Ventriloquist

[Fletch937]

Is it true there used to be a ventrilouist on radio. He was a big star apparently in the 1950's.

[ineedahobby]

I think he was called Edgar Bergen

[andy hughes]

His name was Peter Brough, and the radio show, which started in 1950, was 'Educating Archie'.

The notion of a ventriloquist on radio sounds weird, but it was hugely popular - with the dapper striped blazer clad Archie demeaning his 'helper' by refering to him as "Brough" as though he was some menial.

In years to come, Archie's 'tutors' included Max Bygraves, Tony Hancock, and Bruce Forsyth.

This was one of the first examples of 'superstardom' - there were Archie lollies, comics, posters, and so on - even though the dummy's face is a dead ringer for Hugo Fitch, the 'psychotic' dummy in the fantastic b/w film Dead Of Night made just a few years previously.

[pamnez]

I remember Peter Brough.  He had a dummy called "Archie Andrews".  Me and my family used to love listening to his show.  When television became popular, Peter Brough was on a chat show with his dummy and he was a rubbish ventriloquist.  His lips moved all the time.  He took a lot of stick in the papers.  We, as children, didn't realise that a ventriloquist was not supposed to move his mouth when he was talking because we never saw him.  We only heard him on the radio.

[andy hughes]

The weird thing is - the dummy was the star! Even when Peter Brough moved on, 'Archie' carried on - moving to TV eventually. He still looks spooky though - or is that just me?

[Octavius]

Archie followed in the tradition of the American ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy.

The show often averaged 15 million listeners.

Due to the success of his radio show, he debuted on television in 1956 in the BBC sitcom Here's Archie which co-starred Irene Handl and Ronald Chesney. The show was written by the latter and Ronald Wolfe, who would later team up on classic British sitcoms The Rag Trade and On the Buses.

Two years later, Peter was on ITV in Educating Archie, utilising the same team as before, although Marty Feldman took some of the writing credit as well.

By 1961 Peter decided to retire Archie following the death of his father, also a ventriloquist, and proceeded to take over the family's textile and menswear business. His TV appearances from then on were sporadic.  He died in 1999.

Archie went missing several times.

In 1947, he was in Peter Brough's car when it was stolen from Lower Regent Street, London, but found two days in a garden at Paddington.
He was left in the rack of a railway carriage at Chatham, but a railway porter sent him back by taxi in time for his show.
In 1951, Brough was travelling to Leeds to compere the televised Northern Music Hall at the Theatre Royal, Leeds, with Archie in his suitcase. Brough went for dinner in the dining car, and whilst away the carriage in which he had been sitting was taken off the train and went on to Bradford. Unable to locate the puppet, at the venue Brough went through a revised script without the dummy. A �1000 reward was offered and he was returned.
Only one Archie has ever existed, as the mould, made in 1942, was destroyed in The Blitz

[RogK]

Great stuff, Octavius. Fascinating.

[Clanad]

Almost as famous as Bergen's Charlie McCarthy was the friend of Charlie's named Mortimer Snerd. Edgar Bergen's skill at his art was especially notable in the argumentative discussions between Charlie and Mortimer.  By the way, Edgar Bergen's daughter is the actress Candice Bergen...

[lampgb]

I seem to recall that the dummy was a better ventriloquist than Peter Brough. As a kid I once saw them in a film. Great stuff. Every time the dummy spoke his lips never moved, Brough's did however. Mind you the dummy did move his head a lot and he was always smiling 

[netibiza]

Yes, we loved Educating Archie, and never for one moment thought of it as strange.  Did he move his lips I wonder???