I am going to divulge my secret to holding my ventriloquist figures that may be seated in a precarious position so that they do not go over and end up like Happy Hazzard did so many years ago. If you don’t know what happened to Happy then click here to read the story.
The first thing you must to is get some 100 pound test fishing line which is a monofilament. This can be purchased at your local sporting goods store and I do believe that Home Depot and Lowes also carries monofilament line as well. I would only do this to a figure you are not planning on moving around very often although to re attach the figure only takes a few moments of work.
You place a very small hook into the wall behind the figure for the line to attach to then wrap the filament around your figure a few times and secure it to the hook. This works great and unless someone tries to move the figure it is locked in place.
Now if you don’t want to put holes in the wall with a hook, then you can wrap the line around the lap of your figure and under what ever it may be seated upon and then tie it off. I have done this as well and it works just fine. I hope this helps you in your displaying of your figures that you are not using.
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 2011 by Dan Willinger
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Hey Dan, as collectors, we think alike, when I have dummy’s that I need to secure but also tie down, I use black elastic that I attach to the hook. It allows the dummy to sit up straight against the wall and if I ever need to take him off the shelf to use for whatever reason, the elastic just stretches and allows me to take off and put back with ease. When I worked on the dummy display at the Puppetry Institute in Kansas City. I explained to the director that dummy’s were not made to sit by themselves, they were either on the lap of the ventriloquist or packed away in a suitcase, almost never to just sit on a chair when not needed. These are our tools of the trade.
I like the elastic idea. Biggest bass I ever hung was lost due to frayed monofilament line, which will not happen with elastic.