Speaker 1: How often does Charlie cross your mind?
Speaker 2: Oh, not as often as you think, but probably once
Speaker 2: a week.
Speaker 1: Have you ever dreamed about him?
Speaker 3: Not?
Speaker 2: Since I've been an adult. I think it's amazing that
Speaker 2: I'm a walking, talking person, frankly, and nobody gives me
Speaker 2: credit for that. The fact that I'm like a normal
Speaker 2: person is a miracle.
Speaker 1: I'm speaking with actress Candice Bergen. You probably know her
Speaker 1: best as TV's Murphy Brown. It's a role that won
Speaker 1: her five Emmys.
Speaker 4: Which one of you turkeys got their greasy fingerprints all
Speaker 4: over my emmy?
Speaker 2: All right, too bad?
Speaker 1: But her real life story could be its own TV series,
Speaker 1: more Twilight Zone than Sitcom, you see. Candace Sperking grew
Speaker 1: up with a rather unusual sibling, and he.
Speaker 2: Was always called my brother since I was a little kid.
Speaker 2: It was like and your brother, Charlie. There was always
Speaker 2: such an aura around him in the house. He had
Speaker 2: his own room next to mine. It was a guest room,
Speaker 2: but it was called Charlie's room. And Charlie was in
Speaker 2: the closet. Oh did he sleep in the closet. He
Speaker 2: would hang in the closet and his different heads would
Speaker 2: hang in the closet. And he had a sleepy head
Speaker 2: and an old head and an angry head.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for Charlie's different moods, exactly without your father manipulating him.
Speaker 1: He must have looked.
Speaker 2: Dead, not dead enough, he was always living.
Speaker 1: The Charlie we're talking about is Charlie McCarry. And if
Speaker 1: you haven't figured it out already, Charlie was a dummy, yes,
Speaker 1: a boy made of wood. And Candace's father, Edgar Bergen,
Speaker 1: was the ventriloquist who brought him to life.
Speaker 5: Well, I believe in letting a boy work for his money, Yes,
Speaker 5: you approve. Man.
Speaker 1: Listeners of a certain age will remember Charlie as the
Speaker 1: ultimate smart alec, usually dressed in a tuxedo with a
Speaker 1: top hat and monocle. And for a time, this dummy
Speaker 1: was one of this country's biggest stars.
Speaker 5: Miss West.
Speaker 6: This is the famous Charlie McCarthy.
Speaker 5: Oh hello, shot up doctor handsome, how tall, blonde and terrific.
Speaker 2: He was like a head of state, a minor state,
Speaker 2: you know, like Monaca.
Speaker 1: Well he had his own coat of arms, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah he did. He had a Charlie McCarthy crest an,
Speaker 2: a scepter and a crown. I thought this guy must
Speaker 2: really rate.
Speaker 1: Charlie was kind of like God him. Well, he was
Speaker 1: to me from CBS Sunday Morning, and iHeart, I'm Morocca
Speaker 1: and this is mobituaries, this moment. Charlie McCarthy September thirtieth,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, death of a dummy.
Speaker 2: I'm so proud of how weird and eccentric my childhood was.
Speaker 2: Nobody as a childhood as weird as me. I mean,
Speaker 2: I knew a lot of people whose parents were famous,
Speaker 2: and none of them did anything nearly as weird as
Speaker 2: my father.
Speaker 1: Right, So, Nancy Sinatra, Liza Minelli, Jane Fonda all had
Speaker 1: famous parents, but they were normal. They weren't living with dummies.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: We're going to continue with Kandisbergen's weird and eccentric childhood
Speaker 1: in Act two. But in this act, I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you the story of her father's unlikely and spectacular
Speaker 1: rise to fame as a ventriloquest because there is no
Speaker 1: Charlie McCarthy without Edgar Bergen. Edgar Bergen was born in
Speaker 1: Chicago to Swedish immigrants in nineteen oh three. At age eleven,
Speaker 1: he began ventriloquism from a book he'd purchased for a quarter.
Speaker 1: At sixteen, he managed to impress a touring vaudeville performer
Speaker 1: known as the Great Leicster, enough so to get a
Speaker 1: few months of free one on one lessons in ventriloquism.
