Bergan McCarthy Radio Show!

By: Radio Shows of the Past!
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  • Summary

  • Edgar John (Berggren) Bergen was an American actor & radio performer, born to Swedish family, in Decatur, Michigan. He lived there until he was 16 (when his father died), then went to Chicago, where he attended Lake View High School and worked n a silent movie house.

    He taught himself ventriloquism from a pamphlet when he was 11 and a few years later, commissioned as a woodcarver to make a likeness of a rascally Irish newspaper boy he knew. The head went on a puppet named Charlie McCarthy, who became Bergen's lifelong sidekick.

    In 1938, Bergen was presented an Honorary Oscar (in the form of a wooden Oscar stauette) for his creation of Charlie McCarthy. He attended Northwestern University, but did not graduate. Later the school gave him an honorary degree as Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback.

    His first performances were in vaudeville and one-reel movie shorts, but his real success was on the radio. Bergen & Charlie were seen by Noel Coward, at a Hollywood party, and he recommended them for an appearance on Rudy Vallee's program. That appearance was so successful that the next year they were given their own show. Under various sponsors, they were on the air from December 17, 1937 to July 1, 1956.
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Episodes
  • Bergan Mccarthy wc Fields Ida Lupino Dorothy Lamour Nelson Eddy

    Bergan Mccarthy wc Fields Ida Lupino Dorothy Lamour Nelson Eddy
    May 27 2024
    1 hr and 1 min
  • 100th Anniversary Program

    100th Anniversary Program
    May 27 2024
    53 mins
  • 102nd Anniversary Program

    102nd Anniversary Program
    May 27 2024
    1 hr and 17 mins

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