The Vaudville Team of Jim Jedrey & Little Eddie Kelly

by Bernard Geddry

Many old timers (like me) remember the Ed Sullivan Show, a mainstay of network TV in the 50s and 60s. Everybody watched that show. One of the mainstays was the heavily accented and quite hilarious ventriloquist, Senor Wences. He was the one who popularized the technique of putting a pair of eyes on his index finger, hanging hair or putting ears on top of his closed fist, and painting lips on the outside of his index finger and thumb. This was supposed to make you believe the hand was alive and doing the talking rather than the tight-lipped Senor Wences. It worked. When his finger and thumb moved up and down the illusion became a reality…and it made you laugh. Well, I’m looking at one of those sets of eyes right now as I write this article but they never belonged to the Senor. They belonged to one of his best friends, fellow ventriloquist Jim Jedrey whose team of Jim Jedrey and Little Eddie Kelly entertained New Englanders for two decades. Who knows who came up with the idea first. Jim, or Jimmy Geddry as he was known offstage, never made it to the “Sullivan” show like his buddy Wences but he did make a lot of folks laugh just the same. He made me laugh. He was my favorite uncle.

He used the stage name Jedrey because the Nova Scotia Geddrys and their close New England cousins pronounce our family name with a soft “G” so it sounds like a “J”. He wanted to make sure his public would pronounce his name the way he did so he adjusted the spelling accordingly.

Jimmy was born on October 4 ^th , 1906 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was the eleventh of twelve children born to an Acadian father and an Irish mother. Jimmy’s dad was Jean Adrien Geddry, a great grandson of Augustin Guedry, the founder of St. Alphonse, Nova Scotia, the person in whose honor the family recently dedicated a plaque. His Acadian genealogy is James Geddry; Jean Adrien Geddry/Mary Powers; Evariste Geddry/ Francoise Saulnier; Philippe Geddry/ Angelique Therriau; Augustin Guedry/Marie Jeanson; Pierre Guedry/Marguerite Brasseau; Claude Guedry/Marguerite Petitpas.

Jimmy’s parents imbued him with values that would guide him for the rest of his life. They were determined that their children would escape the poverty of the early twentieth century and the depression that followed. Their endeavor was successful. One of the children became Superintendent (CEO) of the Watertown Arsenal, where big naval guns were designed and built for the great behemoths of WWII. Others became machinists, tool makers and small business owners. A grandson became a successful columnist on the sports page of the Boston Globe. Jimmy wanted to make people happy. He became a ventriloquist.

It all started because he was curious. Though he had only an eighth grade education, common in the early 20 ^th century, he taught himself many things by reading books. He learned to read music and play the piano as a teenager. Somehow, he learned to play the saxophone too and actually played professionally in a 1920’s “Jazz” band. Along the way, he came across a book on ventriloquism and it fascinated him. The book taught him how to talk without moving his lips. He was hooked for life. All he needed was a “Vent” doll.

He started by removing the head of his older sister’s discarded baby doll and “modifying” it so its lower jaw could move, thereby simulating speech while he was doing the talking. That wasn’t satisfactory for very long, so he saved his pennies until he could afford a better doll, one that was designed and built for “beginner” ventriloquists. By the time he was done, he had a collection of six Vent dolls, some quite elaborate.

The first doll on the floor, on the left, is the one that belonged to his sister. The one on the far right, sitting on the couch is the most functional. Besides the standard movable lower jaw and rotatable head, Eddie Kelly II has movable eyes, eyelids, and eye-rows. He required a great deal of skill to control and was quite convincing. Inside Eddie’s body is a pole attached to his head. His body has an opening in the back where the ventriloquist’s hand fits in and grasps the pole. Manipulating it moves Eddie’s head back and forth or up and down. Four metal rings are tied to cords that lead to Eddie’s head through holes or “venues” in the pole. Each ring controls one of the head’s functions by inserting a finger and pulling (or releasing). A skilled ventriloquist would put his hand inside the doll’s body, grasp the pole and simultaneously insert four of his fingers into the rings. Imagine being able to orchestrate all this while speaking and telling jokes, rotating Eddie’s head so he looks at either the performer or the audience, moving his eyes and even winking at appropriate times, and raising or lowering his eyebrows to indicate emotional responses like surprise or concern. Jimmy Geddry was able to do just that. Unbelievable!

A Ventriloquist Museum says Eddie Kelly II is a twin for Paul Winchell’s “Jerry Mahoney” of 50s and 60s fame. In the picture above, the doll sitting on the pint-sized rocker is the original Eddie Kelly, the doll Jimmy used for most of his performances.

On the couch is Rosie, Eddie’s chic girlfriend, Willie, his African American doll, and Eddie Kelly II. In the front row are Jimmy’s “starter” doll, and a miscellaneous head (with her pole stuck in a vase) which Jimmy used for reasons known only to him.

Three of the heads, Eddie Kelly, Eddie Kelly II and Rosie, were made by the most famous Vent Doll creator of the 20th century, Frank Marshall. Marshall was famous because he was the artist who carved “Charlie McCarthy” and most of his pals.

One last comment on the name “Eddie Kelly”. It was chosen because it can be said without moving the lips. Try it yourself. Open your lips about a half inch and concentrate on keeping your lips still. Then say, Eddie Kelly, Eddie Kelly. It’s easy! You are now a Ventriloquist!

There was more to Jimmy Geddry’s life than ventriloquism. He was also an expert machinist and parts inspector. He was employed by his brother at the Watertown Arsenal in Massachusetts when he wasn’t on tour with Eddie Kelly

He used to brag that he was so good at his job that it was kept waiting for him when he came back from a tour. Of course, his brother was the “big boss”.

Jimmy was also an expert stock-picker and had moderate success in “the market” after the crash of 1929. He claimed he purchased small amounts of crippled blue chip stocks each week with a dollar from his salary. He must have done something right as he was able to retire to Arizona at the “young” age of fifty-seven, an unusual feat in the 1960s.

In 1939, Jimmy married his beautiful blond companion Florence Yannis. While on tour, they came into contact h many famous performers of the 40s and 50s, including Edgar Bergen. For those readers who never heard of Edgar Bergen, he was Candice Bergen’s father and the Ventriloquist behind “Charlie McCarthy” and “Mortimer Snerd”. If you don’t know who Candice Bergen is…congratulations, you might live until the 22nd century. It was on one of those tours that they met and became close friends of Senor Wences.

Jimmy and Florence also traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean and Cuba. They never had children but stayed together in a loving relationship until Florence’s death in 1997. Jimmy died in 2002, on Saint Patrick’s Day at the age of ninety-five.

Bernard Geddry, Jimmy’s nephew, and his wife Barbara, his best friends, took care of Jimmy in his last years and now lovingly care for his collection of Vent Dolls and Vaudeville memorabilia.