Two dummies were talking …

From afar, it looked as if the two dummies were talking to each other, carrying on a silent conversation that none of us auction-goers could hear.

Maybe they were making fun of us in our blue jeans, flat shoes and determined faces alighting from table to table, picking up one item and then moving on to the next. Or maybe they were deciding which of us they’d rather go home with.

Not that one with the kids running unattended down the aisle. Or that one talking loud and telling lies. Or that one hastily shoving aside boxes and papers on a table. What about that one taking her time with each item?

Danny O’Day, his stare fixed on Lester, seemed to be doing most of the talking. Lester was just sitting there, bemused, taking it all in and trying not to laugh out loud at us.

The two dummies were waiting to be sold recently at auction, set among a collection of dolls their size and taller. I didn’t see too many people picking them up from their plush maroon chair and pulling their cords to make them speak. I didn’t bother them, either, but I noticed a label protruding from Danny’s clothes identifying who he was. Danny O’ Day was the “brains” behind ventriloquist Jimmy Nelson.

The Lester dummy, I learned, was made in 1973 by the Eegee Doll Co., the second doll modeled after ventriloquist Willie Tyler’s sidekick. The doll’s head was a Howdy Doody mold that was darkened and the hair sewn in, according to an eBay guide. The earliest doll was made by Juro Novelty Co. in the 1960s and resembled the true Lester, the website noted.

There were other black ventriloquist dolls, including Willie Talk produced around 1972 by the Horsman Doll Co.

This Lester was missing his round-rimmed glasses. Click on photo below for a full view.

This was not the first time I had come across a dummy at auction. About two years ago, a Paul Winchell Jerry Mahoney doll was sold at another auction house. Someone had written its name in ink on a tag attached to its arm.

Like Jerry, the two dolls at the latest auction had glad expressions on their faces. Also like Jerry, they had their own stories to tell.

Tyler began performing with his dummy in the 1960s, and they both became popular enough to spawn the Lester dolls. He was influenced by Winchell and Jerry after seeing them on TV. Tyler started performing when he was 10 years old in his hometown of Detroit, and learned how to be a ventriloquist through a correspondence course. He signed with Motown and toured with such premier groups as the Temptations and Smoky Robinson and the Miracles. He and Lester appeared on many TV shows.

Tyler was continuing a legacy of African American ventriloquists starting with John W. Cooper and his dummy Sam Jackson at the turn of the 20th century. In later years, Cooper offered pointers to such ventriloquists as Shari Lewis.

I remembered Danny from those ubiquitous Nestle commercials from the 1960s that ended with the stuffed dog Farley stretching out the word “chocolate” and snapping his mouth shut. Danny worked with Nelson, who started out in the 1950s. Nelson got his first dummy as a Christmas gift from an aunt when he was 10 years old.

He performed in amateur shows in Chicago, and got so big that he figured it was time to have a real doll made by the master dummy-maker Frank Marshall. Nelson first appeared on television in 1955 and soon started the Nestle commercials, which lasted for about 10 years.

At the auction, the dolls didn’t turn out to be as great a hit as their shows. As I recall, they both sold as a pair for about $30.