Speaker 5: In my first year at high school, I discovered I
Speaker 5: was a ventriloquist, and I earned my first dishonest money
Speaker 5: answering roll calls.
Speaker 7: From missing classmates.
Speaker 1: In my senior year, I teamed up with Charlie.
Speaker 5: We've been partners ever since.
Speaker 1: Charlie was made to order. Edgar had paid Chicago woodcarver
Speaker 1: Theodore Mack thirty five dollars to carve Charlie's head.
Speaker 2: Well. My father based the look of him on a
Speaker 2: newsboy in his neighborhood in Illinois.
Speaker 1: This newsy An Irish kid named Charlie was around Edgar's age.
Speaker 1: He inspired not only the dummies first name, but also
Speaker 1: his appearance, short red hair, high rosy cheekbones, and big
Speaker 1: bright eyes. As for the ummy's personality, he.
Speaker 2: Was cocky and smart and ambitious for a dummy, and
Speaker 2: very confident.
Speaker 1: How many of those characteristics describe your father?
Speaker 2: None.
Speaker 1: Edgar tended to be taciturn uneasy, and withdrawn. Candice describes
Speaker 1: her father as stereotypically Swedish. Charlie gave Edgar a chance
Speaker 1: to break out of his shell.
Speaker 2: I mean he could say anything through Charlie and he
Speaker 2: wouldn't have to take the blame.
Speaker 1: That is pretty handy to have to have an id
Speaker 1: that you could just take with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right, and these are the things I want to be
Speaker 1: able to say now. Edgar had not been raised to
Speaker 1: work with a dummy.
Speaker 2: He was at Northwestern as a student. He was either
Speaker 2: going to go into medicine or be a ventriloquism. It
Speaker 2: was like.
Speaker 1: Humph, it was no to medicine, yes to ventriloquism. And
Speaker 1: being a good ventriloquist meant learning to throw his voice.
Speaker 1: And for people who don't know, can you explain what
Speaker 1: does it mean to throw your voice? What does that mean?
Speaker 2: It means that you squeeze it from your diaphragm and
Speaker 2: it gives the illusion that your voice is coming from
Speaker 2: across the room and that there's someone at the door,
Speaker 2: or that there's someone in the corner, and you go,
Speaker 2: who's in here. It's like a vocal illusion.
Speaker 1: In its earliest ancient forms. Ventriloquism was associated with oracles
Speaker 1: who claimed to address spirits dwelling inside their stomachs. By
Speaker 1: the time Edgar Bergen was coming up, those so called
Speaker 1: belly prophets had become known as belly talkers, a not
Speaker 1: exactly prestigious form of entertain These were the days of vaudeville,
Speaker 1: and for a decade, Edgar and Charlie played theaters across
Speaker 1: the country. Luxurious this was not, and yet Edgar would
Speaker 1: later describe this as the happiest time in his career.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You would talk about vaudeville and you know how getting
Speaker 2: on the trains and sleeping on the trunks and just
Speaker 2: going from town to town and it would be freezing cold,
Speaker 2: and then it was baking hot. But he he loved it.
Speaker 1: A typical vaudeville bill would include up to ten live
Speaker 1: stage acts, running the gamut from established singers and comedians
Speaker 1: to novelty acts like mind readers, jugglers, and trained lions.
Speaker 1: Edgar and Charlie steadily climbed the ranks and eventually arrived
Speaker 1: at the valhalla of vaudeville, performing at New York's Palace Theater. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Playing the Palace was the pinnacle, Alice.
Speaker 2: It was the pinnacle we always used to come to
Speaker 2: New York and he would say, Candy, that is the
Speaker 2: theater where your father performed in Vaudeville. And I was
Speaker 2: so indifferent. I was just like, yeah, right, Edgar.
Speaker 1: It turned out reached this peak just in time. Within
Speaker 1: a few years, Vaudeville had been overtaken by motion pictures
Speaker 1: and radio, and Vaudeville's over and your father had to
Speaker 1: remake himself.
Speaker 2: That's when he started to make the break was when
Speaker 2: he played the supper clubs in Chicago. I mean it
Speaker 2: was very swanky.
Speaker 1: The act was a hit in Chicago, and word made
Speaker 1: its way west to a very influential entertainer.
