(Retelling this story from social media, to put it somewhere a little more static.)
Our local flea market just had its second weekend of the year, and almost immediately upon arriving, I came across this fella…
For the uninitiated (and those who can’t read the original box he’s sitting in), this is Paul Winchell’s Jerry Mahoney. I’d never seen one of these anywhere but in one of the first Sears Wish Books I’d looked at (though by that point, the Charlie McCarthy and Jerry ventriloquist dummies they sold were not as well-constructed as this one).Now, I don’t actually collect ventriloquist dummies, but I have a friend who is a huge fan, so I messaged him immediately with this picture, to see if he was interested. As it turns out, he was, and I managed to facilitate a PayPal deal between my friend and the seller, which was pretty cool (I do like the future sometimes…).
As the seller was carefully laying Jerry in his box, there was something of a bittersweet moment. The dealer wistfully said “So long, pal…” to Jerry (perhaps hinting that he’s had Jerry since he was a kid, but I didn’t ask). Without missing a beat, Jerry responded, “So long, asshole!”