STANLEY BURNS'
Wife Sylvia Talks of
Stan's Labor of Love …
Writing ‘Other Voices’
Stan's Last Gift to the
Ventriloquism Community

by J.C. Johnson / Comedy Profiles Editor T a l k i n g C o m e d y . c o m

When ventriloquist Stanley Burns passed away, at the age of 79, he left behind an apartment packed to the brim with memorabilia from his chosen profession. And not just items directly related to his own career but a collection of materials he had amassed over a lifetime which had almost anything and everything to do with ventriloquism … A collection that would make any museum envious. Yet more impressive than his collection of rare posters, playbills, photos, memorabilia and ventriloquism books dating as far back as the mid 1800s was the gift Stanley Burns would leave behind for the ventriloquism community he loved so dearly during his life … his book, Other Voices. “It was a labor of love,” says Sylvia Burns of the hour after hour … year after year her husband spent uncovering the lesser-known details of ventriloquism and it's history and committing them to paper.

Most of Stanley Burns' life had been suitcases and traveling … hotel rooms and backstage dressing rooms … the Catskills and the cruise lines … trips to England or the Caribbean … South Africa and all over the world. His was more or less the life of a typical, skilled, successful ventriloquist of his day. Those un-sung heros that brought joy and laughter to audience after audience across America and the world. But for all the joy he gave to his audiences over the years with his craft as a ventriloquist … ventriloquism gave him even more in return. It gave him confidence, it gave him wonderful friendships, marvelous adventures, interesting journeys to foreign lands and meetings with presidents, first ladies and royalty. It turned a despondent, shy, introverted street kid with a stutter into a confident and independent professional entertainer whose work enabled him to travel all over the world and meet exciting and prominent celebrities.

And as a thank you for all ventriloquism had given him during his lifetime Stan Burns' gave, in return, his book … Other Voices: Ventriloquism from B.C. to T.V. Within it's pages live over twenty years of painstaking research as well as Burns’ own personal memories and recollections as someone who worked from the tail end of vaudeville all the way through to the last decade of the 20th century. Decorating those pages is the wonderful collection of posters, photos, memorabilia and other items of interest Stanley Burns amassed over many years for his own enjoyment as well as for sharing with other lovers of the art form. In Other Voices Stanley Burns took it upon himself to write what may be seen as the definitive history of ventriloquism. His way of preserving ventriloquism's illustrious past for future generations.

“I feel that I was born at exactly the right time,” writes Stan Burns in his book. “I consider myself and my generation fortunate to have been exposed to the golden days of vaudeville, glamorous nightclubs, and the beginning of television. We witnessed the extraordinary talented variety artists who left lasting impressions on everyone, especially me. Unfortunately for today's generation, there are hardly any remnants of those wonderful acts, so how could they know what they missed.” So Stanley Burns set out to tell them exactly what they missed within the pages of his book. “This work represents a lifetime of performing, personal experiences, research, interviews and collecting, culminating in a twenty-year labor of love bringing it to fruition,” says Sylvia of everything her husband Stanley put into writing his book.

Born in New York City into a European immigrant family, Stanley Burns' parents felt it was important for children to be exposed to culture while growing up … so they gave their son violin lessons. But inadvertently Stan's violin teacher instilled more of a love for ventriloquism, in the seven-year-old, than he did for music. As a member of the orchestra of Loew's Delancey, a popular movie and vaudeville theater on New York's Lower East Side, Stan's violin teacher would offer to take Stan along with him to his work after Stan's Saturday morning lessons. Although young Stan Burns enjoyed the whole show at the Loew's what he loved the most was watching the ventriloquist acts.

When, a year later, Stanley became afflicted with an embarrassing stutter he found the taunts of his fellow schoolmates too hard to bear … and often played hooky rather than attend school. On days when he was not in school he could usually be found at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. For it was at that location that the Harlem Dime Museum stood. “That’s where he was … he hung out there,” relates Sylvia Burns of her husband's childhood. "There he would see people who had afflictions or oddities … like the bearded lady and the sword swallower. They didn’t make fun of him.” It was here that a shy young boy finally felt he fit in and found acceptance despite his stuttering. "He was basically a gofer for them,” continues Sylvia. “While there he learned some magic and he was fascinated by the ventriloquist's dummy. Finally one of the performers, Noel Lester, said ‘Here kid play with it.’ And he gave Stan his figure.”

Stanley Burns found his future vocation the day he put his hand inside professional ventriloquist Noel Lester's dummy and tried to make him speak. And the same day he found his future vocation, he lost his childhood affliction … a terrible, persistent stutter. Stanley Burns recalls in his book … “It suddenly dawned on me that the dummy didn't stutter. Trying it again and again produced the same wonderful results … Being involved with something outside myself, concentrating on making the dummy speak in a different voice, focusing on the movements, all removed the blocks to clear speech for me. My problem disappeared only when speaking for the dummy. With that start, there was hope. In time the ‘cure’ became complete under all conditions. Once I put my hand inside Noel Lester's dummy at the Dime Museum, I have never looked back. Not at missed opportunities anyway — only at the origins of my profession and diversity of my predecessors.”

“Many years ago, when I first started arranging material from my sizable collection to start writing chapters for this unprecedented project, I found there was not one book that accurately reflected the complete spectrum of the fascinating world of ventriloquism,” writes Burns, of one of the reasons that inspired him to write Other Voices. “Since then some have appeared on the scene, and that is good for the art.” admitted Burns in his book. “However, there were errors and some aspects that still remained unaddressed.” So he set out on the long journey uncovering, collecting, cataloging and writing up those missing pieces that other books up until then had ignored.

Legendary ventriloquist Jimmy Nelson (Danny O'Day and Farfel) says of Stanley Burns' book Other Voices … it's “the most accurate and entertaining insight into ventriloquism that I have ever read, and I highly recommend it, not only to ventriloquists, but to anyone interested in the wide-ranging facets of this fainting art. The anecdotes, descriptions, numerous posters and photographs make it a must-read for devotees of the arts.”

Stan Burns made a career out of giving the gift of laughter and amusement to the world by performing other voices … the voices of his wooden sidekicks Bruce, Cecil, Dr. Lichi, Susie, LuLu and Uncle Sam. But his last gift to the world would be unlike his lifetime's craft. This time Stanley Burns would step out from behind those other voices to leave a gift in his own voice … in his own words. His book, Other Voices, is a love letter to the career he chose. A career he loved dearly. And as some wise person once said … “Do what you love and you'll never work another day in your life.” Stan Burns may have put a lot of hours and years, blood, sweat and tears into his livelihood … but, could you call it work? In all of his 79 years Stan Burns never retired. How could he have retired? Whether he was performing on stage or sitting at a typewriter capturing words for the pages of his book Other Voices, Stan Burns was deeply involved in what, to him, was a labor of love. How could he retire from doing what he loved … when it never really felt like work in the first place.

As Stanley Burns says in the conclusion of his book … “Whether the art is an absorbing hobby or demanding profession … If you only have a tenth of the enjoyment I have, you will be well rewarded.” Sylvia Burns hopes ventriloquists and ventriloquism enthusiasts alike will enjoy the fruits of her husband's many years of dedicated work bringing Other Voices to life. Because it truly was Stan's… Labor of Love.

If you would like information on how to purchase a copy of this limited edition book by Stanley Burns, Other Voices, before it is all sold out … call 212-807-1110 (EST)

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