Speaker 2: And Rudy Valley discovered my father, and then Rudy Valley
Speaker 2: brought my father to Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Rudy Valley was a singer and bandleader with a popular
Speaker 1: radio show.
Speaker 6: Just Imagine the Dummy, and take my word for it
Speaker 6: that both voices you will hear are owned and operated
Speaker 6: by just one man, Edgar Bergen.
Speaker 1: Edgar and Charlie made their radio debut on Rudy Valley's
Speaker 1: program in December nineteen thirty six.
Speaker 6: Why put a ventriloquist on the air. The answer is
Speaker 6: why not?
Speaker 5: True?
Speaker 6: Our ventriloquist, Edgar Bergan, is an unusual one, sort of
Speaker 6: Noel Coward or perhaps Fred Allen among ventriloquists, an extrous
Speaker 6: fellow who depends more upon the cleverness and wit of
Speaker 6: his material than upon the believe it or not nature
Speaker 6: of his delivery.
Speaker 1: A ventriloquist act on the radio. This doesn't make a
Speaker 1: lot of sense to modern ears, so can you do
Speaker 1: explain it.
Speaker 2: To any ears? But it gave him latitude. Charlie Kuitski,
Speaker 2: Charlie could ride horses, Charlie could climb mountains. There was
Speaker 2: nothing they couldn't do on the radio.
Speaker 1: Wow, So ventriloquist act on the radio actually had more freedom,
Speaker 1: had more creative potential.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was more engaging for the radio audience because
Speaker 2: they were so un fettered.
Speaker 1: Let's hear a bit of the act from that first
Speaker 1: radio broadcast.
Speaker 5: Alcohol. It's nothing but slow poison, is la. It's slow poison?
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 1: Yes, slow poison, that's what it is. Slow poison is Well,
Speaker 1: I'm in no hurry.
Speaker 8: Well, let me say.
Speaker 1: That appearance was such a success they got their own show. Well,
Speaker 1: Charlie got his own show, The.
Speaker 5: Makers of Jason Samblan Coffee Bring You The Johnny McCarthy Show,
Speaker 5: starring Edgar Bergen and Gnomy.
Speaker 1: The Golden Age of radio was just getting started. Edgar
Speaker 1: and Charlie carroused with all the big stars of the day.
Speaker 2: Charlie, why don't you walk out on Bergen?
Speaker 6: What's holding you?
Speaker 8: He is?
Speaker 1: His on air banter with legendary vamp May West caused controversy.
Speaker 5: Why don't you.
Speaker 6: Come up home with me now, honey, I'll let you play.
Speaker 1: In my woodpile. Charlie cracked wise with crooner Frank Sinatra.
Speaker 9: Well tell me, Charlie, what makes you think you could
Speaker 9: make me a success?
Speaker 1: Well look what I did for Bergen and Charlie fond
Speaker 1: over a young Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 8: My dear, we were made for each other.
Speaker 5: Just yes, gladly, all right.
Speaker 1: Charlie had particularly memorable exchanges with comedian W. C. Fields.
Speaker 8: My only laugh you ever got was a sneer from
Speaker 8: a disgruntled termite.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 1: I read somewhere that WC. Fields genuinely hated Charlie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he probably did, called him a flop house for termites.
Speaker 2: Or all we only you're down to a coat hanger.
Speaker 2: That was one line.
Speaker 1: Around this time, Edgar and Charlie began appearing in movies
Speaker 1: where the audience could see them at work. Here they
Speaker 1: are in the nineteen thirty eight Backstage drama Letter of introduction.
Speaker 5: You're not so clever e than mister.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm not well.
Speaker 5: I can see your lips move. Oh that burns him up. You.
Speaker 2: He was not meticulous about his technique, really, because people
Speaker 2: could always see him moving his lips.
Speaker 1: Well, I was gonna say that. And why didn't that
Speaker 1: bother people?
Speaker 2: Adienk because they were focused on the on Charlie and
Speaker 2: the material was so.
Speaker 1: Smart, and so the fact that you could see Edgar
Speaker 1: Bergen's mouth moving a little bit, it's.
Speaker 2: A lot, Okay, I think it was a lot.
