Wayne Boatwright wrote:

> On Mon 27 Apr 2009 09:35:34p, sf told us...
>
> > On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:12:27 -0500, "Gregory Morrow"
> > > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >>Damsel in dis Dress wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:13:51 -0700, sf > wrote:
> >>>
> >>> >Watching the Travel channel.... looks like the prices at Katz have
> >>> >gone up and the amount they give you has gone down. When we went
> >>> >there, their sandwiches were HUGE and the price was right. One
> >>> >sandwich fed two people, with no leftovers.
> >>> >
> >>> >My Manhattan SIL still makes sandwich runs to Katz in the middle of
> >>> >the night (past midnight), so it can't be all bad. I haven't thought
> >>> >to ask her how much she's paying now. Yeow! It has really gone up
in
> >>> >price.
> >>>
> >>> Sheldon has a deli named after him?
> >>>
> >>> Carol, impressed
> >>
> >>
> >>Well, except for the fact that his last name is not "Katz"...
> >>
> >>:-)
> >
> > How true.
> >
>
> Sheldon is probably not his real first name either. His real name is
> probably Mortimer Snerd.

And yet Mortimer was so well-known and admired that he appeared on the cover
of _Time_ with his "father", Edgar Bergen. Can you say the same, Lil'
Wayne...or will you be best remembered for pounding out groovy dirges on
funeral organs...??? :

_Time_ cover from November 20th, 1944, the cover features Edgar Bergen and
Charlie McCarthy, you can access the article and complete issue contents
he


http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16...441120,00.html


The article:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...796806,00.html


"Cultivated Groaner

Monday, Nov. 20, 1944

During the past seven years Edgar Bergen has made himself a national figure
largely by talking to himself. He has done this with the aid of an apparatus
called Charlie McCarthy, which has become an even more popular national
figure, and probably more human to a larger number of people than any
inanimate object in world history. It takes only the mildest indulgence in
the world of fantasy to be persuaded that Charlie, a fellow of infinite and
raucous wit, is actually alive...

Last week, as usual, millions of U.S. citizens gathered at their radios
(NBC, 8 p.m., E.W.T.) to hear McCarthy confront and confound one of the
nation's names. This time it was Orson Welles. McCarthy (who, of course,
always has Scriptwriter Bergen on his side) blithely opened up: "Oh, Orson!
... . Oh, Wellesie! . . . Where is old fatso?" Welles came out of the wings
at NBC's Manhattan studios, and McCarthy chirped: "Why don't you release a
blimp for active service?" Once before, Welles had taken even worse abuse
from his radio host. That time the actor had asked "the Magnificent
Splinter" what he thought of the weighty Welles efforts on the air. Said
McCarthy: "At first I thought something had died in my radio."

Welles took it handsomely, as do most of McCarthy's targets, who are
invariably delighted to be ribbed by such a supereminence. In his wooden
insouciance, Charlie gets away with a candid vein of comment which is
unprecedented in radio. Via a small-boy character (which helps), Bergen
manages a titillating form of malice-without-malice. To judge by his
audiences, it is all hugely satisfying to the U.S. public. Charlie called
Gossipist Louella Parsons an "old blabbermouth," while confiding in an aside
that "everything will be all over town tomorrow." He referred to Emily Post
as "a vulture for culture" and dismissed her with: "It's been a charming
evening. By the way, Miss Emily, you don't have a toothpick on you?" He
asked rippling Paulette Goddard with elaborate sweetness: "Take away your
face and your figure and what have you got?" Of Beatrice ("Advice to the
Lovelorn") Fairfax he naughtily inquired: "Where do you learn all the things
you tell the young folks not to do?"

[...]

Charlie's personality was real to many people almost from the first time he
went on the air. Bergen did nothing to discourage this. Then the great W. C.
Fields joined the program for a season and railed away at Charlie's vital
fabric ("blockhead, woodenhead, flophouse for termites") with threats of
axing him to death, otherwise treating him as a dummy. Despite such
campaigns as Fields's, the illusion that Charlie is a person remains. People
often call Bergen Charlie. When Charlie greeted Eleanor Roosevelt for the
first time, she spontaneously started to shake hands with him.

