Can you tell me if there is any information on jerry mahoney ventriloquist dolls?

Question

Can you tell me if there is any information on jerry mahoney ventriloquist dolls?

Answer 1

I'm not exactly sure what information you need, as there is a lot of information on it.

Jerry Mahoney was used by the ventriloquist Paul Winchell.  Winchell was born on December 21, 1922 and enjoyed attending the side show carnivals as a child.  He was also a fan of Edgar Bergen and heard him perform on the radio countless times.  It wasn't until he saw him in the movie "The Goldwyn Follies" that he realized Bergen was a ventriloquist.  Finding an ad for a book on how to become a ventriloquist, he sent in his 10 cents and received it in the mail.  

When he was about 13 or 14, Winchell was attending Manhattan's High School for Industrial Arts.  He made the first Jerry Mahoney for classroom credit. (at that time, he was called "Terry Mahoney").   The teacher sent Winchell to the principle, who had a contact for a radio show that featured amateur talents.

He got a call back to travel with the show.  By age 15, he was performing across the country.  He had some ups and downs in his career, as any performer does.  

When he started making it big, it was time to get a new dummy...er...puppet.  He went to Frank Marshall, whose figures are extremely famous now.  This happened in 1937.  This is the first professional Jerry Mahoney and it is owned by the Smithsonian Museum.  

Jerry Mahoney originally started off as more of a Charlie McCarthy figure, but became much more "street smart" and troublesome, where as McCarthy was a little more innocent in his personality.  

In 1950, the figure changed to allow features such as closing eyes.  

His friend, Knucklehead Smiff, came later from his television show "Winchell-Mahoney Time"  (Unfortunately, many of these shows were destroyed by the television station during a lawsuit concerning their copyrights).  Jerry began talking about a character at school and fan mail came in wanting to know about the character.  Taking an unfinished Mahoney Puppet, Winchell adjusted some and it became Knucklehead Smiff, the dopey friend of Jerry Mahoney.

Not sure what else you want to know.  Let me know if I can help in any other way and if I don't know the answer, I'll try to find it for you.

Matt