Publications
Student Reports - Edgar Bergen
Edgar Bergen
by Moe Pomerantz
student paper for
Trends in Contemporary American Puppet Theater
University of Connecticut
1997
Born in Chicago as Edgar John Berggren on February 16, 1903, the
famous ventriloquist was one of five children, the youngest of
two sons, of Swedish immigrants. His parents, John and Nellie,
ran a retail dairy business for a short time before the family
moved first to a farm near Decatur, Michigan and then, when Edgar
was four, back to their native Sweden. It was on this trip that
he learned the Swedish that was to become his dummy's, Charlie
McCarthy, fluent tongue.(1) By the time Edgar had reached the
age of 11 the family had once again settled in Chicago.
His eleventh year was a defining one for Edgar. It was around
this time that he discovered he could do strange, wonderful things
with his voice. One day before school he stood on his porch and
called out to an approaching friend. Instead of turning to reply
to Edgar, this friend instead called to another boy who stood
on a porch three houses away from Edgar's. That same day on his
way home from school he tested out his voice throwing capabilities
by hailing another boy. This boy looked around, and unable to
locate the source of the shout inquired, "Who was that calling
me anyhow?" This was all exciting enough to Edgar that he
sent off twenty five hard earned cents and received in return
mail "The Wizard's Manual." It contained "Secrets
of Magic, Black Art, Mind-reading, Ventriloquism and Hypnotism."
Most intriguing may have been the chapter on how to cut off a
man's head and put it on a platter a yard from his body. (2) Edgar
did not execute any decapitations, but he did play his share of
vocal tricks on his mother and father often sending them to the
door in search of mysterious old men when in fact no one was there.
(3) Other favorites of his were babbling brooms, disappearing
dogs, rabbits pulled from hats, and pies in the oven shrieking,
"Help, help!, Let me out!." (4)
Edgar's father died when Edgar was sixteen and he
by necessity went to work. While his brother Clarence became an
apprentice accountant, Edgar went to work as a furnace stoker
/ player piano operator / projectionist in a silent-movie house.
All the while he practiced and studied his magic and ventriloquism.
Bergen continued to explore the art of vocal deception by watching
the famous ventriloquist Harry Lester. Lester was so impressed
by Edgar that when the boy was fifteen years old, the master "vent"
gave him almost daily lessons for three months in the fundamentals
of ventriloquism. (5)
In the fall of 1919, for a fee of $36 paid to a
bartender who was also a skilled carpenter, Edgar received the
carved pine head of Charlie McCarthy. The character and, in fact,
the first name and likeness of Charlie were derived from the quick-witted,
red-headed Irish boy who sold papers on a corner in town. Edgar
made his sketches and turned them over to the bartender named
Theodore Mack. Mack then worked with Edgar on a clay sculpt of
the head, finally using the sculpt as the model for the final
pine version. Edgar created the body himself, using a nine inch
length of broomstick for the backbone, and rubber bands and cords
to control the lower jaw mechanism of the mouth. In all, even
with the hollow head, his creation weighed in at forty pounds.
In appreciation both to the woodcarver and to the newsboy, Bergen
chose to name his puppet Charlie McCarthy (for "Mack").(6)
Bergen's new alter ego was an immediate success
with both his classmates and his teachers. Charlie reportedly
even helped Bergen pass an important history course by completely
charming the teacher. The first paying public performance of Edgar
with his new dummy was in Chicago in an amateur tryout. It paid
five dollars a night. The act consisted of a mix of ventriloquism
with magic. The manager made him a deal - - he and his dummy could
stay if he would cut the magic out. Bergen obliged. He also cut
out an ‘r’ and a ‘g’ from his family name
and went from Berggren to Bergen on the showbills. So began Bergen's
budding career as a "belly-talker," as ventriloquists
at the time were also known.
Over the summer between his senior year in High
School and his freshman year in Northwestern's premed (it made
his mother happy(8)) program, Bergen tried his hand on vaudeville's
"second circuit" of theatres around Chicago. Between
June, 1922 and August, 1925 he performed every summer on the professional
Chautauqua circuit and at the Lyceum theater in Chicago.(9) Bergen
eventually changed majors - to Speech (and Drama) - but never
completed his degree. In 1925 he decided to enter professional
vaudeville full time. The next ten years would be spent riding
the rails from one town to the next, sleeping on the trunk in
which the gold mine of Charlie McCarthy lay. Bergen was not yet
getting rich off his talent, but he was making a name for himself
and Charlie.
In 1930 Bergen and Charlie finally made the so-called
'big time' - - they were playing the Palace" on 47th and
Broadway in New York City.(10) The theater was cavernous and the
house was packed, quite unlike the rest of the circuit that he
was used to. Bergen was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer size of
the theater and crowd, but when he stepped onto the stage his
instinct and years of practice took over. The crowd loved the
show.(11) His was the first ventriloquist act ever booked at the
Palace.
