| It's hard to
believe that a boy born in Chicago to Swedish immigrant parents who grew up
on a dairy farm Edgar Bergen would, after fifteen years of vaudeville and
nightclubs, become an overnight sensation on the radio as a ventriloquist.
More amazing still, Charlie McCarthy was supposed to be a boy, yet he wore a
tuxedo complete with top hat and monocle, and seemed to be from England. At
least, that's the way it seemed. The whole thing was really wacky, but it
worked. Why? Because any one who knows Bergen and McCarthy knew they were
really funny, sometimes a little bit ribald, but always two lines away from
another joke. Oh, Charlie was insulting, too. While Charlie McCarthy was
making his irrepressible wisecracks, Edgar Bergen seemed as surprised and
amused as anyone else |
