two sizes which were 15? tall and 20? tall. Both sizes came in a multitude of outfits ranging from Charlie’ detective outfit to his full tuxedo. Even his tuxedos came in different styles some with black satin lapels, some with purple satin lapels, some with white dinner jacket. Both sizes had the monocle which was metal and attached in a tiny hole drilled into the head.
The back of the neck has the marking Edgar Bergen’s Charlie McCarthy an Effanbee product. If this is not on the back of the neck it is NOT an Efanbee doll.
K&S produced a complete line of composition ventriloquist dolls during the same period and dressed them in tuxedos and even had monocles to jump on the band wagon of the popularity of Charlie McCarthy .The K&S figures came in 4 different sizes ranging from 15? to 30? and they even produced one that had a cardboard head stick within a hollow body but these were not Charlie Mccarthy. Today you see them advertised for sale by antique dealers as being unmarked Effanbee Charlies but that is not true. K & S marked that on the back of their dolls neck.
I hope this helps you in your quest to find Charlie McCarthy dolls.
Also if you missed seeing the video I did on these Efanbee dolls please click here.
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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