Results: Weird Music Wednesday: Musical Ventriloqusts and Their Dummies

While reading a PDF of a 1972 issue of Billboard Magaziner corresponding to a recent American Top 40 rebroadcast, I saw an ad in its country music section for a single being promoted to radio and retail workers for their considertion: "Burn Your Bra Baby" by Alex Houson & Elmer. If you couldn't guess from this poll's title, Alex Houston is a ventriloquist, and Elmer is the dummy Houston voices. I don't recall ever having seen their (his?) act, but I'm assuming the song's encouragements given to ladies to incinerate their undergarments--recall that Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" was a #1 pop hit the same year, so-called women's lib' was a big cultural deal 52 years ago -- were made by Elmer. Have you ever heard (of) a ventriloquist's dummy "singing" a song?

If you've never heard a dummy "sing," you likely never heard one "rap" either! But Wayne & Charlie (The Rapping Dummy) did just that (yes, the paretheses are part of the name listed on their records). But, they only seemed to have recorded two records with four years between them. The first. 1982's "Check It Out," features a bit of rhyming by Wayne (Garland) but most of the MC'ing is from Charlie (Chocks; yes the dummy has a last name). As might be expected of a music video from recorded hip-hop music's early days fearuring a ventriloquist and dummy, the action in the clip accompanying this question is rather static. But do you think Wayne's mouth would've been at least a bit more open during live performances of their tunes?

Having just encountered Alex & Elmer, which got me to recalling Wayne & Charlie, I got to thinking that there must be footage--if not recordings that were for sale--of what may be the most famous dummy in US show business history, Charlie McCarthy, and its (his?) ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen. The closetst thing to thing I could find in a quick search is the duo being sung to by Muppets when Bergman and McCarthy guested on The Muppet Show. But maybe McCarthy or Bergen's other best-known dummy, Mortimer Snerd, sang on their radio show, which ran from the late 1930's to the mid- '50's. Do you find it odd that a performer so reliant on a visual hook, such a ventriloquist, would star in a show in a wholly sound-based medium such as radio?

The most prolific dummy ever to have recording credits was also configured throughout the years as a hand puppet and marionette. Little Marcy was voiced by puppeter/singer/trombonist/pianist Marcy Tigner. The character is credited for at least 25 albums from the mid-1960's to the early '80's, combined sales of which exceed 2,000,000 copies. Little Marcy also starred in TV specials, performed in evangelistic crusades & sold-out concerts and was the basis for toys, books, and other merchancdise. Though Tigner kept her character's activities within the Christian/gospel music domain, the first iteration of Little Marcy was created by the same person who crafted Charlie McCarththy. Before reading this question, were you aware of Little Marcy and/or Tigner?

I don't know whether there are any musical numbers on the only album I know to have been recorded by Willie Tyler and his dummy, Lester, as I could find nothing from it online, but their Hello Dummy! album from 1965 is one of the few comedy releases from a Motown Records-affiliated label. I remember Tyler and Lester from their stint on the Laugh-In TV show in the '70's; here they are during a 1980's awards show, with Lester going on about songs he "wote" and ending with sort of musical duet betwen ventriloquist and dummy. Are you impressed?