Jimmy Nelson obit

 

Jimmy Nelson, last of TV’s golden era ventriloquists, whose characters Farfel and Danny O’Day were the face of Nestlés Quik, has died

He was not on the list.

The man behind Nestlés Quick’s image in the 1950s and 1960s and who made the company’s jingle popular has died.

Ventriloquist Jimmy Nelson died Sept. 24 at the age of 90 in Florida from complications following a stroke, his family announced Wednesday. He was surrounded by family and friends.

Nelson was the last of the golden era of ventriloquists that included Edgar Bergen, Shari Lewis, Paul Winchell and Senor Wences. His career spanned more than 70 years, but he is most famous to TV viewers in the 1950s and 1960s for appearing with his characters Danny O’Day and a floppy-eared dog named Farfel for commercials and promotions for Nestlés Quick.

James Nelson was born December 15, 1928 in Chicago, middle child of James and Winifred Nelson. In 1938 Jimmy's Aunt Margaret gave him his first ventriloquist "dummy" as a birthday gift, something that she had won as a bingo prize, which he named Dummy Dan/Danny Dum. He used that figure, which his father modified for better movement; until he asked Frank Marshall construct a new Danny in 1945. Marshall had a penchant for trying to make the hand carved wooden figures look like the performer that would be using them so the folks could see to them as related. Nelson was very pleased with the figure and gave his figure an Irish name, like Edgar Bergen's "Charlie McCarthy" and his mentor Bob Evan's "Jerry O'Leary" had before him, by adding O'Day. Two years later in 1947 Jimmy married his high school sweetheart Margot Humphries in Buffalo N.Y.

It was at that time that Danny started to need a little T.L.C. so Jimmy returned to Frank Marshall to have a duplicate made. However the figure "Just didn't look like Danny" said Nelson "but I didn't have the heart, or the nerve, at the age of nineteen to tell Frank that I wasn't a hundred percent satisfied." By 1949 the Nelsons were back in Chicago with their two boys. Talent Agent Louis Cohan got Jimmy better bookings than he was able to get in New York and Jimmy Nelson and Danny O'Day were now in the big time! So Jimmy added the new figure to his act, as the highly cultured Humphrey Higsbye and he became the foil to Danny much like Mortimer Snerd was for Charlie McCarthy. Jimmy went on to host Chicago's Hollard's Happy House on WGN-TV. In 1950 Nelson and Danny appeared for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show and were a great success with the audience as well as with Sullivan.

That same year Nelson had Marshall construct a dog character and named him "Farfel" after an item on a hotel menu, he brought that new figure with him as he joined the troupe on Milton Berle's "Texaco Star Theater." Nineteen-fifty-one saw the Nelson marriage come to an end and Jimmy moved to New York with his three sons on their own until 1956 when he married the pretty girl singer, Betty Norman, who worked as his supporting act.

The year before his nuptials Jimmy, Danny and Farfel began the Nestlé's campaign that made them even more of a house hold name, if that is possible, than they were on the Milton Berle show.

The facts in this short biography are from Jimmy Nelson himself and Kelly Asbury's book "Dummy Days" where you can find more on Jimmy Nelson, Danny O'Day and Farfel, as well as the four other most well known ventriloquists in American history.

 

Writer

Mack & Myer for Hire (1963)

Mack & Myer for Hire

6.7

TV Series

additional dialogue

1963

1 episode

 

Actor

Ghetto Rhapsody (2001)

Ghetto Rhapsody

6.4

Video

2001

 

The Milton Berle Show (1948)

The Milton Berle Show

7.5

TV Series

Texaco Pitchman

1952

1 episode

 

Additional Crew

Jeff Dunham: Birth of a Dummy

6.9

TV Special

archive footage provider

2011

 

Soundtrack

Kate Winslet in The Dressmaker (2015)

The Dressmaker

7.0

writer: "Meet Me with Your Black Dress On"

2015

 

Self

Jeff Dunham: Birth of a Dummy

6.9

TV Special

Self - Ventriloquist

2011

 

Dumbstruck (2010)

Dumbstruck

6.1

Self

2010

 

I'm No Dummy (2009)

I'm No Dummy

6.5

Self

2009

 