Speaker 1: It should be noted that Edgar Bergen created other characters,
Speaker 1: the sweet but slow witted Mortimer Snurd. You don't get around.
Speaker 5: Very much, do your Mortimer?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: No, I live with Grandpa.
Speaker 7: You live?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean some people loved Mortimer, and he had his
Speaker 2: own theme song, and.
Speaker 1: And then there was Spitfire Spinster, Effie Clinker.
Speaker 5: You're not mate, No, I'm not No, no, damn it.
Speaker 2: No one, and Effie had no interest for me, Charli.
Speaker 1: He was just not going to let these other characters shine. No,
Speaker 1: there was just no.
Speaker 2: Way, no, and they weren't as equal.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty seven, at the height of their fame,
Speaker 1: Edgar received an honorary oscar for the creation of Charlie.
Speaker 1: The statuette itself was wooden with a movable mouth. And
Speaker 1: then the next year another milestone of sorts, Edgar and
Speaker 1: Charlie's radio show was airing at the same time as
Speaker 1: Orson Wells's infamous War of the World's broadcast. You may
Speaker 1: remember that that program led some listeners to believe that
Speaker 1: Martians were invading rural New Jersey.
Speaker 2: And things stopped in parts of the country. People were
Speaker 2: so panic stricken because they thought we were being invaded
Speaker 2: by aliens. It only didn't end life in America because
Speaker 2: many people were listening to my father's radio show, which
Speaker 2: was on at the same time.
Speaker 1: Orson Wells later claimed that he received a telegram from
Speaker 1: drama critic Alexander Walcott saying, quote, this only goes to
Speaker 1: prove my beamish boy that all the intelligent people were
Speaker 1: listening to that dummy and that all the dummies were
Speaker 1: listening to you. Charlie even met to US Presidents FDR
Speaker 1: and Harry Truman.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he met everybody. I have an invitation from Missus
Speaker 2: Roosevelt to Charles McCarthy to lunch at the White House.
Speaker 2: I don't know if my father was invited, but Charlie
Speaker 2: is definitely invited.
Speaker 5: This has really been a wonderful day for us. Yet
Speaker 5: it has lunch at the White House, pot luck with Roosevelt. Yes.
Speaker 1: By the time Candice Bergen was born in nineteen forty six,
Speaker 1: Charlie McCarthy was a megastar, coming up after the break.
Speaker 1: A sibling rivalry unlike any other.
Speaker 5: Who Lizy, what is your father's name? Edgar Bergen?
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty eight, a young Candas Bergen appeared on
Speaker 1: the comedy quiz show You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx.
Speaker 5: Your father is Edgar began the Swedish Nightingale. Yeah, well
Speaker 5: then your brothers must be Charlie McCarthy and Motamus name.
Speaker 2: It was not good for Charlie when I was born.
Speaker 2: Charlie was always competition for me, and he always won.
Speaker 1: When Candasbergen was born in nineteen forty six, it was
Speaker 1: kind of big news. Papers featured a photo of baby
Speaker 1: Candace in her cradle, lovingly surrounded by father Edgar, mother Francis,
Speaker 1: and yes, Charlie. The photo caption in the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Times actually read Charlie's new can.
Speaker 2: I mean it was. It was an eccentric childhood when
Speaker 2: we used to have breakfast, the three of us, my father, Charlie,
Speaker 2: and I, and we would sit at the table and
Speaker 2: my father would put me on one knee and Charlie
Speaker 2: on the other, and he would have us talk to
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 3: Were you actually talking in this scenario you were on
Speaker 3: I was talking, but my father was squeezing my neck
Speaker 3: to cue me when to move my mouth to start talking.
Speaker 2: I find photographs sometimes of me when I was like
Speaker 2: seven or eight, and I am giving Charlie a look
Speaker 2: that's like as soon as my father leaves, I am
Speaker 2: going to put a knife in your rip. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's like I cannot wait to kill this thing.
Speaker 1: Probably know him. She captures their relationship more than the
Speaker 1: Christmas photo that you took when Candace was just three.
Speaker 1: There's no other way to say it. It's pretty creepy.
