The

The A year or so ago, I saw a tweet from a Twitter user named Monterey Jack,

and it said,

Hey Twitter, just a friendly reminder that Venthaven is a real place that exists,

a museum where ventriloquists have donated their dummies after they've died.

Look at this place, you'd not stop screaming from the moment

you walked through the door. Thank you. So this is true. Venthaven is a museum that exists,

a museum for ventriloquist dummies. I haven't been there but there are plenty of

pictures online and of course they are not presenting this as a horror exhibit but

more a celebration of the art form and a place to preserve the dummies that have

likely over the years given people a lot of pleasure.

It's a bright and welcoming place that is dedicated to allowing these dummies to carry on entertaining

long after their original owners have passed.

And looking at the array of dummies there, you can't help but wonder about

the stories behind them. For each dummy that exists, there are stories of the craftsmen who made them

and a performer who gave them life. Some of these performers may have hit the heights of fame like

Edgar Bergen in the US, or Ray Allen in the UK.

But others toiled in relative obscurity in the lower end venues,

trying to reach those heights.

Every dummy holds the story of a life or even multiple lives.

So it's easy to talk about a place like Ventehaven with a modern sardonic eye

and tweet about it in mock terror.

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