Shirley Dinsdale and Judy Splinters

Female ventriloquists are pretty rare. So it's always weird to find a forgotten one, especially one who might be remembered for garnering the first Emmy award ever given. Shirley Dinsdale might have been talented, but Judy Splinters was surely ugly as all get-out.

This 1945 radio show (not embeddable) features her act in its prime, starting after the 3-minute mark.

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 22, 2016
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Entertainment | Puppets and Automatons | 1940s

Comments

Nina Conti & her granny is pretty good.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 01/22/16 at 10:04 AM

Egads, Lambchop on the Ed Sullivan (Really Big) Show.

Posted by BMN on 01/22/16 at 10:48 AM

The idea of a radio ventriloquist is truly bizarre, but that's where Edgar Bergen staked his claim to fame.

Posted by ges on 01/22/16 at 11:33 AM

Some of my earliest memories (I'm 68) are of listening to the radio. "Buster Brown", "The Shadow", "Amos & Andy", and a flock more that have been lost to cellular decay. It's hard to put into words but what the eyes couldn't see the mind created. I wore Buster Brown's shoes so I KNEW what he, and his dog looked like. I'd seen pictures of Amos and Andy, and the rest so it was natural to mentally fill in the blanks.

I can still taste pulled Shmoo.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 01/22/16 at 11:45 AM

Doing a stint on a nationally broadcast show at the age of 19. I sometimes feel that I have led a drab, dreary existence. At that age I had on a few things on my mind - beer, weed and women.

Posted by KDP on 01/22/16 at 12:10 PM

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