Speaker 1: She and Charlie stand at the top of a dark
Speaker 1: staircase in matching footy pajamas. Candas is holding a lip
Speaker 1: candle while Charlie, wearing his monocle, just kind of hovers.
Speaker 1: Both glare straight ahead, just.
Speaker 2: About to push him down the stairs, just on the cusp,
Speaker 2: and I'm looking so unhappy, I'm scowling.
Speaker 1: So when you say that you wanted to push Charlie
Speaker 1: down the stairs or stab him, was it that you
Speaker 1: were annoyed? Was it that you were jealous?
Speaker 2: Jealous? I was jealous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but killing Charlie didn't really make a lot of sense,
Speaker 1: and not just because you can't kill a puppet.
Speaker 2: He was the head of the family. He wasn't just
Speaker 2: a member of the family.
Speaker 1: What was that like for your mother?
Speaker 2: Such a good question. My mother dealt with it with
Speaker 2: tremendous grace.
Speaker 1: Francis Bergen was an actress and fashion model from Alabama.
Speaker 1: Her face graced billboards as both the Ipana Girl for
Speaker 1: Ipana toothpaste and the Chesterfield Girl for Chesterfield Cigarettes. She
Speaker 1: was only nineteen when she met Edgar.
Speaker 2: She met my father at his radio show. She was
Speaker 2: in the front row, right, and she had very long
Speaker 2: legs and she was sitting in the front row wearing
Speaker 2: a skirt and heels, and my father saw her legs
Speaker 2: and went about meeting her afterwards.
Speaker 1: Edgar, who had never married, was thirty nine and a
Speaker 1: major star, and there was a big age difference.
Speaker 2: Yeah, about twenty years. He was a very good candidate
Speaker 2: for marriage, and she loved him.
Speaker 1: They were married in Mexico in the summer of nineteen
Speaker 1: forty five. And do you think after the wedding, when
Speaker 1: they started home together, she thought there are three of
Speaker 1: us in this marriage.
Speaker 2: Oh, very much so, and accepted it. I mean everybody
Speaker 2: accepted it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the crazy ways that the press participated. There's
Speaker 1: an LA Times headline after your parents get engaged, and
Speaker 1: it says will Charlie let Bergen wed. Oh gosh, everyone
Speaker 1: was all in on this.
Speaker 2: It's just really weirdness beyond what should be allowed.
Speaker 1: Before long, Candice began making appearances with her father and
Speaker 1: her sort of brother.
Speaker 2: We go on my father's radio show together. Obviously, Charlie
Speaker 2: was regular, he was on every show since it was
Speaker 2: the Charlie Courthy Show. But I would go on and
Speaker 2: we would compete with each other for my father's attention.
Speaker 5: Tonight, Charlly. Tonight, my little daughter Candy is going to
Speaker 5: be on this show. Yeah, and that's why I'm so happy,
Speaker 5: you know, she she's the apple of my eyes. Yes
Speaker 5: I know, but don't forget buster. I'm the cabbage of
Speaker 5: the bank book.
Speaker 1: Yes, Candace was just nine years old in this radio
Speaker 1: show appearance, and it seems like her father is stoking
Speaker 1: the rivalry.
Speaker 5: Candy, my my own little Candy. Oh Jesus, yes, tonight tonight,
Speaker 5: my heart is full of joy. Tonight my little girl
Speaker 5: steps out into the footlights of life down down ply Snoke.
Speaker 5: She's getting laughs too, watching Kidrin. There's only one star
Speaker 5: on this show. Just remember that.
Speaker 1: Candice was living in Charlie's shadow, but so was her father.
Speaker 5: But I want to be on the show, Charlie. I
Speaker 5: want to be just like daddy. Oh no, ambitionary.
Speaker 2: I remember that dialogue. I guess he was a real
Speaker 2: smartness on some level.
Speaker 1: Did you love Charlie?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: But I felt connected to him sometimes uncomfortably connected to him.
Speaker 2: There were moments when I liked him. It depended on
Speaker 2: my father, because you know, my father was the guy
Speaker 2: behind him.
Speaker 1: Did Charlie make it more difficult for you to get
Speaker 1: close to your father, Did it seem that way.
Speaker 2: I spent less time with my father when he was
Speaker 2: with Charlie because he was working with Charlie, and so
Speaker 2: Charlie always go with him in the car in his trunk.
