The Past Is A Blast
Keeping The Flame Of The Past
Start Reliving Yesterday Today

Free PDF Catalog
Nostalgia Club
Nostalgia Lifestyles Blog
Classic Games & More
Decades Of Fun Facts
Remember When
Shipping Policies
Customer Comments
Behind The Scenes
Contact Us
OTR Resources

Click Here To Visit Your Nostalgia Headquarters Group Of Sites

Take our Nostalgia Quizzes & More where you can see how much you remember from the "good ole days".

All American Old Time Radio Show Classic

The Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy
Radio Show 2 CD Set

For a small taste of this great series,
listen to the preview below.

This show comes on CD In MP3 Format

Born on February 16, 1903, Edgar John Bergen was a multi-talented man in that he was an actor and radio performer, and was best known as a ventriloquist. His first performances were in vaudeville and one-reel movie shorts. However, his real success was on the radio for The Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Decatur Michigan. He taught himself ventriloquism from a pamphlet when he was 11. A few years later he commissioned Chicago woodcarver Theodore Mack to sculpt a likeness of a rascally Irish newspaper boy he knew. The head went on a puppet named Charlie McCarthy, who became Bergen's lifelong sidekick. While Bergen was not the most technically skilled ventriloquist, his sense of comedic timing was superb, and he handled Charlie's snappy dialogue with aplomb. Bergen's wit in creating McCarthy's striking personality and that of his other characters was the making of the show. We lost this very talented man on September 30, 1978.

He and Charlie got their start when they were seen by Elsa Maxwell at a party in New York for Noel Coward, who recommended them for an engagement at the famous Rainbow Room. It was there that two producers saw Bergen and Charlie perform. They then recommended them for a guest appearance on Rudy Vallee's program. The appearance was so successful that the next year they were given their own show. Under various sponsors, they were on the air from December 17, 1937 to July 1, 1956. His popularity as a ventriloquist on radio, when one could see neither the dummies nor his skill, surprised and puzzled many critics, then and now. However, it was Bergen's skill as an entertainer and vocal performer, and especially his characterization of Charlie, that carried the show over. Luckily, many of the shows have survived and are available for audiences today to experience the phenomenon firsthand. This collection has over 130 great episodes, for 70 plus hours of fun and laughter with Edgar and Charlie and lots of very famous guests. The preview below is the one with Marilyn Monroe.

Bergen developed other characters, for the radio program. The slow-witted Mortimer Snerd and the man-hungry Effie Klinker. The star, however, was Charlie, who was always presented as a child. Albeit, in top hat, cape, and monocle, with a debonair, girl-crazy, child-about-town attitude. As a child, and a wooden one at that, Charlie could get away with double entendre that adult humans could not under broadcast standards of the day. A regular feature of the show was Charlie's feud with W. C. Fields was a regular feature of the show.

In addition to his work in radio and film, Bergen also made numerous appearances on television during his career. In a Thanksgiving special sponsored by Coca-Cola in 1950, the new character Podine Puffington was introduced. This saucy southern belle was as tall as a real woman, in contrast to Bergen's other sit-on-the-knee sized characters. Bergen also hosted the television show Do You Trust Your Wife? in 1956, later to be replaced by Johnny Carson. Bergen continued to appear regularly on television in the 1960s. For example, he did a stint as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday night CBS TV program.

Bergen appeared as Grandpa Walton in the original The Walton's movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971). Throughout the run of The Walton's, which took place in the late 1930s through the 1940s, the voices of Bergen and Charlie McCarthy were sporadically heard from the Walton family's radio, as family members regularly tuned in that program.

In case you are wondering, yes, Edgar Bergen and his wife Frances Westerman were the parents of actress Candice Bergen, whose first performances were on Bergen's radio show, and Kris Bergen.

Enjoy the famous Bergen comedic wit in over 130 episodes and better then 70 hours of hilarity contained on CD.

The following are the episodes contained on the two CD set.

We want to thank Wikipedia for some of the background information on this show.

Presented for your enjoyment is an entire episode for you to sample.

Order Today, Only $15.97

To order off line, please use our Mail Order Form, click here.
 

Copyright 2007, DeFiore Enterprises All Rights Reserved

Order Today, Only $15.97