Ventriloquism, the art of speaking without moving one's lips, has a rich and diverse history. Among its notable figures are several African American performers who have made significant contributions to the field, breaking barriers and entertaining audiences with their unique talents. This article explores the lives and careers of some of these pioneering ventriloquists.
John W. Cooper: A Pioneer in Vaudeville
John W. Cooper Jr. (February 17, 1873 - April 1966) was an African-American ventriloquist and singer with the Southern Jubilee Singers. He was born in 1873 in Brooklyn to John Walcott Cooper Sr. and Annie Morris. His parents originally lived in the southern part of the United States; John Cooper Sr. was originally from Beaufort, South Carolina, and Annie Morris was originally from Georgia. Cooper dropped out of school in the third grade at age 8, in 1881.
Before his 13th birthday, in 1886, both of Cooper's parents died. Cooper took on a job as an exercise boy at Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Brooklyn. While working at Sheepshead Bay Race Track, Cooper was introduced to ventriloquism by a white ventriloquist who attempted to convince and frighten Cooper into believing that the horses he was working with could talk.
He began his career in 1886 with the Southern Jubilee Singers, touring parts of New England, Canada, and the Mid-Atlantic States for four years. While he toured with the Southern Jubilee Singers, he began to formulate his ventriloquism act.
In 1900-01, Cooper joined Richards and Pringles Georgia Minstrels. Unlike the other minstrel performers in the group, Cooper performed as a ventriloquist and did not wear blackface as part of their act. The minstrels, an act that got its start in the 1830s before vaudeville and burlesque, typically participated in an overtly racist style of performance known as blackfacing in which the singers and dancers would paint their faces with black cosmetics that mocked African Americans. Cooper essentially performed in minstrel shows but was not a minstrel himself and introduced a performance style that contrasted blackfacing.
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John W. Cooper (1873-1966) was the first African American ventriloquist to play the predominantly white vaudeville circuits. He began performing in minstrel shows in the 1880s such as the Southern Jubilee Singers and Richards and Pringles Georgia Minstrels. He was not part of the minstrel company proper, i.e. wearing blackface as they did even in all black minstrel companies, or participating in the formal minstrel routines.
In 1902, Cooper participated in independent performances. One of his most famous acts was "Fun in a Barber Shop". This act involved five different puppet characters where Cooper portrayed each one in different voices. It was a scene that took place in a barbershop for whites with black employees. Cooper operated all five dummies and the projection of six voices. The extra voice was his, as he also had a role in the performance. In this scene, he multitasked by one of the dummies "cut the customer's hair" with his hands while using his feet to operate the other dummies.
Cooper's break into the vaudeville circuit came as a result of a white vaudeville union's strike in 1901. In the meantime, Cooper ignored the strike and in the desperate need for talent during the strike, he became a fixture on the vaudeville circuit. He billed himself variously as “The only Colored Ventriloquist in the World,” “America’s Representative Colored Ventriloquist,” and “Cooper, The Great Ventriloquist.” His primary dummy (the one pictured above) was named Sam Jackson.
During the 1920s, Cooper was the lead performer in a group of five performers called Father Quinn's Entertainers, named for the famed Brooklyn priest Bernard J. Quinn. Throughout this decade, they toured Catholic churches in the United States. By the 1930s, a decline in the popularity of Vaudeville occurred. After twenty years of performing in clubs, halls, and theaters, Cooper began to tour alone with his dummy named Sam Jackson.
For the rest of his career, he and Sam provided entertainment to children in the homes of wealthy patrons and in the hospitals of New York City. Through the later part of his vaudeville days in the 1930s, parts of Cooper's act featured his dummy Sam Jackson. The puppet also had a variety of fairly large features such as enlarged eyes.
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He also did a sketch called “Fun in a Barber Shop” where Cooper did six different puppet characters all in their barber chairs. In later years he was a regular on “The Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour,” and became a mentor to Shari Lewis and other young ventriloquists.
John W. Cooper, now under the alias Hezikiah Jones, and Sam toured the country with The Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour. A few years later during World War II, Cooper and Sam independently performed in veterans hospitals as well as in the USO camp shows across the country. Cooper was a devout Catholic convert and a member of St.
