Jerry McGee is home were he belongs

When I returned Jerry to Bill Fetzer and his wife they had nothing but nice things to say about my work and how Jerry worked and looked. Bill had sent his brother this blog to view Jerry and this was his response.

Dick Fetzer to his brother Bill Fetzer (Jerry’s partner):

“Wow! This guy is good! It is amazing what the years did to Jerry. (We’re not going to mention his friend Bill) You have sure given Jerry a new lease on life! I could tell from the commentary that this guy is a great restorer. You found the right person for the transformation. It is almost like welcoming a new child--congratulations! Have you let him make his debut yet? I wonder what your friends at the Aquarium will think?

Dick"

Vent Figure PVC Control Stick with Brass Control Rods

My friend Al Stevens is well known for his Fred Project WebPages. http://www.alstevens.com/ventriloquism/fred.html

Since those were published Al has changed the way he makes a control stick and graciously taught me how it is done. With Al's permission given, I am passing the information on to all of you. For those of you who don't use PVC to make your control stick, which allows you to easily use all brass control rods to operate your figure, here are scale illustrations of the hardware and one of how it is assembled to help you should you decide to give this style a go.

Fixin Jerry McGee

Jerry McGee is a sixty-five years old Turner figure owned and still operated by his partner Bill Fetzer. Bill and Jerry have been together Jerry's whole “life.” Bill and Jerry still entertain guests at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston.

This is a picture of Bill and Jerry in their early days.

This is Bill and Jerry at the Aquarium last year.

This is Bill and Jerry with Doctor Cookie Jensen at the Vent Haven ConVENTion 2009.

Bill approached me a Vent Haven about giving Jerry some TLC. It seems a previous repair resulted in a few problems. Jerry controls were dragging when Bill operated them and the reason was obvious to me the last person to fix Jerry used picture wire instead of string on his controls, so they were slowly sawing their way into Jerry’s control stick.
Another issue Bill had with the repair was that Jerry’s eyeholes had been made smaller and he wanted them opened up somewhat and his eyelashes had been reduced to singular looking ‘hairs’ instead of the thick eyelashes Jerry had back in the day. I agree with both their aesthetic views of the eyeholes and tried for a happy medium I hope Bill likes it.

Also Jerry started out as a redhead and somehow he had morphed into a dirty blond. After I went searching for a new red hairpiece I found out why Jerry was sporting a different color; attractive red wigs are hard to find!

This is Jerry when I started with him.

Here are the picture wire control ‘strings.’

And the inside of Jerry head showed up with some age problems as well. There were cracks in the top of his head and under his control stick, so he was starting to split in half on the inside.

The ‘spitter’ tube in Jerry’s head was jammed into the hole and held in place by electrical tape and so I added a brass tube and used Apoxy Sculpt to hold that in place as well as clean up the hole in his lip.

The former repairman had added some plastic foam to the TOP of Jerry’s head to make his wig fit better but Bill felt it made him look to different from his original Turner flat headed design.

After removing his wig I found Jerry head was covered in many different layers of glue some of which were still tacky and his head looked like he was a burn survivor. I scraped and sanded all the glue from his head. I also added a little Apoxy Sculpt to one side of the end of his nose since it was cockeyed most likely from years of paint but I wasn’t going to start scraping off years of paint to find his old nose. All this sanding and the eyehole enlargement meant that there was no getting away from a repaint of Jerry’s whole head.

I removed that foam but added wood to the BACK of Jerry’s head to round it off a little to try to help the wig fit better.

The new wig was cut in a woman’s style so Jerry needed a haircut and my friend Shawn stepped up to give him a professional look.

Jerry McGee
2009

My Howdy in Doodyville!

Those of you who have been following this blog will be relieved to hear that Howdy Doody is finished. After I changed the eyes in the first Howdy head I made I constructed a NEW body using the measurements given to me by Alan Semok. I made all his clothes and carved his boots this time using canvas to make the top part. Howdy stands about twenty-eight to thirty inches tall depending on his position when you measure him. I finished Howdy in time for the Vent Haven ConvVENTion in Kentucky this year and took him with me.

I brought him out to show to Alan Semok not realizing the fuss that would be made by others who were seeing their childhood friend in person for the first time. Jay Johnson (SOAP) thought he was great looking as did everyone who came to see him. Bob Abdou (Mister Puppet) couldn’t say enough positive things about Howdy. But the biggest compliments came from Alan Semok who not only said I did a great job with the sculpture but he said I nailed it and that Howdy worked well and was well balanced and functioned as he should.

When I returned home I called my friend David Eaton (one time Bozo the clown) a renowned puppeteer and co-founder of Pinocchio’s Marionette Theatre and asked him to set up a meeting so Pady Blackwood could give me his opinion. He set it up for the next day! And last night Pady was thrilled and impressed with my Howdy and I was thrilled and awed in return when he sat and told me stories about Buffalo Bob Smith and Lew Anderson (Clairabell the Clown).

This is a photo of my Howdy and Alan Semok, Howdy Doody’s official personal physician.

These are pictures of my Howdy with Pady Blackwood, Howdy’s official puppeteer from when the show was revised in the 1970’s.

ANOTHER HOWDY?!! Not really, this is a photo of the first Howdy head I made with the eyes fixed. I think I like him better than Howdy number two.!

Before and After

The second Howdy head now resides on the body. I hope to get some help from someone to make sure he is strung properly.

Howdy Doody Too

Well I was told that the first Howdy head that I made had something wrong with his eyes, so I took up the challenge to figure out what was wrong and fix it. Now I wasn't going to mess with the first one cause if all did not go well I would have no head at all for my marionette. So I made another. Let me know what you think.

Mean John Dean

Real Howdy

My First Howdy My Second Howdy

Some comments about my Howdy from some friends and acquaintances

"He looks really good, John."
Al
Al Stevens
Ventriloquist and vent figure builder
http://www.alstevens.com/


"He is unbelievably beautiful, okay I know you are a stickler for words, "Handsome"."
Hugz
me
Margaret Davis
Ventriloquist
http://www.talkinghand.net/


"Whoa dude, you are the man!! He looks awesome, great job! Hope to see you at a festival or something."
Jonathan
Jonathan David West
Puppeteer Marionette builder
http://www.westpuppets.com/


"Great, John! Really first rate. Congrats. I so want to display him at Pinochio's when it re-openings."
Bestest, Dave
David Eaton
Master Puppteer and former Bozo the clown
http://www.pinocchios.net/

Great job, John. I'm thinking of hiring you for my figure.
Donald
Donald Woodford
Ventriloquist
http://www.woodynfriends.com/

John,
I am very impressed with your accuracy of detail in capturing Howdy's likeness. A great job and something you can be proud to say you created.
Dan
Dan Willinger
Figure Collector
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Howdy is done!

Howdy Doody dressed and ready

Howdy's boots are made of black leather over carved pine shoes with real shoe sole on the bottom and white leather tops over cardboard tubes as well.

You can almost hear him saying "Ho Ho! It's great to be here!"