Around the age of eight — give or take a year — I began answering the oft-asked question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with "A writer." And I never again answered it any other way. But before six, there were a few months there when I said "A ventriloquist." I can't explain what the appeal of that profession was to me but it had a lot to do with seeing great practitioners of that art on TV: Paul Winchell, Edgar Bergen, Shari Lewis, Señor Wences, one or two others…and Jimmy Nelson.
Jimmy Nelson's main "figures" were Danny O'Day (who was a pretty generic dummy) and Farfel (a canine puppet who was a star with his laid-back, hound-dog attitude). Nelson was proficient at not moving his lips — he may have been the best of the bunch at that — and at being a good foil for his friends. I liked him every time I saw him, which wasn't as often as I would have liked. A lot of those times when I did see him were when he, Danny and Farfel were selling Nestlé's Quik or allied chocolate products. Here's just such an appearance…
Jimmy Nelson died yesterday at the age of 90. A gent named Joe Gandelman wrote a much better appreciation of the man than I could have mustered so go read that. Make sure you watch the clips there too, and there's a good, long interview with Nelson. He was a great showman.