Speaker 2: But I was just jealous of the time. I think
Speaker 2: the time and the importance he was so important.
Speaker 1: Candice relished the one on one time with her father
Speaker 1: that she did get.
Speaker 2: We'd go fishing, we'd go in his plane. He'd put
Speaker 2: phone books on the seat for me and I'd get
Speaker 2: to fly. We'd go to Palm Springs and we'd we'd
Speaker 2: just have like little trips together.
Speaker 1: That was just the two of us without Charlie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no Charlie, Charlie free zone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Charlie free zone and mother free zone.
Speaker 4: Was just us.
Speaker 1: That's pretty special. Can I ask you, do you remember
Speaker 1: the first time that you said I love you to
Speaker 1: your father.
Speaker 2: I don't know that I ever did, because I never
Speaker 2: heard it from him. Think I think it was and
Speaker 2: my mother too. It was a big struggle for me
Speaker 2: because I had to, like because I wanted to hear
Speaker 2: it from my parents so much. I'm sure I probably
Speaker 2: forced my father to say it some way when I
Speaker 2: was older, like thirteen or fourteen when I got into
Speaker 2: that sticky age. But and I dimly remember him saying yes,
Speaker 2: well I love you to him, it's like, okay, can
Speaker 2: we move on now.
Speaker 1: When Candace was fifteen, her brother Chris was born, and
Speaker 1: this was an actual flesh and blood brother. And you
Speaker 1: just loved your little brother.
Speaker 2: I did. And we're still very very close. Yeah, except
Speaker 2: he's six ' three now, so he's not a little
Speaker 2: brother anymore.
Speaker 1: By this time, Candace was becoming more and more comfortable
Speaker 1: in the spotlight. At eighteen, she appeared on the TV
Speaker 1: program The Hollywood Palace, hosted by Purl Lives Edgar.
Speaker 7: I hope you won't mind if I tell the book
Speaker 7: something about the lovely young girl who appeared in your act.
Speaker 7: Ladies and gentlemen, That charming young lady and Edgar's act
Speaker 7: was his eighteen year old daughter Ken look out.
Speaker 2: Ahire you gentlemen.
Speaker 5: Isn't she beautiful?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 5: Thank you, Charlie, just my love.
Speaker 1: She has to be my sister.
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, it was the family business, Yes, it was.
Speaker 2: Very much so.
Speaker 1: Do you think your father was ever resentful of Charlie?
Speaker 2: Well, I think he created a monster everybody wanted Charlie
Speaker 2: and they didn't want my father.
Speaker 1: Edgar's dream was to appear in movie musicals.
Speaker 2: My father did a few things by himself, but really
Speaker 2: Charlie was the draw. My father had to fight to
Speaker 2: get billing above Charlie. On the radio show, it was
Speaker 2: always the Charlie McCarthy Show with Edgar Bergen.
Speaker 1: There's a quote where your father said at one point,
Speaker 1: Charlie is famous and I am the forgotten man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did he mean that seriously?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I don't think he would have admitted it, but yeah,
Speaker 2: Charlie just stole his thunder.
Speaker 1: On the other side of the break, A father's star
Speaker 1: wanes as his daughter's star rises. Ladies and ten. In
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty five, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his daughter Candice Bergen,
Speaker 1: then aged nineteen, appeared on the game show What's My Line.
Speaker 1: There's an ease and warmth between the two of them,
Speaker 1: but their careers were moving in different directions.
Speaker 6: Look Magazine said it, and today The New York Daily
Speaker 6: News had a wonderful piece about Candy's is.
Speaker 9: One of the great stars of the future in the
Speaker 9: American cinema.
Speaker 2: Right in the.
Speaker 1: Right but as the stars of the past, right, and
Speaker 1: your father says kind of under his breath, and I'm
Speaker 1: a star of the past.
Speaker 2: Well it's true. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Edgar and Charlie's hugely popular radio shows ran for nearly
Speaker 1: two decades until nineteen fifty six, but by the nineteen
Speaker 1: sixties the novelty of their act had long since faded.
Speaker 1: Was that period hard for your father when Charlie became
Speaker 1: less popular and people just didn't care?
