Is Ventriloquism Becoming a Lost Art?

I woke up in the middle of the night with the word ventriloquism running through my head. Don't ask me why, I hadn't run into any 'dummies' yesterday! When this happens, and it does fairly often, I do make a point of remembering the word and then write articles or stories about the subject or word. I get some great ideas by doing this. I hope I will this time...

Ventriloquism is a practiced skill that is achieved by throwing one's voice. A Ventriloquist uses either a wooden dummy, doll or a hand puppet which usually sits on his lap as a 'sidekick'. The ventriloquist's hidden hand is used to operate the movements of the dummy and he pretends to carry on a conversation with the dummy, moving its mouth and providing its voice. There is no sign that the ventriloquist is really doing the talking, and the voice appears to be actually coming from the dummy.

As a child, I was always fascinated with ventriloquism. Ventriloquists seemed to be more prevalent then. I would see famous ones on TV, and occasionally, one would come to my school for a special assembly and he (I'd never seen a female ventriloquist yet) and his dummy would discuss important topics such as never talking to strangers, cheating, good study habits, fire prevention, and things like that. I really enjoy those assemblies.

I'd sit in awe, hanging on every 'word' that dummy said, I'd practice my ventriloquism skills at gine and got to be quite good too, or so I thought back then! I dreamed of getting my own dummy, but, in the 1950's, things like that for children weren't readily available. As I reminisced, I began wondering about the history of ventriloquism. I decided to do some research and here is what I learned...

Ventriloquism began in ancient times--around the sixth century BC, and its first use was to communicate with the dead. The widespread believe was that the spirits of the dead went to the stomachs of the prophets and continued to live there. The prophets were then able to tell the future by the spirits who were speaking from his belly. Of course, 'the prophets' were just men who learned the art of ventriloquism so they could fool the people and claim to have divine powers. The word ventriloquist means "belly speaker" in Latin.

The first known ventriloquist was Louis Brabant, a member of the court of the French King Francis the First. Understandably, for a long time, ventriloquism was viewed negatively by the Christian church, but eventually it became looked upon as simply a form of entertainment. In 1896 in London's Palace Theater, a comedian by the name of Fred Russell came up with an act in which he performed with his dummy, He became known as the father of modern ventriloquism.

One of the most famous ventriloquists came on the scene in 1938. Edgar Bergen and his wooden dummy, Charlie McCarthy became an international celebrity. Later, during the 1940's, Buffalo Bob Smith and his dummy, a cowboy named Howdy Doody, had a television show that ran for over 10 years. The first female ventriloquist, Shari Lewis and her famous hand puppet, Lamb Chop became popular with her television program for children during the 1950's and 1960's. Many other's have followed, some well known professionals, some armatures.

Today, many children have never had the opportunity to see a real ventriloquist. Kids are familiar with Sesame Street's famous talking puppets and other programs which feature talking animals and other inanimate objects, but the voices are provided by people off screen, not by ventriloquism. Sadly, ventriloquism may becoming a lost art.