Ventriloquism has been alive for centuries. The first known ventriloquist was Louis Brabant in the 16th century, though ventriloquism is known to go even further back than that. Archeologists discovered evidence of ventriloquism from over 2000 years ago in Egypt.
Ventriloquism, despite being a rare type of entertainment nowadays, with fewer than 400 professions in the world, is still well-known by many all over the world. As a matter of fact, Walt Disney’s release of the beloved classic “Pinocchio” on Feb. 23, 1940, is still enjoyed by families across the globe.
Pinocchio, the wooden boy whose only dream was to be real, was cursed with an enlarged nose whenever he lied. Despite the movie being a bit scary with little boys being turned into donkeys and the protagonist being swallowed by a blue whale, it is adored by millions of people, especially children, everywhere.
But, that was not always the case. The original story of Pinocchio was published in February of 1883 by Carlos Lorenzini, more famously known as Carlos Collodi. He previously enjoyed journalism and never intended to write children’s stories. He was studying to become a Catholic priest, but he later resigned and began to follow his passion.
The true story of Pinocchio was not meant to be a heroic tale of a naive young boy but rather served as a cautionary tale for naughty kids. Some of the main points the story highlights are “go to school”, “listen to your conscience”, and “do not listen to a scary talking fox who offers you fame”.
Collodi is not very kind towards his characters, often referring to Pinocchio as a “disgrace”. Real sweet, I know. This reflected his character as well because guess what? The man who wrote children’s books hated children. You heard that right. Pinocchio’s character was actually meant to reflect how Collodi saw children, and since he absolutely despised them, we can assume that it is not good.
It is not like the story starts out nice either. Pinocchio does not begin his life as a cute, breathing little puppet, no. He starts out as a piece of wood who does not want to be cut up, and he begs Gepetto to not hit him so hard. But, he gets all chopped up anyway and becomes the puppet we all know and love. As soon as Gepetto carves his spindly wooden legs, Pinocchio runs away from him. And get this, Geppetto gets arrested! Maybe for harboring a black magic puppet, but I am not sure.
Oh, and remember the cute cricket? Jiminy Cricket by name. He is the little voice at the back of your mind telling you what is right or wrong: your conscience. He makes a slight appearance in this story, you know before Pinocchio freaks out and smashes him with a hammer. No, I am not kidding. He actually did that. For Pinocchio, things do not get any better for him. It is like a trauma festival for the wooden kid after he runs away. He is almost used as fire fuel, a fisherman covers him in flour and attempts to fry and eat him, (must have been really hungry if he was just going to eat deep-fried wood), and later becomes an adorable donkey who is chucked into the sea. A real eventful day for a piece of wood.
He is continually harassed by the Fox and the Cat, who in Disney’s film, goes by Honest John and Gideon. In the end, Pinocchio is lynched by them for 5 pieces of gold. I am serious. For five pieces of gold, this puppet who has not even lived for more than a few hours was lynched.
Let’s recap for a second. Over the course of a day, our poor puppet friend was turned into a donkey, was almost made into a delicious meal or a warm fire, took a deep sea dive, and was hung from a tree. Personally, I could not think of a better way to spend your only day on Earth.
