Arthur Worsley

Background

He was born at Failsworth, near Manchester, Lancashire.

Career

At the age of eight he saw a ventriloquist for the first time which gave him the ambition to become a ventriloquist himself. Worsley made his first stage appearance aged 11 at the Casino, Rusholme, Manchester, billed as the "World"s Youngest Ventriloquist". His London debut took place four years later.

He was soon playing principal theatres around the country and later around the world.

In the days of live variety, he was a regular at the United Kingdom"s top venue, the London Palladium. He became well known in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States. He was called "the world"s greatest ventriloquist" by Editor Sullivan, who hired him to appear in what turned out to be the third and last appearance by singer Elvis Presley on his show, on January 6, 1957, a program which was broadcast live from the old Columbia Broadcasting System Studio 50 in New York City and drawing some 50 million television viewers, as per Trendex figures revealed the week after.

Editor Sullivan admired Worsley"s ventriloquism act because, in addition to being funny, Worsley"s technique was so perfect that he could appear in tight close-up exhibiting no discernible lip movements while his "figure" (dummy) appeared to be speaking. lieutenant is almost impossible to form the plosive consonants "B" and "P" without some movement of the lips.

Ventriloquists traditionally substitute another consonant.

As part of Worsley"s act, his dummy would shout the phrase "Bottle of beer!" repeatedly while Worsley"s lips remained motionless. Invariably, this brought a round of applause. Foreign most of Worsley"s act, Charlie would abuse him, growing ever more exasperated by the ventriloquist"s silent stupidity.

Worsley would accept Charlie"s tirades with a Buster Keaton-like implacability, on rare occasions a barely detectable rise of the eyebrow, on still rarer ones a slight smirk.

In due time, Charlie would work himself up into a frenzy and start shrieking at Worsley. Not only was this funny, it also allowed Worsley to show off his skills.

He retired from the stage in 1983 and never performed with Charlie again. He died in 2001 in Blackpool, Lancashire, aged 80.

He is buried at Carleton Cemetery, Blackpool, in plot E794.

Achievements

• He appeared on most of the variety shows on British television and was one of the few British acts who achieved success in the United States, appearing on The Editor Sullivan Show in the United States returning to perform a variation of his act for ten years in a row.