Between 1930 and 1936 Bergen and McCarthy continued
their tours through America and abroad. They performed in Iceland,
England, Sweden, Russia, and South America among others. In America
the age of vaudeville was coming to a close as radio and the movies
began to come into their own. In order to continue making a living,
Bergen perfected his routines for night clubs. One particularly
successful bit was called "The Operation," in which
he played the doctor and Charlie the patient. Later in Hollywood,
"The Operation" would be made into a movie short.(12)
One night in December, 1936 Edgar Bergen got his
biggest break of all. He played a party at which Noel Coward happened
to be one of the guests. Coward was so impressed by Bergen's dialogue
that he got him an engagement at Manhattan's Rainbow Room. This
show led to an invitation by Rudy Vallee to appear, for $150,
as a guest artist on Vallee's radio show on December 17th in California.
Bergen and McCarthy were an instant success. The one appearance
was extended to three months.(13)
In May, 1937 Bergen signed a contract with Chase
and Sanborn, the coffee company, for his own NBC radio program.
The cast for the show included America's top comedian W.C. Fields,
Don Ameche and Dorothy Lamour. The show was so strong that it
led the ratings for nearly three years. All this from a ventriloquist,
a visual as much as a vocal artist, on the radio.
W.C. Fields was likely responsible for much of the
Chase and Sanborn Hour’s early success. He started an early
on-the-air feud with Charlie that kept the listening audience
in stitches. For example when Fields would threaten Charlie with
some line about carving the puppet into a venetian blind. Charlie
would reply with something snappy like "That makes me shudder."
Another of Charlie's lines was, "Pink Elephants take aspirin
to get rid of W.C. Fields." Fields was a regular on the program
for only the first five months or so, but even after his departure
Bergen and McCarthy were able to maintain their place at the top
of the ratings.(14)
The occasional controversy rocked the radio program.
In December, 1937 Mae West made a guest appearance in a sketch
called "Adam and Eve." Even though the skit was approved
by the NBC censors, West managed to read it with such sexual innuendo
that the studio was flooded with thousands of calls and letters
of protest. The FCC got into the act and the network banned any
further appearances by Mae West. This ban effectively kept West
off the radio for fifteen years.(15)
Over the next few years Bergen would develop the
characters of Mortimer Snerd and Effie Klinker. Snerd, who came
along in 1939, was a country bumpkin who even though appeared
an idiot, often got the best of McCarthy and Bergen. Klinker,
born in 1944, could best be described as a man-crazed spinstress
from New England. While these and other dummies had their moments
none of them would ever attain the popularity of Charlie McCarthy.
Finally Bergen was wealthy as well as talented.
By 1945 he was earning $10,000 per week from radio as well as
at least $100,000 a year from royalties on Charlie McCarthy merchandise.(16)
It is even said that in the early 1940's he turned down an offer
of one million dollars for the original Charlie McCarthy dummy.(17)
Not bad for an initial investment of under $50.
On September 1, 1949, after a year away from radio
and NBC, Bergen and McCarthy began a new radio show on CBS. Once
again they shot to the top in popularity.
All through his radio years and beyond, Bergen was
active in the film industry. He played in twenty five full length
movies or shorts, noteably Charlie McCarthy, Detective in 1939,
and even a Disney cartoon and live action mix, Fun and Fancy Free
in 1947. In 1937 Bergen won a special Academy Award for lifetime
achievement and community service. The performing lifestyle of
Bergen and his wife, model and actress Frances Westerman (they
married in 1945) certainly transferred to one of their two children.
Their daughter Candice has become a very popular actress in television
and film.
When television really began to erode radio's audience
in 1956, Bergen retired from radio but continued a strong career
in TV, and in nightclub acts. He was the host of the quiz show
"Don't Trust Your Wife," and every once in a while he
even got to perform solo, without his puppets. Finally, on September
21, 1978 he announced his final tour, after which he would retire
for good. It would be a two week run along with singer Andy Williams
at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. After his fourth show, on September
30th he returned to his hotel room where he died in his sleep.
He never did get to retire after all.
Endnotes
1 Current Biography, p.42
2 Knock Wood, p.21
3 Tune In Yesterday, p. 124
4 Knock Wood, p.21
5 Current Biography 1945, p.43
6 Knock Wood, p.22
7 Current Biography 1945, p.43
8 Knock Wood, p.22
9 Dictionary of American Biography 1976-1980, p.32
10 Knock Wood, P. 26
11 Ibid, p. 27
12 Current Biography 1945, p. 43
13 Knock Wood, p. 29
14 Tune In Yesterday, p. 126
15 Tune In Yesterday, p. 127
16 Ibid, p.128
17 The Puppeteers, p. 35
References
1. Current Biography, Who's News and Why 1945, H.W.
Wilson Co., New York, 1945.
2. Dictionary of American Biography 1976-1980 - Supplement Ten,
Charles Scribner and Sons, Simon and Shuster MacMillan, 1995.
3. Knock Wood, Bergen, Candice, Linden Press/Simon and Shuster,
1984.
4. The Puppeteers, Salter, Ted, Puppeteers of America, 1984.
5. Tune In Yesterday - The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio
1925 - 1976, Dunning, John, Prentice-Hall Inc., NJ, 1976.
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