Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham – Comedy for Dummies

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Webmaster

jeff-dunham
Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham

George Boosey, a regular contributor to Ventriloquist Central, sent in this link for a wonderful article about Jeff Dunham.

Please make time to read this, it’s one of the best articles about Jeff.

 

Jeff Dunham Comedy for Dummies

 

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 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to: webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

Posted in Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham | 1 Comment

Soupy Sales Speaks Out

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Webmaster

With the recent passing of comedy great, Soupy Sales, Bob Abdou, a regular contributor to Ventriloquist Central, sent this information to us. It’s an article he published in his Barker magazine back in 2002, along with a couple of pictures.

(Click article & pictures for a larger view)

soupy-sales-barker-mag01

soupy-sales-barker-mag02

 

the-soup-man-bob-abdou
Here is a photo of me and Soupy at the Friar’s Club in Manhattan, NY. When he walked in the room, all 50 dinner guests stood up and clapped their hands for Soupy, this is just one great memory I had of our special friendship.

new-soupy-toys
Soupy Sale Toys

 

Thanks, Bob, for sharing with us.

 

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 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to: webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

Posted in Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central | 2 Comments

Frank Marshall's Leather Mouth Ventriloquist Figure

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Webmaster

Marshall-leather-mouth

I was wondering about leather mouth American figures and knew that Pinxy had done a leather mouth because I have one in the Ventriloquist Central Collection and you can see him here and also Shaw made the figures with leather mouths which you can see here.

I also know that in the Craig Lovik made the figures with his term for leather mouth “Living Mouth Figures”. Actually the mouth is an English Mouth since they have been made that way in England since the 19th century.

I was talking with Bob Isaacson about this and asked him if he knew weather Frank Marshall had done a leather mouth because I had not seen one. To my delight he told me that he did in fact know of at least one Frank Marshall figure that had a leather mouth. It was made by Frank Marshall for Dr. Sonntag.

Today , to my surprise, I received a photo of the Dr Sonntag Leather Mouth Frank Marshall figure from Bob. He told me that he remembered seeing this figure in Frank Marshall’s shop back in 1951. Bob thanks so much for sharing with me and of course all of you who read my blog.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

***************************************************

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 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to: webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

Posted in Frank Marshall Figure (Dummy), Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Figure (Dummy) Makers, Ventriloquist Figure Building, Ventriloquist Figures | Leave a comment

Cleaning of Ventriloquist Figures

Posted on October 31, 2009 by Webmaster

2 h s
Brian Hamilton Ventriloquist Figure

The maintenance of the ventriloquist figures in the Ventriloquist Central collection is an ongoing chore. I call it a chore but that really isn’t the correct word because I love to do this. The cleaning never ends because it just can’t be done all at once. I have to start at one side of the room and work my way around to the other side. By the time I get to the other side it is time to start all over again.

The greatest thing I have to do is remove dust. I have found that the best thing to help me do this is the use of canned air. I purchase cans of condensed air at Michael’s craft store and use this to blow off each figure as I go along. It works very easily and really does the job.

The wigs seem to get the most dust but those as well release the dust with a few sprays from the can.

A little warn water with mild soap like ivory liquid is really great to use to wash off mild soiling to the face and hands. Always remember to stay away from the sides of the mouth with any liquid because most of the figures used cardboard as the side walls for the mouth palate to seat into and if they get wet the mouth will no longer work because of warping of the cardboard. Even Frank Marshall made not of this in his catalogue.

So just a few tips for your figures if you keep them out to keep you company!!

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 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to: webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

Posted in Dummy Collecting, Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Figures | 1 Comment

What Will You Do???

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Webmaster

I have been chatting of late with Clinton Detweiler and he brought up a very good point about collecting and I thought I would share this with the rest of our community.

I happened to see that Clinton had asked on his blog about identifying a few small vent figures (here’s Clinton’s blog) and I had done a blog on the Davy Crockett figure made by the Grand Toy Co of New York. I sent him this link in case you missed it.

He had stated that he was cleaning out some storage so I asked him if he had any figures that he may be getting ready to sell and he let me know that in fact he was not a collector of vent figures and did not want to burden Adleia (his wife) with having to sell off or find where to put a collection once he may be gone. Therefore he never really collected figures he just built and sold them. Clinton told me that more than once he had been asked by widows of ventriloquists what they should do with their figures now that their spouses had passed.

I was motivated to tell this story because it is in fact true. You really should have a plan for the possessions if and when a spouse passes. The names and addresses of who to contact should be placed in your important papers so the information is available to the surviving spouse. I myself have made sure that I have this type of information available for my family just in case.

This is just a smart and easy thing to do and even though this is not what any of us like to think about it is a part of life and if you have a collection it must be done.

 

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

***************************************************

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 2009 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to: webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

Posted in Dummy Collecting, Maher Studios, Ventriloquism/Ventriloquist, Ventriloquist Central, Ventriloquist Figure Building | 2 Comments