3 On The Same Block

There were these three ventriloquists who lived on the same street in Bakersfield in about 1962. No, there is not a punchline at the other end of this story. Jack Sharp, Officer Johnson (I'll call him) and me all lived on Doolittle Street at the same time.

I'd seen Officer Johnson on local TV and at school assemblies. Soon after moving to Doolittle Street, a neighbor who'd seen me and "Jackie" (my Jerry Mahoney dummy) perform, pointed out Officer Johnson's house. It took me several weeks to get up the courage to knock on his door, but I finally met him. First of all, he was a cop. Secondly, he was a grown-up. I recall being very impressed with the size and detail of his vent figure.

Later that summer a kid one year older than me, Jack Sharp, moved in down the block. Again, a neighbor told me that yet another ventriloquist lived on our street. I ventured down to his house and introduced myself. "So, you're a ventriloquist?" I said shaking his hand.

And without even a lip quiver, he replied, " I sure am, fella!"

I momentarily had an out-of-body experience as his voice seemed to come from somewhere faraway.

"I'm a ventriloquist, too", I said without moving my lips. And the same stunned expression that must have crossed my face a moment earlier crossed his face, too.

"Wow!", he said. "You ARE a ventriloquist!"

The three of us never got together at the same time even though we lived within a few houses of each other. Within the same year, Jack would move again to Monterey and I'd move to Eisenhower Street. But to this day, I think it's amazing that three ventriloquists could end up living on the same Bakersfield street at the same time back in 1962.