Vent Haven: The Retirement Home for a Thousand Dummies

Five miles south of Cincinnati, in a quiet Fort Mitchell backyard, sit more than one thousand ventriloquist figures staring from glass cases, a museum that bills itself as the only one in the world dedicated entirely to the art of ventriloquism. The collection belongs to the legacy of William Shakespeare Berger, a Cincinnati businessman and amateur ventriloquist who spent sixty years, from nineteen ten until his death in nineteen seventy-two, gathering dummies, photographs, scripts, and memorabilia from performers around the world. His estate opened the museum to the public in nineteen seventy-three.

The figures come from twenty countries. Among them is a replica of Charlie McCarthy, the tuxedoed dummy who made Edgar Bergen a radio star in the nineteen thirties, an era when audiences accepted on faith that a ventriloquist could fool them on radio. The museum draws ventriloquists from around the world to its annual convention, making this unusual Fort Mitchell backyard the professional and historical center of a craft with ancient roots. The staring faces, row on row, have a quality that photographs do not prepare you for.