Edgar Bergen

Edgar John Bergen (February 16 1903 – September 30 1978) was an Academy Award-winning American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist. Bergen was born Edgar John Bergren in Chicago, Illinois, to a Swedish family and grew up in Decatur, Michigan. He taught himself ventriloquism from a pamphlet when he was eleven. A few years later he commissioned Chicago woodcarver Theodore Mack to sculpt a likeness of a rascally Irish newspaperboy he knew. The head went on a puppet named Charlie McCarthy, who became Bergen's lifelong sidekick. At age sixteen, he came to Chicago, where he attended Lake View High School and worked at a silent movie house. His first performances were in vaudeville, at which point he legally changed his last name to the eaiser-to-pronounce "Bergen". He also worked in one-reel movie shorts, but his real success was on the radio. He and Charlie were seen at a New York party by Elsa Maxwell for Noel Coward, who recommended them for an engagement at the... full article at wikipedia