Fort Mitchell – Vent Haven

The first thing I noticed when I walked into Vent Haven was the silence.

There I was, surrounded by hundreds of jokesters, each looking like they had a story to tell about life back home, wherever that is — small town, big city, or somewhere in between where they told jokes or stories that made people laugh. But none said a word. 

Not that they can’t talk. They do, when the right person is around.

You and I know that person as a ventriloquist. And the silent ones at Vent Haven? They are among the many ventriloquist dolls, aka dummies, that skilled illusionists have used to entertain audiences for more than 140 years. 

Vent Haven Museum — A Haven For Ventriloquist Dolls 

“Every ventriloquist you’ve ever heard of has been here,” Vent Haven Museum tour facilitator Bryan Sweasy told me as I walked into an exhibition room of about 300 or so museum dummies.

He wasn’t wrong. I only knew names of a few ventriloquists before I visited Vent Haven, and one of those names was Edgar Bergen. The voice of iconic dummies Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd ushered in the heyday of modern ventriloquism, from vaudeville through the 1940s. Everyone knows about Edgar Bergen.

And Bergen knew about Vent Haven. He performed with Snerd on a flatbed truck in front of the museum at 33 West Maple Street in Fort Mitchell, Ky. when the museum opened in 1973. Photos of Bergen on the truck bed that day hang next to a poster-size publicity still of Bergen, McCarthy, and Snerd. Replicas of both dolls seated are a few feet away.

If you are wondering where the original dolls are, here’s the lowdown. Only four authentic Charlies still exist, with the Smithsonian and Bergen’s daughter, Candice Bergen, each in possession of one, said Sweasy. Illusionist David Copperfield owns the only authentic Mortimer Snerd. I was happy to see the replicas.

Jeff Dunham is another name I knew before my Vent Haven tour. Dunham, I discovered, is on the Board of Advisors for the museum. An entire corner is filled with Dunham career memorabilia. You’ll see a “Walter” dummy and “Achmed” dummy from Dunham’s bevy of well-loved ventriloquist dolls. There’s also a pretty funny school picture on hand of a teenage Dunham posing with one of his early dummies back in Texas.

There’s also Willie Tyler (“Lester”) — who’s on the Vent Haven Board of Advisors with Dunham– and the late Wayland Flowers (“Madame,” who regularly starred on Hollywood Squares in the 1960s and 70s), both familiar to me. Both have pretty fantastic exhibits at the museum, too.

Ventriloquist greats from generations past (Paul Winchell, Jimmy Nelson) with whom I wasn’t familiar are honored at Vent Haven. There are new ventriloquists, too — Darci Lynne (“Petunia” from America’s Got Talent), a young ventriloquist singer who has gained incredible fame in the last few years, has a Petunia dummy, photos, and more on exhibit.

The History Of Vent Haven

Vent Haven is home to more than 950 dummies, with all but about 150 on display. The collection was started by a Cincinnati tile company president named William Shakespeare Berger who became a great friend to ventriloquism (even though he wasn’t known as a great ventriloquist). 

A former President of the International Brotherhood of Ventriloquists, Berger had well over 500 dummies at the time of his death in 1972. With no family left to inherit his wealth, Berger left his house at 33 West Maple Avenue, its grounds, and all his money to his dummies. This is where Vent Haven Museum sits today.

Now Vent Haven is planning an expansion. A new museum facility is scheduled to be built at the current museum site after the Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVENTion is held the third week of July 2021. Plans are for the museum to close Aug. 1, 2021 and reopen by May 1, 2022, said Sweasy.

Oldest, Most Valuable, & The Unexpected

• The oldest ventriloquist dolls at Vent Haven are papier-mâché heads that Sweasy said date to the 1870s. Some of the heads look eerily human; ventriloquist doll makers would later begin incorporating characturish large eyes and mouths into their dummies, to distract from the mouth of the ventriloquist.

• The oldest doll, dummy or otherwise, in the collection is “Hunter Girl,” an 1840s China doll that was converted to a ventriloquist doll, not originally made as one.

• The most valuable dolls at Vent Haven? Unbelievably complex dummies made in Ohio in the 1930s by the McElroy brothers. Only approximately 40 McElroy dummies were ever made, with 10 of those at Vent Haven. Four more belong to Jeff Dunham, said Sweasy. One of the McElroy dummies in the Vent Haven collection is “Cecil Wigglenose,” so named because the ventriloquist can wiggle the dummy’s nose. The circa 1937 dummy can also be made to wink, move its ears, cross its eyes, and make its hair stand on end, plus other tricks.

• Unexpected for me was an original painting from director and artist Tim Burton. It’s a self portrait of Burton (in red and white stripes) and three friends with ventriloquist dummies. The piece was donated to Vent Haven by an animator who had worked with Burton.

Want To Visit?

Vent Haven has more to offer than un-Tucked can cover. So why not make the trip to Fort Mitchell and see the museum for yourself? Tours last about an hour, are by appointment only, and are worth the trip even if you have to come from out of state.

Check out the Vent Haven website for more information, including directions to the museum.