Ventriloquist figures
produced by the McElroy brothers are far and few between because
they produced so few of them. At present there are only around 30
known to exist, although it is said by some that they may have made
upwards of 100 dummies.
This particular example is one of their earliest having been made
around 1937. This is the vent figure that was pictured in the
Abbott's Catalogue #4 of that same year. I have pictures of that
catalogue also for you to see. This model was made in 2 versions the
Standard which had only 3 movements, slot jaw, sneer and floating
eyebrows or the Deluxe model that had 13 functions. The dummy you
see here is a very special one because it had to have been custom
ordered because it is in the middle to the two styles listed in the
catalogue. My figure has the following functions,slot jaw, upper lip
sneer ( smile), floating eyes side to side, eyes look, eyes look
down, eyes can cross, floating eyebrows, left eye winks and also
pulls down the left eyebrow at the same time. That is a total of 8
functions.
This particular McElroy dummy was purchased directly from The
MElroys at Abbott's Magic Factory by one of Abbott's wood workers ,
who made magical apparatus. His name was Lyman Hugg. He owned this
figure from 1937 until he sold it to the second owner in 1961.
The second owner was a ventriloquist playing in a traveling carny
show and the show was playing in Michigan near Colon , where Mr.
Hugg worked. Mr Hugg went to the show and saw the ventriloquist
performing and after the show he went and found the performer, Floyd
Bradbury, and asked him if he would be interested in an old
ventriloquist dummy that he owned. Floyd said he would be interested
and when Mr Hugg opened the case Floyd immediately said yes and
forked over the princely sum of $150.00 for his new friend. Remember
this was 1961 and $150.00 was a ton of money to most at that time.
Mr Bradbury used this ventriloquist figure from 1961 until 2001 when
he retired. From then until now it was packed away in a closet until
I found out that Mr Bradbury was interested in selling him. We
negotiated for some time and now the McElroy is a part of my ever
expanding ventriloquist figure collection. I hope you enjoy looking
at him!!. |
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