Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy

Edgar Bergen's act with an Irish newspaper boy puppet named Charlie McCarthy was featured in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936.  After touring all over the country with the show,  it finally came to New York City for a Broadway opening.  

When the show arrived in New York it was running too long.  Shows were timed to coordinate with the train schedule and performances that ran late were not as well attended as those that didn't.  Ziegfeld needed to cut eight minutes out of the show.  Most of the numbers were expensive extravaganzas with lots of costumed show girls.  These production numbers would be expensive to eliminate because of the investment in costumes and sets. As he looked at the show's running order the act of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy was running exactly eight minutes long.  It was a single act performed in front of a curtain. They could trim the show to the right time by firing Edgar Bergen, which they did.

Bergen found himself stranded in New York with no job.  His friend Noel Coward recommended him as an entertainer for the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center.  It was a sophisticated supper club where the gentlemen dressed in tails, and Mr. Bergen decided that Charlie wouldn't look right dressed as a newsboy.  So he dressed Charlie in top hat and tails. In his white tie and top hat Bergen thought Charlie looked like Eskie Esquire the monocled mascot of Esquire Magazine.  He added a monocle to Charlie's outfit for that extra element of sophistication and Charlie McCarty the  Artdeco icon was born.  

At the Rainbow Room Elsa Maxwell, the party host of New York, came to the show and was so impressed she invited Edgar and Charlie to perform at one of her parties.  The Maxwell parties were well known as the social event of the elite.  Radio and recording star Rudy Vallée was one of the guests at this particular party.  He happened to be a fan of ventriloquism, and even had a McElroy vent figure of his own.  He hired Mr. Bergen to perform on his highly rated radio show the next week.  From two or three guest appearances on the Rudy Vallée show Mr. Bergen was given his own Radio show which ran from 1937 until 1956.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Mr. Bergen died thirty years ago at Ceasar's Palace opening for Andy Williams.  Mr. Bergen had announced his retirement a few weeks before, but Andy persuaded him to make this Vegas appearance as a farewell.  Bergen ended his show with by saying "all vaudevillians know when it is time to leave the stage, so I wish you good night and good bye."   Andy came on stage and sang "September Song" as Mr. Bergen took his bows.  He died sometime in his sleep that night. He was 75 years old.

As you were,

Jay