Vent Haven Museum

Vent Haven is easily accessible off the highway, and you will not regret stopping in for the tour. Schedule your tour, and you will not be disappointed. Even if you know little to nothing about ventriloquism, the encyclopedic knowledge and enthusiasm of the curator, Lisa Sweasy, and the extensive collection of almost 900 dummies and puppets comprises a fascinating portrait of an entertainment form that spans over a century in America. The collection of photos and autographs alone covers a huge swath of ventriloquism history and insight into entertainment history. The dummies and puppets each have their own personality — some spit, some smoke, some have hidden features and surprising functions, some are squeaky clean, others were used in offensive or racy performances, some are well-​known and famous, others you probably haven’t heard of — all of them are interesting. So take an hour and a half of your time and step off the beaten path to experience a unique and colorful art form preserved and presented by a meticulous and fascinating curator at the Vent Haven Museum.

I cannot add much to Paige’s great review.
The curator is a wealth of knowledge and very upbeat. She added greatly to our tour and can answer any question.
I will be back for another visit.

Smokers and spitters, wigglers and winkers, nudgers and knee lifters, hair raisers and hand shakers: they’ve got ‘em all in the 800+ collection of ventriloquist figures at the Vent Haven Museum.
Located in an unsuspecting neighborhood in Fort Mitchell, right off of Dixie Highway, Vent Haven opened in 1973 after a long-​time, colorful beginning. The museum’s founder, William Shakespeare Berger, bought his first dummy in New York City in 1910. He wasn’t a ventriloquist, just a lover of Vaudeville.
This dummy, Tommy Baloney, sat in storage for 20 years until Berger pulled him out at a holiday party. Since 1930, dummies began to fill the Berger household, taking over the bedrooms, dining room, and eventually spilling out into the garage.
Berger passed away in 1972 with a collection of over 500 dummies. His property was put into a charitable foundation and dedicated as a three-​building museum the following year. The only ventriloquist museum in the world, this institution receives 1,200 guests a year.
With wall-​to-​wall figures and thousands of photographs, there is a favorite for everyone at Vent Haven. From modern plush puppets to the oldest wooden dummy dating back to 1820, this museum really does have it all.
The figures I enjoyed most were:
— the early 1800s models with real glass eyes, human hair, and real teeth
— a trunk of dummies that washed ashore after the performer died in a tragic ship accident
— a female dummy whose chest moved up and down
— dummies that could walk
— dummies made in Cincinnati
Jen, the curator, gave an in depth description of the history, the details of each style, and even showed us the inner workings of a dummy, from the way its head screwed on to how levers were made from day-​to-​day household parts. At the end of the tour, there is an adorable photo op where your group can get pictures taken with a room full of dummies. A perfect ending to a one-​of-​a-​kind experience, Vent Haven is a museum that everyone should make a pilgrimage to see.
Viewing time: 90 minutes
Price: $ 5.00 per person
Call to schedule a visit. (The curator lives on site and is very accommodating, but they discourage people randomly stopping by without notice.)