"Ventriloquism today is in a slump. Children today haven't been exposed to it... Edgar Bergen was an enormous hit in radio. But I think television defeats ventriloquism. Children are so used to seeing puppets that when they see a real ventriloquist they don't understand it. On television, everyone talks and they don't care about the mechanics."
-- Paul Winchell, 1922-2005, as told to the AP in 1988.


Image from PaulWinchell.com