Hello everyone, and welcome back once again to “Old Time Radio History”. Today, we’ve got a…unique attraction for a radio program. I present to you:
Yes. You’ve just seen a ventriloquist and his dummy. Question: Does anyone think that Charlie remind you of a sophisticated version of Slappy from Night of the Living Dummy in the Goosebumps series? Or am I just a lunatic?
Anyway, Edgar and Charlie were a great success in the early days of Old Time Radio, and continued on through the 1940s and jumping across media platforms in the 1950s. Now, remember the post I did on “The War of the Worlds”. Well, Edgar and Charlie were also on the air at the same time that the “end of the world” was supposed to happen. Some of the supposed hysteria came from the notion that, while the orchestra was playing in the middle of the show, listeners swapped channels to the middle of the faux-news broadcasts.
Did you enjoy Edgar, Charlie and Mortimer (the other dummy)? Come back next week, and we’ll get going on another serious focus in Old Time Radio. Until next time, I am the Baumeister, and I have been, obediently yours.
Baumeister 