Verna Finley Puppets
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Mannequin American
The Lady Behind "Verna" Puppets
I've met my "maker" a couple of times. His name is Alan Semok (above). Alan is recognized as a premiere figure maker. (He'd have to be ... he created me.)
Several of Dale's other suitcase posse members are not "true" Mannequin Americans because they're what are referred to in the trade as "soft puppets." But Dale's soft characters are still pretty special because most of them were designed and created by the famous Verna Finley.
The photo above was taken many years ago at the Grand Floridian at Disney World. It was an event for Jeff Dunham. On the left is Dale and on the right is our dear friend, Verna Finley. (I have no idea who is in the middle.)
Verna is considered by most to be the "Grande Dame" of soft puppets. Although Verna retired from puppet making several years ago, her creations live on and are highly sought after by both professionals and collectors. If you own a "Verna" you are fortunate indeed. And if you ever had the opportunity to actually meet Verna, you are doubly fortunate. She's a sophisticated world traveler and at the same time as funny and down to earth as you can imagine. We cherish the memories of our visits to her home when she lived in Florida.
Over the years Verna designed more than 15 puppets for Dale ... mostly for special corporate presentations. One of those puppets resides in Vent Haven Museum. Another, his Verna-created bag lady, has over 100,000 views on YouTube. Jeff Dunham's original "Peanut" is a Verna creation. Mary Ann Taylor now makes Jeff's "Peanut replacements," and she has made backup duplicates of Dale's Verna's as well. (Unlike Mannequin Americans, soft puppets wear out.)
Anyway, I noticed that I get a lot of hits on my blog by people looking for information about Verna, so I thought I'd include this little snippet about one of our favorite people.
You Can Help Me
Blogged.com lists over 4,600 marketing-related blogs. This blog currently ranks number 240 on Blogged.com, putting it in the top 5% of all marketing blogs. While that's pretty darn good for a Mannequin American, you could help improve things.
We're only able to count people who follow the blog via a resource like http://www.blogged.com/, or those who sign up to automatically receive the blog every Tuesday and Friday by email or RSS Feed. If you're not an "official follower" you're not counted and to some extent, this is a numbers driven application of my time.
Here are your options. Go to http://bmpr.com/chip_martin/ and sign up to get the blog by RSS Feed or email; or go to Blogged.com and sign up to follow the blog. (That just means you can go there and read the blog whenever you want to without having it sent to you. I follow 17 blogs on blogged.com. It helps me organize my blog reading time with fewer clicks.) If you go to Blogged.com just type "Chip Martin's Blog" in the search tool.
The other thing you can do is to forward my blog to a friend or co-worker and ask them to sign up too. And keep sending me tidbits that I can use in my posts! I really appreciate it.
Thanks.
True or Not True?
"Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a ‘wake'."
Doggy Day Care
This print ad for a daytime dog care company in Stockholm includes the tag line, "What's your dog up to when it's home alone?" In the full-sized ad it would be easy for you to see that the ad suggests your dog is watching doggy porn.
Being the astute marketing Mannequin American that I am, I found something less obvious but still offending about this ad ... the dog is using an old Macintosh which could not possibly be attached to the internet. And look at the phone? If they're going to go to all of the trouble to create an ad, couldn't they at least get the details right?
