Thanks to Chuck!

Thanks to my friend Chuck Lyons for adopting two dummies at the 2017 ConVENTion. Chuck adopted Tommy Baloney and Kenny Talk.

Tommy Baloney was the first dummy that Vent Haven founder W.S. Berger acquired. He was in New York on business in 1910 and bought Tommy for $10. The little dummy was not much more than a souvenir, though, and Mr. Berger didn't get another dummy until 1932. Tommy was made by Louis Grannat of Brooklyn, New York. Even though this dummy was the first acquired, Mr. Berger gave him the number eight in his first written catalog.

Kenny Talk is a remarkable dummy and the most complex in the Vent Haven collection. Kenny has 16 features, including moving eyes and eyebrows, wiggling ears, a spitting mechanism, and a smoking mechanism! Kenny was made by George and Glenn McElroy of Harrison, Ohio, and used by Kentucky State Trooper Lt. Lee Allen Estes. Mr. Berger ordered the dummy, which he called Yahoodie, from the McElroys and received it on Christmas Eve, 1940. He sold it to Estes in 1942 and got it back from Estes' son in 1967.