LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Edgar Bergen
built 615 days ago
Edgar Bergen met Frances Westerman during a radio program when he was 39 and she was only 19. Noticing Westerman in the audience, Bergen asked to meet the young fashion model, who was known as Frances Westcott during her modeling career. The two were married on 28 June 1945, and they remained married until Bergen's death in 1978. They were the parents of actress Candice Bergen, whose first performances were on Bergen's radio show, and Kris Bergen. Frances Bergen died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on October 2, 2006, aged 84, from undisclosed causes.[2]
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Born in Decatur, Michigan in 1903, Edgar Bergen developed a talent for ventriloquism at a young age. When Bergen asked a local carpenter to create a dummy, the wisecracking Charlie McCarthy was born. The duo began their career as talent show headliners, performing in Chicago while Bergen attended Northwestern University. Bergen eventually left Northwestern to concentrate on performing, but Charlie received an honorary degree from the school in 1938, a “Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comebacks.”
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Edgar Bergen was born on February 16, 1903. When he was in the eighth grade, he bought a book on ventriloquism and within a few years began to perform regularly on stage. His most famous character was based on a newsboy named Charlie that Bergen saw regularly working near his high school. Bergen drew a sketch of the newsboy and had a local woodcarver named Theodore Mack create a dummy based on the sketch. The smart-mouthed, eighth grade boy dressed in top hat and monocle that resulted was named for the newsboy and the woodcarver: Charlie McCarthy. Moving to the New York stage, the pair became very popular.
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Edgar Bergen was born in Chicago in 1903, the son of Swedish immigrants. At age 11, he sent away for a book of magic tricks called The Wizard's Manual and learned to project his voice. He was soon amusing and irritating parents and teachers with his talents. As a teenager, he had a local bartender carve a dummy for him out of pine-he named the dummy Charlie McCarthy, partly after the bartender, whose last name was Mac.
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From vaudeville to television, the Golden Age of Ventriloquism is showcased in this book profiling five famous vents: Edgar Bergen, Senor Wences, Paul Winchell, Jimmy Nelson, and Shari Lewis. Contains over 200 rare photograph reprints. A classic!
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In the late summer of 1978 after 56 years in show business, Bergen announced his retirement while performing at Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas. He died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 75 on September 30, 1978 only two weeks after his farewell opening performance.
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Edgar Bergen