Paul Winchell

Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff on early NBC television Winchell took ventriloquism to television early, hosting an NBC program from 1947 with two dummies, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. The two-dummy setup gives the act its comedy: Winchell referees an argument between two characters who each sound nothing like him. He later voiced Tigger for Disney and received a 1963 patent for an artificial heart design, but the old TV clips are where his double act shines.