Jimmy Nelson

James Edward Nelson (December 15, 1928 – September 24, 2019) was an American ventriloquist who appeared on television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is most famous for commercials for Nestlé chocolate featuring Farfel the Dog. He also hosted a children's show sponsored by Nestlé.

Early life Nelson was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 15, 1928. When he was ten years old, his aunt won a toy ventriloquist's dummy named "Dummy Dan" in a Bingo game and gave it to her nephew for Christmas. He learned ventriloquism, and a year later, his father upgraded the dummy's mouth control from a simple string-and-loop to a lever-system like those used in professional ventriloquist's dummies.

Nelson began taking "Dan" to school, where his fourth-grade teacher allowed him to use the dummy when speaking in front of the class. In this way, Nelson taught himself to overcome his fear of public speaking. He soon started using jokes in his presentation, discovering he could make his classmates laugh.

Television career In 1950, Nelson was hired as a regular on the Texaco Star Theatre TV show, hosted by Milton Berle. Nelson and Danny O'Day would appear in Texaco gas jockey uniforms. Nelson was host of several TV shows in the early 1950s, including Bank on the Stars on NBC and Come Closer (originally titled Take My Word) on ABC.

In 1958, he added another animal dummy to his character repertoire, a cat named Ftatateeta, after a character in George Bernard Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra. The cat's voice was based on Ed Wynn's. In 1954, Nelson served as emcee on the game shows Bank on the Stars and Come Closer.

In 1960–61, he hosted a 30-minute local TV show in New York titled Studio 99-1/2 on WNTA-TV, channel 13. Ostensibly aimed at children, Studio 99-1/2 featured satirical sketches with new puppets, all voiced by Nelson, who supposedly were part of the TV station of the show-within-the-show. The show generated the release of two children's LP's on Cricket Records, "Pinocchio" and "Peter and the Wolf."

Nestlé commercials In 1955, the Nestlé company hired Nelson to do commercials selling their chocolate candy and Nestlé's Quik chocolate milk flavoring. The Nestlé executives had him audition by spontaneously performing their newly written jingle. Nelson sang the first two (musical) lines in Danny's voice: N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestlé's makes the very best... He finished with Farfel slowly singing the last word, "chocolate," in two syllables. Nelson was so nervous that his hands sweated, and when Farfel was finished, his finger slipped off the control, causing the mouth to audibly snap shut, a mistake no ventriloquist should make. Nelson left the audition thinking he had blown it, but was surprised to learn he was hired; in fact, the executives actually liked the mouth-snapping effect and asked that he keep it. This became his trademark as the commercials ran for ten years.

When advertising Nestlé's Quik, Danny O'Day would say it "makes milk taste...like a million" (dollars), again slowly and pausing for effect.

During the 1992 Christmas season, Farfel returned to television, now a hand puppet and accompanied by his large, identical-looking family, to advertise Nestle's then-new holiday candy wrapping. Just like the original Farfel, he ended the commercial by snapping his jaw shut after singing "chocolate," now joined by his family.

Film career In 2009, Nelson was featured in the ventriloquist comedy documentary I'm No Dummy, directed by Bryan W. Simon.

Later years

Nelson and his wife Betty were residents of Cape Coral, Florida, since the 1960s. He appeared with Danny and Farfel at local schools and retirement homes and was a longtime spokesperson for First Federal Savings and Loan of Fort Myers, where he later became an executive for marketing and public relations.

Nelson was dubbed "The Dean of American Ventriloquists" in 2011.

Nelson collaborated in 2011 with maker of professional ventriloquist figures Tim Selberg to produce a character that pays homage to his Danny O’Day.

He died on September 24, 2019, at the age of 90, from complications of a stroke suffered earlier in the year.

Family Nelson and his first wife, Margot, had three children: twins Larry and Leejay, and a third son, Jerry.