Canfield Smith was a performer in the late 1940’s and 1950’s and was what Stanley Burns labeled as a “Cod Performer” and that is a performer that was a comedian who discovered that mis copy-ing can be lucrative.
Canfield Smith made audiences laugh with his standard figure whose arm would drop off in the middle of a routine, with Smith seemingly indifferent to his companion’s plight. The dummy finally complained, “Hey! Canfield…. There’s a draft in here. Is there a carpenter in the house?” Canfield played the Palace as well as club dates after vaudeville.
Click here to see more of a Frank Marshall Figure Used by Canfield Smith
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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Nice! I was wondering Dan. Did Frank Marshall ever actually do vent?? I don’t remember ever hearing anywhere whether he did or not. I assume he just made the figures, but just recently started to wonder.