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Ventriloquist Señor Wences Dead at 103

by Joal Ryan
April 20, 1999, 12:25 p.m. PT

Señor Wences died today. Maybe you didn't know the name, but you probably knew the fist.

The Spanish-born ventriloquist was a TV fixture in the 1950s and 1960s--the man who made millions laugh by scrunching his hand into a squeaky-voiced, wig-wearing hand puppet name of Johnny.

Wences (real name: Wenceslao Moreno) passed away at his New York City home at age 103.

In addition to Johnny, Wences worked the room with Pedro--his head-in-a-box puppet. The performer was perhaps best known for Pedro's plaintive cry, "S'awright."

"Most of us were in awe of Wences," fellow ventriloquist Jimmy Nelson once said. "He could get laughs by just saying, 'S'awright.' "

Pedro and Johnny helped Wences become a popular (and ultra-frequent) guest on The Ed Sullivan Show. The "trio" also toured with the Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis comedy team and played every hot casino spot in Las Vegas.

Wences performed well into the 1990s.

The act was built not around punchlines, but "bizarre, farcical, Spanish-accented patter," a writer once noted. Wences talked to Pedro and Johnny as if they were real--and to audiences, they were.

Wences created Pedro out of necessity in 1936. On his way to a gig in Chicago, his full-body dummy was crushed. Wences stuck the surviving head in a box, took it on stage and asked Pedro how he was.

"S'awright," Pedro replied.

An act was born.