LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - THE BERGENS

According to my blogging buddy Ivan:
Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy debut on THE CHASE AND SANBORN HOUR seventy-six years ago [this past Thursday.]

EDGAR BERGEN

[Also appearing: Frances Bergen and a few wooden friends.....]

AS SEEN IN:

'Bachelor Father'

"A Visit With The Bergens"

From Wikipedia:

Edgar John Bergen (February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist and also the father of actress Candice Bergen.

Charlie McCarthy was always presented as a highly precocious child (albeit in top hat, cape, and monocle) – a debonair, girl-crazy, child-about-town. As a child and a wooden one at that, Charlie could get away with double entendres which were otherwise impossible under broadcast standards of the time.

They were given their own show, as part of "The Chase and Sanborn Hour". Under various sponsors (and two different networks), they were on the air from May 9, 1937 to July 1, 1956. The popularity of a ventriloquist on radio, when one could see neither the dummies nor his skill, surprised and puzzled many critics, then and now.

In 1941, Bergen met 19 year old Frances Westerman, who had graduated from Los Angeles High School the year before, in the audience of Bergen's radio program as the guest of a member of his staff. Sitting in the front row, the young fashion model's legs caught 38 year old Bergen's attention and he asked to meet her. The two were married in Mexico after years of long-distance courtship, on June 28, 1945. On May 9, 1946 Frances gave birth to future actress Candice Bergen, whose first performances were on Bergen's radio show. They also became the parents of film and television editor Kris Bergen, born on October 12, 1961. 

It was in mid-September 1978 that he announced that he was retiring after 56 years in show business and sending his monocled, top-hatted partner to the Smithsonian Institution. He opened at Caesar's Palace Hotel Las Vegas on September 27, for a two week farewell to show business engagement. He died three days later in his sleep ofkidney disease at age 75.

For more, click here.

From YouTube:

Uploaded on Dec 17, 2010

SORRY, AUDIO IS OUT OF SYNCH DUE TO PROBLEMS WITH CONVERSION PROGRAM

[Seen here with Bentley Gregg]

BCnU!