This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/30/2022
LARSEN, George (“Pinxy”). Fenton the Ventriloquist Doll. Chicago, ca. 1930s. Full size ventriloquist doll dressed in slacks, sweater, and tie with composition head, movable mouth, and glass eyes. Height 42”. Tears to clothing; interior string detached. SIGNED BY MAKER on underside of head. Provenance: Virgil the Magician. George “Pinxy” Larsen acquired his famous nickname while touring the vaudeville circuit as a magician and ventriloquist with his wife. The duo was known for carving their own ventriloquist dummies, and they attracted so much positive attention that in 1914 they decided to do it full-time. They were among the first performers to appear on early experimental television broadcasts in the 1930s; at the time of a December 1939 profile in Popular Science Pinxy was one of only two professional ventriloquist dummy carvers in America.