Because dummies like Cooper's Sam Jackson were used so often, it was not uncommon that performers would replace them with new figures. John W. Cooper's late daughter, Joan Maynard (preservationist), was the custodian of Sam Jackson. In order to promote his legacy, Maynard set up exhibits about her father at the Brooklyn Historical Society. A series of documents and files containing genealogical information as well as letters sent to John W. Cooper during his career are parts of the exhibits.
John W. Cooper with Sam Jackson
Willie Tyler: A Modern Master
Dummy Gets in Fight - Willy Tyler Comedy Time
Willie Tyler (born September 8, 1940) is an American ventriloquist, comedian and actor. He has been credited as Willie Tyler and Lester or Willie Tyler & Lester. Tyler recorded the album Hello Dummy for Motown Records, released in 1965. He also recorded Cannibal for Motown in 1968, but it was not released.
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Traveling from Alabama to Detroit, Michigan as part of the African-Americans diaspora, as a child Willie found himself in a community that championed creative growth. We are all familiar with the heady mixture of talent that led to the Motown Revolution.
He has appeared in many television commercials, sitcoms and films. Tyler has had guest roles in The Parent 'Hood, Pacific Blue, What's Happening Now!!, The White Shadow and The Jeffersons, as well as serving as host of the Saturday morning children's anthology series ABC Weekend Specials throughout the early 1980s. He appeared in the 1978 film Coming Home.
Work that has taken him to the greatest stages in the world and television screens in everybody's home. He was a pioneer in American television by being one of the first African-Americans to be a series regular. He is the consummate professional, having opened for Legendary performers that include, Sammy Davis and Ann-Margaret.
While in Syria with the US Airforce he and Lester were discovered rehearsing on a rare moment of downtime. His CO sent to entertain the troops. Back in Detroit he worked in the segregated burlesque houses and was spotted by future Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr. He was impressed at the young ventriloquists handling of the rowdy nature of the audience. Could he be the best choice to lead his artists on the quest to conquer America?
On September 18, 2006, Tyler was the first ventriloquist to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman's Ventriloquist Week. In 2009, Willie Tyler and Lester were featured in the ventriloquist comedy documentary I'm No Dummy, directed by Bryan W. Simon.
In his 50 plus years on stage, Willie Tyler has done it all, and he is still doing it. He could have been an Actor, he could have been a singer, for some reason he chose to be a ventriloquist.
Willie Tyler and Lester
Melody Brooks Clark: A Kentucky Treasure
Little has been written about African American women ventriloquists, and there has been nothing written about those in or from Kentucky. In minstrel shows, it was not unusual to find a woman playing the role of a puppet for a male ventriloquist.
Melody Brooks Clark was the first African American woman to win a national ventriloquist convention. She passed away on July 4th, 2023. Her family said she was a self-taught ventriloquist and artist. They said she always used to say, “If you believe it, you can achieve it.”
Melody Brooks was a modern day ventriloquist who lived in Lexington, KY. Born in Berea, KY, she was the daughter of Audrey and Curtis Brooks. The family moved to Lexington, where Melody graduated from Bryan Station High School. A self-taught ventriloquist, Melody Brooks had been performing since the age of 12 and continued to perform at nursing homes, schools, hospitals, showers, parties, and other special events. She once performed on the television show, Good Morning America.
Melody’s daughter, Jessica Bush said she was well-known throughout the community. “She believed that if she was to share that talent, that’s why God blessed her. He trusted her to share that talent with people,” Jessica Bush said.
While her work made a huge impact on the community, it was her caring heart and loving nature that made her so special. “Whenever I saw her, she could bring joy. In a sad moment, on any day, we could talk about anything and we might be sad, but I knew through it all it would end in love,” Melody’s good friend Darlene Madison said. “I love that about her.”
Her family and friends want her to be remembered for the way she lived her life. “I want people to remember her by living life, loving life, and staying strong through life,” Melody’s grandson, Jaden Bush Maultsby said.
Brooks was also a singer and artist (producing drawings, paintings, charcoals, pencils, and mixed media). Melody J. Brooks Clark died July 4, 2023.
Melody Brooks Clark
