Word: bergen
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That lug was Edgar Bergen, who 20 years ago, at 16, sketched Charlie's features after those of a ragamuffin Chicago newsboy, paid $35 to have them whittled in wood by a woodcarving barkeep named Mack, and since then has made a tidy fortune speaking his nimble mind through Charlie's lips. Bergen himself is professionally shy, so that the fresh guy, Charlie, seems a distinct personality...
...there is to Charlie is that original red-wigged block of wood, and an oft-replaced body inside which is a trigger with which Bergen makes the little fellow leer, bow, grimace. He has a standin, used in cinema work and for some publicity stills; a wardrobe that includes a supply of monocles, two full dress suits, a supply of starchy linen, ten hats size 3½, including several toppers, two berets; a Sherlock Holmes outfit, jockey silks, a cowboy suit, a French Foreign Legion uniform, a gypsy costume ("It's the Gypsy in me"). He wears baby-size...
...great W. C. Fields, whom Charlie (Bergen) consistently outgagged, whether Fields stuck to the script or not during their five and a half months together on the program, really wanted to demolish Charlie (not Bergen). There was a genuine, jealous glint in the old fellow's eye when he once threatened: "I'll carve you into a Venetian blind." "Oh Mr. Fields," minced Charlie, "you make me shudder...
Charlie got in Shirley Temple's curls once, too. "McCarthy," said Bergen, "I want you to meet the sweetest little girl on the screen." Charlie looked down archly from his perch on Bergen's knee. "Not Jane Withers!" he chuckled...
Ventriloquism was never a radio art. It still isn't. But thoroughly part of radio art is Bergen's clever line, for which his alma mater, Northwestern University, in 1937 awarded Charlie the honorary degree of Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback. An assistance also is the fact that Charlie's person, due to his vast press, is almost as well known to radio listeners as his sage, snide, bored voice. Charlie and Bergen collect $100,000 a year from the sale of dolls, gadgets, silverware and other copies of cocky Charlie...