Just found out that the paternal grandfather of a family friend was Señor Wences, the famous ventriloquist who died at the age of 103. He was on the Ed Sullivan Show often. Señor Wences would talk to his puppets with his face right in theirs, as if daring the audience to watch his lips, which, of course, never moved. One of his famous puppets was Johnny, which he made on stage by scrunching up his fist, drawing a mouth where thumb and index finger met and draping a blond wig over the top. He would stuff a hankie in Johnny's mouth and have the puppet speak with a muffled voice while he himself smoked a cigarette. Then he would give Johnny a drag, and the puppet -- that is, Señor Wences' hand -- would somehow emit perfect smoke rings. When he came to the United States in 1934 he was just "another ventriloquist with a dummy," as he put it. But two years later, en route to Chicago, his act was transformed when his dummy, Pedro, was crushed in a baggage car accident. Wences bought a box, stuck the head inside and, onstage that day, inquired if he was OK. Pedro replied, in a voice as gravelly as Johnny's was squeaky: "S'awright!''

"S'OK?" "S'awright!''