Many of you today may have never heard of Dennis Spicer but he was a terrific ventriloquist from across the pond and here is his very last Television performance.
He was a great ventriloquist and used some terrific characters. Especially look at his man figure which appears to have the leather mouth but the chin appears to move as well. It may have been a latex covering for the face.
I am not sure but it you happen to know I would love to hear from you!!
Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com
Have you seen the Frank Marshall Tribute DVD, click here
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Ventriloquist Central is the brainchild of Dan Willinger and Steve Hurst. Dan 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. Steve is a ventriloquist as well as builder of ventriloquist figures. He also has a background in sales, marketing, building websites and computers. Because they both love the art of ventriloquism, the website Ventriloquist Central was born. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com
Copyright 2014 by Dan Willinger and Steve Hurst
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http://www.britishmusichallsociety.com/index/spring2011.pdf
wonderful to see the clip of Dennis Spicer. We here in the US would see Dennis many times in the early 1960’s on TV. He was brilliant. Too bad he was killed in a car crash , I believe was in the 1960’s.
If you look carefully you will see that the vent figure is actually a small person with some sort of covering over the eyes. Look at the “figure’s” neck and body, particularly the thighs, it’s a “little person” that he has.
The ‘dummy’ here is Kenny Baker who played R2D2 in Starwars. This was just one of the dummies used on the Royal Command Performance 1964 – if you watch to the need you will see that Dennis bows to the audience and to the Queen and whistles to Kenny who gets up from the chair he was left on and ran off the stage with Dennis. I know this as a fact as I am proud to be his sister. Thank you for your interest in my very talented brother.
Rose – my mum Dorothy Burnell aka Terry Anders has been trying to find a way of contacting you. She of course knew your brother and your whole family. She is still with us at the age of 83. If you read this please contact me at gailcitroen@rogers.com. We just found your mum Molly’s obituary – so sorry to hear she is gone but at 103 she lived a wonderful life. Anyway I hope you read this.
Hello Dan Willinger, I was just reading the article on Dennis Spicer on your website. You mentioned his man doll, but the figure you refer to is actually a human – Kenny Baker the midget, who was the R2-D2 character in all the Star War films, and who just died this year. The Royal Variety Performance was on the 2nd November 1964, and one week late , on the 9th we worked together in the South Milford Country Club, near Leeds, in the UK. (I was their musical director.) We worked together for the full week, then Dennis left. Again, one week later, on the 16th Nov. he was killed in the car crash. He was a beautiful guy, and was the very best vent in the UK at that time. I hope that no one will forget him. Sincerely, Bruce Graham.