People, Locations, Episodes

Mon, 02.17.1873

John W. Cooper, Ventriloquist born

*John W. Cooper was born on this date in 1873.  He was a Black ventriloquist and singer.  

From Brooklyn, New York, he lost both of his parents very young.  Cooper received his education at Professor Dorsey’s Institute in Brooklyn.  While at Dorsey, he developed into a promising entertainer and took a special interest in ventriloquism, a craft he learned from a white man he met at a Sheepshead Bay racetrack.  Cooper, also a singer, joined “The Southern Jubilee Singers.” 

While touring with this group, he developed his ventriloquism act, writing and performing his material before mostly white audiences.  “Fun in a Barber Shop” became one of his most well-known acts.  Cooper portrayed six puppet characters, each with his own voice performed by Cooper.  In 1902, when he was twenty-nine, Cooper had his first big break in ventriloquism while traveling with Richards and Pringles Minstrels.  That year, he was recognized by the Daily Nonpareil, a leading entertainment magazine, as the best ventriloquist of that era.   

Cooper created another act with a black ventriloquist puppet named Sam Jackson.  Cooper and Sam traveled all over the United States for the next two decades.  By the start of World War I, he began performing at veteran hospitals, service clubs, and military camps.  During his lifetime Cooper was a member of the Negro Actors Guild, Knights of Magic, the Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association, and the International Brotherhood of Ventriloquists. 

Cooper continued to perform and create new acts for another twenty-five years.  He also taught his craft to Shari Lewis and other young ventriloquists who carried on his legacy.  Cooper retired in 1960 at the age of eighty-seven after the death of his wife, Juliana St. Bernard.  John W. Cooper died six years later in New York in April 1966.