Ventriloquist Paul Winchell was a fixture in the early days of television. If he wasn't headlining his own show, he'd be making the rounds on other programs, often with his sidekicks, Jerry Mahoney & Knucklehead Smiff.
In 1965, Winchell hosted a 1 hour syndicated variety show for children, Winchell-Mahoney Time. Thanks to the magic of videotape, Winchell appears as a number of different characters in the open, uploaded by Tapthatt2012. The voices would be recycled in later years. For example, the Charlie Chaplin lookalike's voice would later be given to Fleegle of The Banana Splits 3 years later, and still later would be applied to the Scrubbing Bubbles for some bathroom cleaner ads.
Here's the open, along with the closing credits:
Rating: None. Never saw the show.
2 comments:
Cool video; this clip is new to me!
I recall being introduced to the world of Winchell and his dummies via the Three Stooges movie Stop, Look and Laugh. He was considered one of the better ventriloquists back when he was hot (mainly the '60s) along with guys like Senor Wences. (Those two REALLY kept their lips from moving!)
Winchell was also quite a smart guy, having at one point developed an artificial heart.
Loved Winchell as the voice of Tigger the most out of all his cartoon voices!
I think you can find the prototype for "Tigger" in that clip, too.
Winchell did a number of commercials back in the day, including one for Life Cereal that I discovered as well. I think I'll be putting that one up soon.
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