Monday, November 25, 2013

Me and McElroy's dummies: a love story - part 1

Are you wondering why I want to venture in a so difficult replica?
Well... as you'll see from the background image of this blog, my passion concerns precisely the "Rolls Royce" of ventriloquist dummies: the McElroy.

This passion was born two years ago.

As a ventriloquist, I was looking for a dummy that could best represent the character that I set in my head. But no dummy on the market met my requirements, so I decided to try to build it myself.

My first purchase was the Mike Brose's book, which I still jealously guards in my library. Book's title was "Figure Making Can Be Fun?!?"... it intrigued me a lot, I was full of expectations, so I bought it... and turned out to be a real treasure. I began to put into practice what was written: reproduction techniques using silicone mold and making urethane castings, then I bought some dummy parts from Mike (hands, feet, a body and a head). I had build my first dummy and then I started to customize it, always following the suggestions of the book.


I had found the Nirvana.

But one day, while I was surfing in the web, I saw a face that struck me: big eyes, realistic hair, bulbous nose, mocking smile and mischievous expression.

I was literally stunned.

Immediately I wanted to know what kind of dummy was, who was the owner and where I could buy one myself.


You can imagine the disappointment when I learned that they were dummies of the '30s, that they was no longer on the market, and if I wanted to buy a copy I would have to spend thousands of euro.

The character that from that day tormented my nights, was Johnny.


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