This page is about dressing Fred. Clothes make the man and clothes make the figure. Like real people, a figure's character and personality are defined by how he dresses.
It is common to see popular ventriloquist figures dressed differently depending on the circumstances of the performance. Charlie McCarthy and Jerry Mahoney had many costumes. Charlie's most recognizeable outfit is the full dress formal outfit with white tie, tails, top hat, white vest and patent leather shoes. Jerry Mahoney is best remembered in the grey and green suit with the wide lapels that Paul Winchell's tailor father made especially for Jerry. Danny O'Day usually dresses these days in a dapper gray suit, but he spent much of his career wearing a gas station attendant's uniform. Max Terhune's Elmer Sneezewood always wore cowboy clothes even down to the chaps and cowboy boots.
Turtle neck sweaters work well on figures such as Fred. The long sleeves cover his muslin arms and the turtle necks wrap nicely around his ball and socket neck disguising his muslin and wood chest.
Fred's dress might depend on your performance venue. If you perform at a formal function, Fred should dress formally, and so should you. If you perform at a picnic, less formal wear is appropriate.
Willie Tyler is reported to have said that he tries to dress one increment above the audience. If the audience dresses casually in shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops, Willie and Lester wear open collar shirts and slacks. If the audience wears shirts and slacks, Willie and Lester wear sports jackets and ties. If the audience is in jackets and ties, Willie and Lester wear suits. When the crowd is in suits, the performers wear tuxes, and if the dress is black tie formal, Willie opts for white tie and tails.
Here are some pictures of Fred wearing various outfits.
It is not unusual for a ventriloquist to have several bodies for the figure to accommodate fast costume changes and to avoid having to redress the figure for every different kind of performance. In the spirit of that tradition, I took these pictures by putting Fred's head on the bodies of other figures who happened to be sitting around the shop.
Often the ventiloquist and the figure dress alike. A common outfit is blue blazer, gray slacks, black shoes and socks, white shirt, red tie. This uniform fits many performance venues.
Whatever else you do, unless he's barefoot, please put socks on Fred. I've seen too many ventriloquist figures without socks. Supposedly the muslin looks enough like socks that the ventriloquist doesn't bother with the real thing. No it doesn't. It looks like muslin. You can see the stitches. It looks phoney and cheap. Socks aren't that expensive. Get some.
Yard and garage sales, thrift shops, and family members are all good resources for kids clothes. Take along a tape measure. Often the size tags are missing (or misleading).
I've found several blue blazers at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store. White dress shirts are common there, too.
Most towns of any size have at least one store that sells formal clothing and dress-up suits for children. These outfits can be expensive. I paid $75 for Jayjay's tuxedo. Sometimes you can find used formal and dress-up outfits. Parents buy a suit or tux for their boy for one specific occasion, such as a wedding or Easter, and the little boy outgrows it before he needs to wear it again.
Costume shops have many different kinds of outfits for children. Around Halloween many malls feature specialty costume stores. You can usually get some real bargains the day after Halloween.
Jimmy Nelson tells the story that whenever he sent out Danny's suits for cleaning, the cleaners would sew the jacket slit shut figuring they'd somehow caused it to come apart.
If Fred's upper clothing is layered--shirt and jacket, for example--make a bigger opening in the inner garment so your hand doesn't get tangled in all those layers of clothing.
The other alteration is at the waistline. Unless the pants have an elastic waistband, size four pants don't usually fit around the seat piece. You could make the seat piece smaller, but then Fred might not sit up without support. To alter the pants, cut a slit in the back from the waistband down to make the waist opening larger. Hem the slit so it doesn't fray. If people are likely to be seeing you from behind, select a shirt or sweater that covers this alteration. People don't mind seeing your hand in the back--they expect that--but seeing the wooden butt kind of detracts from the illusion.
Unless Fred will always wear the same outfit, or unless you have many permanently dressed bodies for Fred, you probably don't want to permanently attach his clothing. If you have to attach his pants to his body in the back, for example, consider using Velcro to hold them in place to facilitate changing his costume.
Often the shirt or jacket that fits the torso has sleeves too long for the arms. You can bunch up a shirt sleeve, but jackets need to be altered. The size 4 dimensions I used for Fred fit perfectly an off-the-rack size 4 jacket, but not all garments are the same. If it's a nice jacket, consider a professional alteration.
Fred's Threads
Given all those options for clothing and decisions to make, here is the outfit I chose as Fred's signature look. This is his own body and these are his own clothes.
