Terry Bennett(1930-1977)

Terry was born on April 25, 1930. On his tenth birthday he was given a Charlie McCarthy dummy as a gift from his uncle. For several years he honed his vent skills entertaining his friends. Within a few years Terry was winning talent contests as a ventriloquist. He invested in a couple of Turner figures from Lou Tannens in New York. It wasn't long after that he was appearing in nightclubs, USO show tours, The Kate Smith Hour (1950) and the Arthur Godfrey Time (1952). Bennett met and became friends with veteran ventriloquist dummy maker Frank Marshall, who created Red Flannels for Terry, This puppet is Bennett's most-remembered dummy. In 1951 Bennett was drafted for a two-year army stint in Orleans, France. Terry was allowed to bring his wooden partner along. While in the army he was part of a entertainment group in the troop, which he performed his ventriloquism act. After Terry was discharged from the army he married Joy Ann Page, who he meet in Florida during one of his acts. They married on June 18, 1953. The two of them, along with Terry's dummies went to Canada and did a new ventriloquist stage act. Terry was offered a job to work for Chicago television station WBKB in 1954. There, Terry took on the responsibilities of writer, producer, on-air promotion director, and program director. Sometime during his early days with WBKB he created the famous logo for ABC-TV channel 7 network. Terry longed to be in front of the camera. He approached general manager, Sterling Red Quinlan with his idea of a kid show that he could perform his ventriloquism with his dummy Red Flannels. Terry went back to Frank Marshall and had him create other dummy characters for the show. The television show became Jobblewocky Place (1957). Jobblewocky Place was very successful and was receiving its just praises from the public and press. Even earning three Emmy's later during its run. Not even halfway through the first season of Jobblewocky was Terry offered another job. This time Red Quinlan said to Terry Bennett that he was to be the new host of Shock Theatre (1957). This Saturday night show featured what was called "the Shock package", horror, mystery, monster movies. Terry created the character of Marvin for this show and his wife Joy, would become know as "Dear" on it. Once again the public went wild for this program. Press and papers praised it. Shock Theatre (1957) became so popular that a half hour extra show was added right after Shock and was called Aftershock (1958). 1959 was the year Shock Theatre ended. Jobblewocky Place ended in 1961. The Bennetts did one last show in Chicago called The Wacky World of Mr. B (1962). The Bennetts moved to New York where they worked for WPIX, channel 11. There Terry produced The Chuck McCann Show, The Clay Cole Show (1959), The Sammy Kaye Show (1950), and David Susskind's Hot Line. Terry returned to performing with the WPIX show Let's Have Fun (1965-1967). This was a show very much like Jobblewocky Place (1957) using many of the same dummies and puppets that were used on that show. In 1972 the Bennett family moved to Tampa, Florida. Around this time Terry created some characters for Burger King. It was during 1975 that Terry started becoming ill. This illness lasted long. On October 12. 1977 it took his life. Terry Bennett died at the age of 47. Terry's dummy, Red Flannels, can be seen in the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.