World-renowned ventriloquist Edgar Bergen engages in a bit of a dialogue with his hand at the October 22, 1963 meeting of the United Good Neighbors (United Way) in Cedar Rapids. He had left his famous sidekick, Charlie McCarthy, at his hotel, so he demonstrated “voice broadcasting” by painting a face on the back of his hand. (Gazette Archive)
While sorting through old negatives from the 1960s, I came across an envelope labeled “Edgar Bergen at Sunshine Mission, Tues.” October 22, 1963.”
What was Edgar Bergen, the famed ventriloquist whose career spanning nearly 60 decades in vaudeville, radio, film and television, doing in Cedar Rapids?
Bergen, the son of Swedish immigrants, attended Northwestern University and then went on the Chautauqua vaudeville circuit for 10 years with his model, Charlie McCarthy.
Then came radio stardom. Why a ventriloquist comedian, working in radio, would be so popular with bewildered critics. But Bergen brought his models to life even on the radio.
Iowa Connections
In 1939, Edgar Bergen heard of a farm girl from Iowa who wanted to become a nurse. To pay for his studies, his father was going to sell a heifer. But before the sale, a car hit the heifer and she died.
Bergen said he was forming a foundation to take the heifer’s place.
Over the next three years, the Bergen Foundation assisted 30 women with financial aid, with minimal publicity, while Bergen, with its ventriloquist models Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, visited Allied troops around the world during the Second World War.
In 1942, Bergen spotted Pat Patrick, a former circus clown from Strawberry Point, in a Los Angeles nightclub playing the squeaky-voiced Professor Ersel Twing. Bergen signed him up for the Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy radio show that airs on Sunday nights.
In January 1943, Patrick joined the Special Services and toured with Bergen, entertaining soldiers and selling bonds until the end of the war. In 1949, Patrick became the host of a Hollywood nightclub.
That same year, news reports credited Charlie McCarthy with purchasing $10,000 worth of war bonds for the Harvard City Jail, Neb.
A 16-year-old local boy had inadvertently purchased the prison as part of a tax sale while buying land to plant victory gardens. The teenager decided to auction the prison. Bergen, via Charlie McCarthy, let the bid go up to $5,000, then doubled the bid.
When asked what he would do with the prison, Charlie replied, “I could make an aviary out of it and raise jailers.”
These images
Back to the 1963 envelope and negatives.
The photos were taken at the Sunshine Mission, a program started in 1895 to care for transients, collect clothes for the needy and provide day care for the children of working women.
In 1963, the mission was at 121 Second St. NE, where United Good Neighbors (later United Way) held a “report meeting” on October 22 on its fundraising campaign.
Bergen and Charlie were in Cedar Rapids the night before to perform at the Cedar Rapids Executive Club’s 25th anniversary event. They had spent the night at the Roosevelt Hotel downtown.
Bergen was 60 and known around the world when he walked into the United Good Neighbors reunion – without Charlie, his alter ego.
Harold Ward, grandson of the Reverend Francis K. Ward, the man who founded the Sunshine Mission, was in charge of the program and handed over to Bergen.
Bergen spoke about the importance of laughter and the history of ventriloquism, saying there was evidence that Egyptian temple priests had been ventriloquists.
He said that when asked to write an article on ventriloquism for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he referred books on the subject. He received a book – the one he had written.
His audience was then treated to a brief demonstration of his talent. He drew a face on the back of his hand, wrapped it in a towel and engaged in a dialogue with his improvised dummy.
After the Bergen visit, donations to United Good Neighbors jumped 23%.
Bergen, the father of actress Candice Bergen, would continue to entertain for another 15 years before his death in 1978 at age 75.
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Pat Patrick (left), who played Professor Ersel Twing on the Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy radio show on Sunday night, was born in Strawberry Point. They are shown in this October 27, 1946 photo from The Gazette. (Gazette Archive)
Comedian Edgar Bergen and his sidekick, Charlie McCarthy, are shown in 1947 reading an NBC Radio comic strip, “On the Air”, which chronicles what goes on behind the scenes of a radio broadcast. Bergen and Charlie had their own national radio show on Sunday nights. (NBC Radio)
The Sunshine Mission is shown on July 29, 1967, its last day of operation at 121 Second St. NE, with its last superintendent, Henry Messinger, in the foreground. Noted ventriloquist Edgar Bergen participated in a meeting at the mission in 1963, helping raise funds for United Good Neighbors (United Way). (Gazette Archive)
World-renowned ventriloquist Edgar Bergen speaks October 22, 1963 at a United Good Neighbors (United Way) meeting in Cedar Rapids. (Gazette Archive)
World-renowned ventriloquist Edgar Bergen engages in a bit of a dialogue with his hand at the October 22, 1963 meeting of the United Good Neighbors (United Way) in Cedar Rapids. He had left his famous sidekick, Charlie McCarthy, at his hotel, so he demonstrated “voice broadcasting” by painting a face on the back of his hand. (Gazette Archive)