60 Minutes II (1999)

60 Minutes II

7.1

TV Series

Self - Ventriloquist (segment "Ventriloquist Convention")

2005

1 episode

 

Belly Talkers (1996)

Belly Talkers

7.4

Self

1996

 

The Bob Braun Show (1967)

The Bob Braun Show

2.4

TV Series

Self

Self - Ventriloquist

1974–1979

4 episodes

 

The Comedy Shop (1978)

The Comedy Shop

6.8

TV Series

Self

1978

1 episode

 

The Vent Event

TV Movie

Self

1978

 

Mike Douglas in The Mike Douglas Show (1961)

The Mike Douglas Show

7.1

TV Series

Self - Ventriloquist

Self - Co-Host

1962–1973

17 episodes

 

To Tell the Truth (1956)

To Tell the Truth

7.7

TV Series

Self

1968

1 episode

 

Ed Sullivan in The Ed Sullivan Show (1948)

The Ed Sullivan Show

7.9

TV Series

Self

1950–1968

4 episodes

 

Merv Griffin in The Merv Griffin Show (1962)

The Merv Griffin Show

6.6

TV Series

Self

Self - ventriloquist

1967

3 episodes

 

Mack & Myer for Hire (1963)

Mack & Myer for Hire

6.7

TV Series

Self

1963

1 episode

 

The Pat Boone-Chevy Showroom (1957)

The Pat Boone-Chevy Showroom

7.7

TV Series

Self

1957

1 episode

 

Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows in The Jackie Gleason Show (1952)

The Jackie Gleason Show

8.5

TV Series

Self - Ventriloquist

Self - Guest Ventriloquist

1957

2 episodes

 

The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna (1956)

The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna

7.8

TV Series

Self - Pitchman for Nestlé EverReady Cocoa - Ventriloquist

1956

1 episode

 

Steve Allen in The Tonight Show (1953)

The Tonight Show

7.9

TV Series

Self

1956

1 episode

 

Down You Go

TV Series

Self - Panelist

1956

1 episode

 

Stage Show (1954)

Stage Show

6.5

TV Series

Self - ventriloquist pitchman for Nestles

Self

1954–1956

3 episodes

 

5th Annual Celebrity Parade for Cerebral Palsy

TV Special

Self

1955

 

Life Begins at Eighty

TV Series

Self

1955

1 episode

 

Come Closer

TV Series

Host

1954

 

4th Annual Celebrity Parade for Cerebral Palsy

TV Special

Self

1954

 

The Milton Berle Show (1948)

The Milton Berle Show

7.5

TV Series

Self - Texaco Pitchman

Self - Texaco pitchman

1951–1954

57 episodes

 

The Arthur Murray Party (1950)

The Arthur Murray Party

5.1

TV Series

Self - Ventriloquist

Self

1952–1954

4 episodes

 

Bank on the Stars

TV Series

Self - Host

1954

2 episodes

 

The Kate Smith Hour (1950)

The Kate Smith Hour

7.0

TV Series

Self - ventriloquist

Self

1952–1954

7 episodes

 

The New Revue

TV Series

Self - Ventriloquist

1954

1 episode

 

Jimmy Nelson and Danny O'Day in Chance of a Lifetime (1951)

Chance of a Lifetime

TV Series

Self

1953

1 episode

 

Your Show of Shows (1950)

Your Show of Shows

8.7

TV Series

Self - Guest Performer

1951–1953

2 episodes

 

The Jane Froman Show (1952)

The Jane Froman Show

TV Series

Self

1952

1 episode

 

This Is Show Business (1949)

This Is Show Business

TV Series

Self

1952

1 episode

 

All Star Summer Revue

TV Series

Self - Ventriloquist

1952

1 episode

 

Celebrity Time (1948)

Celebrity Time

7.2

TV Series

Self

1952

2 episodes

 

Cavalcade of Stars (1949)

Cavalcade of Stars

7.9

TV Series

Self

Self - Guest Ventriloquist

1951–1952

2 episodes

 

Cavalcade of Bands

TV Series

Self - ventriloquist

1951

2 episodes

 

Archive Footage

Magic: Fats & Friends (2006)

Magic: Fats & Friends

7.4

Video

Self (archive footage, uncredited)

2006