Wednesday marks the centennial of the birth of Paul Winchell in Manhattan's Lower East Side. He was a ventriloquist and a pioneer of television. He and his dummies became a staple of Saturday morning TV. He included in his show quizzes and adventure segments.
Heartbreaking biography of a clearly gifted man struggling with ontological truths-that a facade is a facade is a facade. And even the best of works are vanity, ending up in the dustbin of history, to be recollected from time to time with an unpredictable irregularity as the great achievements they may have been, becoming the company of ravens, sun-bleached bones, old shoes.
He's also represented at the Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum in Ft. Mitchell, KY, billed as the only ventriloquist museum in the world. Well worth a trip if you're in the area.
"__Let's find out...A one...A two-hoo, A thrrreee... How many licks does it take to get to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?... The world may never know." __My best recollection without looking it up. [Did finally, look it up after changing /will/ to /may/, to check my memory] --- 'Stop the pigeon!' intro song; The Brady Bunch commercial director--- ("Meer-nuh!"). Asa a little kid, and young adult, knew him by voice alone, instant recognition!...he was still in little kids' like me memories in the 70's and 80's. Thanks, Mr. Winchell (up there, for sure!), and hat tip to Mr. Surber for keeping his memory and little-known medical contribution...
__He, Heimlich, and DeBakey should share a posthumous Nobel for Medicine, for their contribution to society, for saving lives...Btw, never liked Jarvik. His ego, and 'carny' way of self-promotion was phony, imho. ZB
.....And now you know the rest of the story. This article made me think of when Paul Harvey used to do this weekly update. Don, you should start something up like that again. Learned a whole bunch from that weekly update he would do.
That was a kind tribute considering it was written by one of his estranged children. Hopefully he left them his money to soothe past hurts. I always enjoyed the scrubbing bubble...
Heartbreaking biography of a clearly gifted man struggling with ontological truths-that a facade is a facade is a facade. And even the best of works are vanity, ending up in the dustbin of history, to be recollected from time to time with an unpredictable irregularity as the great achievements they may have been, becoming the company of ravens, sun-bleached bones, old shoes.
Unsung heros, amazing what one gifted mind can produce in a lifetime,
every once in a while some prototype design still appears from DaVinci as well.
I actually had wondered what happened to it. We see everything else on re-runs. Media bastards.
Wow! Thanks for a great read. I loved this growing up.
Much like Tigger, the most wonderful thing about Paul was, he was the only one!
You don't choose your family, but they're still family.
Woo Hoo!
Gifted but a troubled man haunted by his childhood.
After nearly a decade and a half in the ER, maybe I should take up ventriloquism.
He's also represented at the Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum in Ft. Mitchell, KY, billed as the only ventriloquist museum in the world. Well worth a trip if you're in the area.
"__Let's find out...A one...A two-hoo, A thrrreee... How many licks does it take to get to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?... The world may never know." __My best recollection without looking it up. [Did finally, look it up after changing /will/ to /may/, to check my memory] --- 'Stop the pigeon!' intro song; The Brady Bunch commercial director--- ("Meer-nuh!"). Asa a little kid, and young adult, knew him by voice alone, instant recognition!...he was still in little kids' like me memories in the 70's and 80's. Thanks, Mr. Winchell (up there, for sure!), and hat tip to Mr. Surber for keeping his memory and little-known medical contribution...
__He, Heimlich, and DeBakey should share a posthumous Nobel for Medicine, for their contribution to society, for saving lives...Btw, never liked Jarvik. His ego, and 'carny' way of self-promotion was phony, imho. ZB
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.....And now you know the rest of the story. This article made me think of when Paul Harvey used to do this weekly update. Don, you should start something up like that again. Learned a whole bunch from that weekly update he would do.
....page 2.
I appreciate your writing, Don! Always an oasis in my morning reading. Keep it up!
That was a kind tribute considering it was written by one of his estranged children. Hopefully he left them his money to soothe past hurts. I always enjoyed the scrubbing bubble...
Nice article.
The paragraph starting with
"He also won an important legal case. In a dispute over syndication rights,........."
needs edititin. The text edit program has scrambled stuff around and there's repitition!!
-dch
Great read. Never heard of the fellow although I am old enough. Were his shows on the abc network?
Thanks for fine bio!
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