A HAven For Devil Dolls
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Like clowns, almost everyone has a fear of ventriloquist dummies. Along with clowns, ventriloquist dummies are the creepy side of children’s entertainment. An image that has been used to great effect in various psychological horror movies over the years. Often the lines are blurred between who controls who, with schizophrenia being a underlying theme of many of the movies. Cult classics that have featured ventriloquist dummies are Devil Doll (1964), a shockingly bad British horror film, with an over-the-top performance by its central character. The Great Gabbo (1929), probably the first to feature a ventriloquist’s dummy, starring the silent film legend Eric von Strohiem in the title role.
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Vent Haven Museum is the world’s largest collection of ventriloquists dummies. The museum is in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, USA. Housed in private home and out-buildings, at the dead-end of a shady tree lined street, belying the horrors inside. The museum was founded by Cincinnati businessman with the eccentric name of William Shakespeare Berger, himself an amateur ventriloquist. From the 1900s, until his death in 1973, Berger gathered a large collection of dummies, that have been continually added to over the years. His first dummy was called Tommy Baloney, which Berger acquired in 1910. Berger spent most of his own personal fortune building his weird obsessive collection. Many ventriloquists have bequeathed their beloved dummies, after they have retired from performing or after their deaths.
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The museum boasts over 800 exhibits, and thousands of photographs, pamphlets, books and ventriloquism related ephemera. The museum was first opened to the public after Berger’s death, and dedicated to him. The museum is room after room of silently staring dummies, sat on chairs, lining the walls and perched on shelves. Among the exhibits are disembodied heads of dummies looking down on you, stacked to the ceiling. In one room dummies are arranged in a classroom, all sat at their desks. There is one chair empty, for any daring visitor to take their place among the dummies for that once in a lifetime photo opportunity.
The museum is open from May until end of September. It only opens weekdays, and by appointment only. Over a thousand people a year arrange to visit the collection. |