Vent Haven Museum

Vent Haven, an interesting little bit of entertainment history two exits south of the river. Vent Haven was formed by William Shakespeare Berger who was a huge fan and left his entire estate to preserve his collection of dummies.
I have to admit, I had never heard of the place until Kevin Dugan started talking about it. Having no idea what to expect we went in knowing one thing, it probably wasn't going to be boring, and it wasn't. With over 800 dummies it was easy to see the evolution ventriloquism. A few of the very first dummies going back to the 1820s were very lifelike, a little unnerving. This is something robot makers had to relearn recently. People don't like their tools to be too human like. Another lesson learned, modeling the dummies after real people, its been done but the jokes wear thin fast.
Jenn walked us through the history and made sense of the overwhelming amount of information we were trying to take it.

Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum
Not the earliest, but one of the first dummies made circa 1820's. You can see why they evolved into caricatures instead of imitations of people quickly. This guy is made of paper mâché and has glass eyes.
Vent Haven Museum
Mary Lou and three other dummies survived a sinking ship that killed everyone on board. Maybe the dummies weren't so dumb after all? She was also my favorite.
Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum
[where: 45202] Fort Mitchell, Kentucky cincinnati ohio dummies ventriliquist ventriliquism ventriloquial figures memorabilia William Shakespeare Berger

3 comments

3 comments:

  1. This is definitely on my bucket list; I just have to remember to actually go. Great photos!

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  2. I've known about this place for awhile but have yet to go. I know it will give me nightmares for a month at least but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

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  3. I first heard of the museum when I found this promo poster for a company I worked for. It was produced in the late 70s (before I worked there) for a company that did color separations. They chose it to show off their ability to get shadow detail. The headline is "Color separations that speak for themselves".
    When I found it, I didn't realize the museum was so close but it is credited.
    sorry about the quality of the photo but I'm guessing you saw this dummy.
    http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l53/CletusR/Vent.jpg
    FWIW, the company was the first to do digital scanning in Porkopolis.

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