Speaker 2: Well, Charlie becoming less popular? Was my father also becoming
Speaker 2: less popular and he'd also he'd aged out. That happens
Speaker 2: to all of us.
Speaker 1: Well, we're still getting a lot of work. But Kandasbergen
Speaker 1: has been a star for six decades. Her rise started
Speaker 1: back in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 2: Snobbish, fierce, contradictory, and controversial. I'm Kandisbergen, who portrays Lacky
Speaker 2: in The.
Speaker 1: Group, That's Candice and the trailer for the nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: six movie The Group her screen debut. By that time,
Speaker 1: she'd had success as a fashion model. At twenty one,
Speaker 1: she landed on the cover of Vogue, Working both sides
Speaker 1: of the camera. She pursued a career as a photojournalist
Speaker 1: in tandem with acting, and in nineteen seventy one, she
Speaker 1: starred opposite Jack Nicholson in Carnal Knowledge.
Speaker 2: Bo Are you really something? I don't feel like something.
Speaker 2: I feel like nothing.
Speaker 1: Her performance in the movie Starting Over earned her an
Speaker 1: Academy Award nomination. On TV, she hosted Saturday Night Live
Speaker 1: in its inaugural season and made history.
Speaker 4: I am very happy to be here tonight. I am
Speaker 4: also especially happy to be here and Saturday Night's first
Speaker 4: woman host. This may not make up for the era
Speaker 4: vote the other day, but at least did something.
Speaker 1: While her father was a traditional Republican, Candace campaigned for
Speaker 1: Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. She associated with and supported
Speaker 1: activists like Abbi Hoffman. She was arrested at an anti
Speaker 1: war sit in. By the early nineteen seventies, Candace was
Speaker 1: a lot more than the daughter of a ventriloquest What
Speaker 1: was that like? Do you think for your father when
Speaker 1: he went from being Edgar Bergen too being Candasan's father.
Speaker 2: It was an adjustment for people in our house, for
Speaker 2: I mean for my mother, for my father, for I
Speaker 2: think he was proud of me, But at the same time,
Speaker 2: I'm sure he was very mixed about it.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Charlie was spending most of his time in a trunk,
Speaker 1: pulled out only occasionally to play small stages or conventions.
Speaker 1: Edgar himself had aged into an emeritus figure. Johnny Carson,
Speaker 1: who'd gotten his start as a magician, was a longtime
Speaker 1: fan of Edgar Bergins and had him on his show.
Speaker 1: Watching Edgar on The Tonight Show in nineteen seventy seven
Speaker 1: without his scene partner is bittersweet. They always said.
Speaker 9: The venture was basically, remember when they were talking about you,
Speaker 9: that you were a shy man, and you use Charlie
Speaker 9: and more just to sayings. But they feel more comfortable
Speaker 9: saying than you would if you said them.
Speaker 1: Is there any truth to that?
Speaker 2: I mean, you can be I guess.
Speaker 1: I hate to admit it, but I guess it certainly is.
Speaker 5: Because I wish I could walk into a room and
Speaker 5: be accepted as readily as Charlie and martinmer.
Speaker 1: I've tried it and it doesn't work. I'm just no.
Speaker 1: In September nineteen seventy eight, nearly sixty years after the
Speaker 1: act was born, Edgar Bergen and his Wooden sidekick, convened
Speaker 1: a press conference in Los Angeles, to announce their retirement.
Speaker 1: Here's Charlie addressing reporters.
Speaker 5: I just am not going to admit it my last performance.
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep hoping you you.
Speaker 5: Take your pills and we can do it through benefits anyway.
Speaker 1: They would play one final two week engagement at Caesar's
Speaker 1: Palace in Las Vegas. Do you remember your father's farewell
Speaker 1: performances at Caesar's Palace?
Speaker 2: What was that like? It was very emotional. In fact,
Speaker 2: I can't believe I'm getting emotional now thinking about it.
Speaker 2: He was dressed in his white tie and tails, which
Speaker 2: he never usually performed in.
Speaker 1: Candace, her mother, Frances, and her brother Chris were all
Speaker 1: there on opening night.
