The Washington times., 1937-11-27
lin Hollywood.
BY ED SULLIVAN
Public Wooden Head, No. I


piece de resistance of the evening. Bergen,
that is, with his Charlie Mccarthy. So while
he was waiting to go on, I asked him to give
me the case-history of Mccarthy. "A lot of
stories have been told about Charlie" said
Edgar, "and most of them wrong. It was
while was in second year at Lakeview High
School, Chicago, that got Charlie, and he
cost me exactly $S6. A wood carver, Theo-
dore Mack, now dead, down on Van Buren
St., made the head up for me. Charles
head has outlasted the rest of his body.
I've made up about 20 bodies and sets
of hands, and about Is suits for him, but the
wear and tear have made no impression on
his head.
~ AIRY GRANT and Groucho Marx inter-
~ rupted US for a minute, and then Ber-
gen continued: Cup to the time that paid
$36 for Charles manufacture, I'd been using
a papier mache dummy, you know, sort of
a mask effect, but it was no good. My first
engagement as ventriloquist, the first for
which I was paid, was at broken down
theater on Clark Street, Chicago. I was to
receive $5, but the manager liked nv act
and gave me $5.25. Twas still going to high
school at the time, but later branched out
on Lyceum tours, and the money l made
sent me through Northwestern University.
I guess the courses took there in public
speaking aided me more than any other
single thing. The dean just sent me letter
saying that the school was giving Charlie
an honorary degree"
TTOW did he get the name of Charlie Nc
Ill Carthy for his famous dummy? "There
was a little, freckled-faced Irish newsboy
who used to sell papers outside Lakeview
High School, whose name was Charlie, so
that explains the first half of it. The man
who made up the head was Theodore Mack,
but instead of calling him Charlie Mack, 1
decided that Mccarthy had more rhythm to
it. That's how he was baptized"
TIE had been fairly successful from the
IL start: "For time everything went
along swell. My vaudeville salary mounted
from $3.50 week up to $3.50 week, and
played the famous Palace in New York. It
was while Frank Fay was having his sensa-
tional run there as master of ceremonies.
Then I started doing mite club work, and it
was at the House of Morgan in New York
that you caught my act and wrote: Edgar
Bergen will definitely be one of the comedy
sensations of 1885, I thought then that all
of my troubles were over, Ed, because you
had started the Ritz Brothers, Frances Lang
ford and a lot of other embryo stars, and
figured that your judgment was the last
word"
O. o what happened? "The minute your
- column boosted me, the Shuberts en-
gagged me for the 'Ziegfeld Follies' Remenn-
ber, you came over to Philadelphia for the
opening, and later all of us were at Jack
Lynch's Hotel Adelphia, with Governor Earle
and Mrs. Earle? At the moment, thought
was sitting on top of the world-and then
the Shuberts released me just before the
'Follies' were to open in New York Then
I was supposed to join Abe Lyman at the
College Inn, Chicago, and an agent got the
whole thing balled up, so Lyman fired me,
too, because was doubling at the State
Lake Theater, Chicago, and Abe wouldn't
stand for it,
WHAT did he do then? "Just what you'd
w have done, Ed, I started brooding over
it one night in Chicago, and said to myself:
Edgar, this is where you come in. Let us 60
to the Chez Paree and get good and drunk
and forget the whole thing I arrived at the
Chez Paree in exactly that mood, but hadn't
even ordered the first drink when Joey
Jacobson, one of the partners, came over and
said: When can you open here for me, Ber-
gen? and / opened the next night, and the
act was big hit. All of my success dates
from that engagement. It's all rather fan
tastic, this success.
IT'S age? "Tll be 35 on my next birthday,
II February 16." His family my mother
and brother are alive nv dad is dead Mother