Other ventriloquists may be more technically adept than Bergen, but he has
the great illusion-making power which springs out of imagination, taste and
an accurate sense of comedy. He is a scholar as well as a student of his
art, and wrote the Encyclopedia Britannica's article on it. The Greeks
called their ventriloquists "belly-prophets," and Bergen feels that the art
undoubtedly lay behind the ancient speaking statues and other temple
oracles. As to the requirements, Bergen says: "Ventriloquism is a cultivated
groan. It is as much of a gift as a good singing voice. If you have the gift
and if you are a good mimic, then you have a start in the right direction.
It is something you can learn as you can learn to be a good singer." But
once achieved, the ventriloquial quality can be lost. Bergen works hard on
his vocal exercises, practicing high notes, keeping Charlie's voice separate
from his, etc....

Charlie lives the life of Riley now. He and Bergen are not millionaires
(their belated success coincided with high income taxes and Charlie gets no
income-tax exemption), but they are very well off. Chase & Sanborn pays them
$7,500 weekly ($10,000 beginning next January); they now get $150,000 for a
motion picture; and their toys, games, etc. yield another $75,000 annually.

Charlie travels in style - in a plush-lined trunk. His bedroom in Bergen's
comfortable home on a hilltop outside Hollywood is just a shade smaller than
Bergen's huge one. Bergen's conceit is to give Charlie a bed, furniture,
tile bathroom with built-in shower, an array of perfumes and toilet waters.
Charlie also has a dresser to get him into his $75 suits (of which he has
scores) and $15 shoes (18 pairs). Among his other appurtenances are his Boy
Scout uniform, jockey's silks, a grease-monkey's zipper suit, a chamber pot
of the proper size. A dirty shirt hangs over the back of a chair (Bergen:
"To show he really lives there"). Charlie's stationery bears his motto : E
Pluribus Mow 'Em Downus. On his desk is a letter written, Bergen swears, in
Charlie's own hand writing, addressed to his teacher: "Please excuse Charlie
for being absent from school yesterday as he had lara laryn [crossed out] as
he attended his grand mother's funeral."

Alter Ego. If Edgar Bergen (with press agent help) has made himself a totem,
few men have ever had more provocation. Bergen, who is fond of children, is
seldom far from Charlie. He hires several gagwriters now in order to get
some time to himself. But what they contribute to the show is mainly
situations. Bergen gives the copy his own flavor. With the possible
exception of Fred Allen, he is the most original gagwriter in the U.S. He
finds brief intervals for his workshop, where he builds steam engines; his
desert ranch, where he likes to harvest the alfalfa; a ceramics business, a
gold mine, a non- profit foundation to help girls who want to study nursing.
Says he: "I have to try to convince myself that I can stand on my own feet
without Charlie. That is why I go into these businesses." Out of challenge
to himself, as much as anything else, Bergen created the different character
of Mortimer Snerd, Charlie's gap-toothed, appleknocking pal. (Bergen:
"Mortimer, how can you be so stupid?" Mortimer: "It ain't easy.") His still
more recent helper, Effie Klinker, a lady and bachelor girl ("not an old
maid . . . she turned down three offers and has an independent income"),
came into being for the same reason. There is also a stand-in dummy for
"dangerous scenes" in Charlie's pictures. "But," says Bergen, "I have no
love or sympathy for him." Bergen has recently alleged a general
restlessness: "I have reached rather an unfortunate time of my life. There
is nothing more tiring than looking forward to five or six more years of
radio. I am a creative artist and this is routine work now." But it is a
reasonably safe bet that his original alter ego will never seem routine to
him. Bergen has always been touchy about the backflap through which he
manipulates Charlie McCarthy's movements. Once an insensitive friend stuck
his hand through the flap. Bergen remained impassive, but Charlie sharply
protested: "My God, is nothing sacred?"

</>


--
Best
Greg