Best known as a ventriloquist, Northwestern School of Speech alum got his start in radio (oddly, perhaps, since you can't see the dummy!), and almost immediately received a special Academy Award for short films and musicals. Originally called The Chase And Sanborn Show (after its sponsor)...
Bergen was born in Decatur, Michigan in 1903 to Swedish immigrant parents, John and Nellie Berggren. Bergen became interested in ventriloquism as a boy, and carved the head of his famous dummy, Charlie McCarthy -- based on an illustration of a cocky Irish newsboy in a history book illustration -- when he was 11. He went on to develop a number of famous creations including Mortimer Snerd, Effie Klinker, and Podine Puffington. When he was 16, he moved to Chicago and worked at a silent movie house.
Bergen inadvertently contributed to one of the greatest spoofs of all time: Because of the popular Charlie McCarthy/Edgar Bergen radio program, many listeners tuned in late to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds, and didn't hear the disclaimer at the outset of the program that it was a fictional broadcast, leading to nationwide panic...
Bergen died at the age of 75 due to kidney disease. His daughter Candice is "Murphy Brown" on the television series.
Got a correction? Click
Here
