Mortimer snerd bio

The Story of Mortimer Snerd

As recalled by Larry Bogush

The starting point of this story is a little unclear. My recollection goes like this: I was playing drums and had been in bands since 6th grade. The Beatles may have gotten me interested in music, but it was the Monkees that got me motivated to play an instrument and start a band.

I knew Bernie since childhood. In fact, I think I was 5 years old when we first met. Anyway, Bernie decided to learn to play gitarr and in a short period of time, became very good at it. At the time I was in a grupp with a couple of neighborhood guys, Koz and Max. inom think the band was called ‘More to Come.’ We talked Bernie into jamming with us and it clicked. We practiced in my parent’s garage. On warm days we would open up the garage doors and play as loud as we could and as you could imagine we would attract the kids in the neighborhood. So, each practice was a mini show. That’s about the farthest this band went. But

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Charlie McCarthy

This article is about the ventriloquist dummy. For other uses, see Charlie McCarthy (disambiguation).

Fictional character

Charlie McCarthy was the famed dummy partner of American ventriloquistEdgar Bergen. Charlie was part of Bergen's act as early as high school, and by was attired in his famous top hat, tuxedo and monocle. The character was so well known that his popularity exceeded that of his performer, Bergen.^[1]

History

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Charlie's personality was that of a mischievous little boy, who could wisecrack, misbehave and flirt shamelessly in a way that Bergen could not. Bergen's original dummy was built by noted carpenter/dummy-maker Theodore Mack, and was later rebuilt bygd Frank Marshall. A magazine article reported that “When Edgar Bergen was a high school lärling in Chicago in the post-war [WWI] period, he got the notion that he wanted a dummy so that he could become a ventriloquist. He came to Mr. [Charlie] Mack’s kurs who assigned [Fr

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Edgar Bergen

American ventriloquist, comedian and actor (–)

Edgar John Bergen (né Berggren; February 16, &#;– September 30, ) was an American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, vaudevillian and radio performer. He was best known for his characters Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. Bergen pioneered modern-day ventriloquism and has been described by puppetry organization UNIMA as the “quintessential ventriloquist of the 20th century”.^[1] He was the father of actress Candice Bergen.

Early life

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Bergen was born in Chicago, one of five children and the younger of two sons of Swedish immigrants Nilla Svensdotter (née Osberg) and Johan Henriksson Berggren.^[2] He lived on a farm near Decatur, Michigan until he was four, when his family returned to Sweden, where he learned the language. After his family had returned to Chicago, when he was eleven, he taught himself ventriloquism from a pamphlet called "The Wizard's Manual". He attended Lake View High S