Something New
We think that we are going to do a series of Blogs that will help fill in some gaps in the minds of the younger generation. All of us owe a debt of gratitude to the older generation of folks that were (at least for part of their lives) Ventriloquists. Even though this first one was not later recognized for his work as a Vent, he did achieve the status of a household name and even though he passed away in 2006, we still have the opportunity to watch him on TV almost every day of the week.
Known as a comedian today, this man started out as a young man with a Vent figure named Danny. It would take far more time for us to tell the story of Donalds life than we have time to take. We suggest that you do a Google search on this man and learn more of his life even though many of us are familiar with much of his work.
I submit that if this man had never worked at being a Ventriloquist as a young man that we might not even know about him today.
Google “the life of Ventriloquist Don Knotts” and take a bit of time to learn more about him.
We will talk again next week.
Steve and JET
You, interestingly I just had this emailed to me about a month ago. You probably already have this, but just in case you don’t, here it is. Enjoy,
Bill Matthews
Jesse Was A Chicken Plucker
By Paul Harvey
As a boy, Jesse was a chicken plucker. That’s right.
He stood on a line in a chicken factory and spent his days pulling the feathers off dead chickens so the rest of us wouldn’t have to. It wasn’t much of a job, but at the time, Jesse didn’t think he was much of a person. His father was a brute of a man. His dad was actually thought to be mentally ill and treated Jesse rough all of his life.
Jesse’s older brother wasn’t much better. He was always picking on Jesse and beating him up. Yes, Jesse grew up in a very rough home in West Virginia. Life was anything but easy. And he thought life didn’t hold much hope for him. That’s why he was standing in this chicken line, doing a job that darn few people wanted.
In addition to all the rough treatment at home, it seems that Jesse was always sick. Sometimes it was real physical illness, but way too often it was all in his head.
He was a small child, skinny and meek. That sure didn’t help the situation any.
When he started to school, he was the object of every bully on the playground.
He was a hypochondriac of the first order. For Jesse, tomorrow was not always something he looked forward to.
But, he had dreams. He wanted to be a ventriloquist. He found books on ventriloquism. He practiced with sock puppets and saved his hard earned dollars until he could get a real ventriloquist dummy.
When he got old enough, he joined the military, and even though many of his hypochondriac symptoms persisted, the military did recognize his talents and put him in the entertainment corp. That was when his world changed. He gained confidence.
He found that he had a talent for making people laugh, and laugh so hard they often had tears in their eyes. Yes, little Jesse had found himself.
You know, folks, the history books are full of people who overcame a handicap to go on and make a success of themselves, but Jesse is one of the few I know of who didn’t overcome it. Instead he used his paranoia to make a million dollars, and become one of the best-loved characters of all time in doing it!
Yes, that little paranoid hypochondriac, who transferred his nervousness into a successful career, still holds the record for the most Emmy’s given in a single category.
The wonderful, gifted, talented, and nervous comedian who brought us Barney Fife (The Andy Griffith Show) was Jesse Don Knotts.
NOW YOU KNOW, “THE REST OF THE STORY”
Jesse Donald ‘Don’ Knotts
(July 21, 1924 – February 24, 2006)
There is a street named for him and his statue in Morgantown, West Virginia, his place of birth.
It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived….Author unknown