Speaker 2: We were in a bonkhead in front of him, and
Speaker 2: it was so emotional for us.
Speaker 1: Edgar and Charlie snapped back into the old routines as
Speaker 1: if they'd never stopped doing them. Candace says that despite
Speaker 1: his recent hospitalization, her father's performance was flawless, and he
Speaker 1: wrote that you looked over and you saw your mother
Speaker 1: was mouthing the words.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she'd heard them all so many times, and he
Speaker 2: used old material, but he made it fresh. And we
Speaker 2: went backstage afterward and I just talked him. I'm surprised
Speaker 2: at how much it's effectively.
Speaker 1: Was he surprised at the turnout that that people wanted
Speaker 1: to see him off because he.
Speaker 2: Had it had been it had been tough year for
Speaker 2: that lean years. Yeah, he'd been performing in really p dunk.
Speaker 1: To me, what's so beautiful about it is somebody who
Speaker 1: does have these lean years and has been performing this
Speaker 1: act for almost sixty years, and then at the end
Speaker 1: in this big venue it's a big deal, and that
Speaker 1: you all were there for it.
Speaker 2: It was great. It was a great goodbye for him
Speaker 2: to have. And then he died.
Speaker 1: Just three nights into the run. Edgar Bergan died in
Speaker 1: his sleep in his Las Vegas hotel room.
Speaker 10: He began his career with not much more than a
Speaker 10: block of wood and his native wit, which was plenty.
Speaker 10: But when Edgar Bergen died Saturday at age seventy five,
Speaker 10: more than the entertainment world took notice.
Speaker 2: I remember his funeral. Carl Reiner was walking in and
Speaker 2: he said, I hope I can have a ending like that.
Speaker 2: This for a performer, that's what you want. The Muppet
Speaker 2: Movie was dedicated to his memory. Jim Henson just worshiped
Speaker 2: your father. Sounds like that was very nice. He spoke
Speaker 2: at the memorial and he brought hermit.
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 2: It wasn't your usual funeral? And Reagan spoke.
Speaker 8: There was of course Edgar, the kindly and modest man.
Speaker 8: We all knew there was never any cruelty in the
Speaker 8: laughter that he brought to us. But there was an
Speaker 8: Edgar Bergen who in truth was the puckish, pixie like
Speaker 8: destroyer of the pampas Charlie.
Speaker 1: Johnny Carson also spoke about Edgar's utter lack of pretension.
Speaker 2: He was the most unpretentious man, the most modest, just
Speaker 2: again Swedish.
Speaker 1: Was Charlie at the memorial?
Speaker 2: No he was not, No, that would have been too weird. God.
Speaker 1: Edgar Bergen left ten thousand dollars in his will for
Speaker 1: the Charlie McCarthy fund, but nothing for Candace.
Speaker 2: That was a bitter pill.
Speaker 1: What do you think that was about? Why did he
Speaker 1: do that?
Speaker 2: Well? He knew I'd left home and was making money
Speaker 2: for many years before he died, and he knew I'd
Speaker 2: made a lot of money, so I didn't need it.
Speaker 2: Of course neither did Charlie. And he owed it all
Speaker 2: to Charlie. I mean it was Charlie's money. Charlie was
Speaker 2: the breadwinner.
Speaker 1: Charlie, of course couldn't actually accept the funds. In fact,
Speaker 1: the money was designated to be used to fund Ventriloquist
Speaker 1: performances for children in orphanages and quote other such similar
Speaker 1: institutes for destitute and handicapped children. Charlie McCarthy relocated from
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills to a new home in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: At the Smithsonian Institute. Candice and her family flew to
Speaker 1: DC to preview the exhibit.
Speaker 2: We were thrilled that we had him out and taken
Speaker 2: care of, and because it was like, what do we
Speaker 2: do with him now? As Charlie without my father was
Speaker 2: like a thing.
Speaker 1: Candicesbergn remembers staring at Charlie on display, waiting for a
Speaker 1: look of recognition or a wise crack, but it never came.
Speaker 1: Without her father, there was no magic, the illusion was gone.
Speaker 5: Well, when we started way back in those days, you
Speaker 5: might say we were practically nobody. Yes, that's right. Why
Speaker 5: we've come a long way, haven't I?
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