Customer Reviews

Winch

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I must admit that I was skeptical about this book (which was recommended to me by a friend). I usually don't care for autobiographies as they tend to consist of boring lipservice that caters to the author's way of thinking. I repeat, THIS IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY! From beginning to end, Winchell takes you through an emotional, spiritual, psychological roller coaster. Going into this, I knew all about the famed ventriloquist, inventor, and voice over artist that Paul Winchell is, but I had no idea what hid beneath the surface. From emotional scar-inflicting family members and relationships gone raw, to high risk career choices, this book made my jaw drop on many occasions.

Winch is a terrific book on a couple of different levels. It is chock full of great show business stories. It is also a great psychological tale of how Paul was so afraid of his disapproving mother and how he overcame other obstacles to become a very learned and entertaining man that he is today.Mr Winchell is brutally honest in his autobiography and as a result doesn't always come across as a great guy. His battles with his mother and his wifemake for some great reading. There is a simply beautiful anecdote about how he meets his idol Edgar Bergen. The last few pages of the book concern a spiritual reckoning for Paul that seems a bit out of place but it does bring closure for him. I really felt he ended the book too abruptly. I would have liked to have been brought up to current time. Maybe he has another book in the works. I applaud Mr Winchell for his efforts in telling his story. It is a valuable story to read about.

I read this book and had read some of the on-line reviews here and other places prior to purchasing the book. I had somewhat of an idea what the book would be about. The only thing i will say is the book is candid and it tells the story of a man who i say had faults and flaws but i have seen several reviews balk at the idea that he shouldn't have been so honest or so tell-all and the idea that he shouldn't write a book about his personal demons and what he went through in his life is evading reality when the book is about his life. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars because as others have said, the book spends more time on the off-stage/behind the scenes home life of Winchell instead of offering many inside stories about his career as a top ventriloquist and as a cartoon voice actor. This kind of book, filled with one-sided recollections, was bound to create a stir from those who are in the book and the best a lot of us can do is just judge for ourselves on the things Paul wrote in this book instead of this trend i see of people jumping on the bandwagon for those offended by something Paul said. There are many sides to stories...Paul told how he felt, which it's his life story and who are we to say he's right or wrong? Again, all we have are participants who were mentioned in the book chastising Paul for his candidness or getting after him because they feel he shouldn't have wrote about the things he apparently felt were important to get off his chest. Those who are wanting to read a career life story of Paul Winchell, myself included, will just have to wait until someone comes along and writes a book about Paul which focuses on his stage life and voice work in cartoons. I'd be in line to buy such a book if it were to come into print. I grew up hearing his voice long before i knew of him...Tigger...Gargamel...Dick Dastardly...the "big 3" as i call them. I remember watching an episode of Dick Van Dyke on TV and Paul Winchell was a guest star. It was the first time i had seen him on TV. I was born in 1976 and so i'm more familiar with Paul's cartoon work. Anyway, after reading the book i do have a better picture of Paul, the man, but that in no way shape or form makes me not like his work anymore because of his temper or his paranoia. I still get a kick out of his voice work in animation and seeing his older TV clips on-line with his puppet's. This book doesn't sway my opinion on Paul Winchell, the entertainer. Here's hoping someone will come along and write a biography on Paul and get some feedback from his animation peers.

Paul Winchell is brutally honest in his memoir, and that takes guts. He had a miserable childhood, and yet overcame it to be one of the most successful entertainers ever. After reading this book, you can understand why he did a perverse turn in the 1980s by updating Jerry and Knucklehead. Paul was more than an entertainer, by the way. He invented the first artificial heart, which millions of people should be grateful for. I'm grateful for the many wonderful moments he gave as an entertainer. This book is a must read for fans.

I have waited to review this book, until Mr. Winchell had passed (June 24th, at age 82). I did not want to hurt him emotionally, any more than his personal life already had, as evidenced in this most bleak autobiography. How sad that, after all those years of living and enjoying so very much career success, he would feel the need to vent (no pun intended) such long pent up anger at people and experiences so long gone. Most elderly people would have long forgiven or forgotten the bad things that had transpired in their family lives and moved on. Most people mellow with age...Paul Winchell, alas, seems to have become more embittered. This book, in fact, reads like the egocentric rantings of a madman.

THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT THE WONDERFUL CAREER OF AN ICONIC CHILDREN'S TELEVISION AND VOICE OVER ARTIST. Winchell's career triumphs are in fact downplayed, giving way to his years of emotional mistreatment by his long dead mother.

I believe that Winchell wrote this book in the hope that it would help others whom have been abused...But his message is clouded by poor writing and seemingly no editing. This is a sad, misguided endeavor at best.

Skip this book and buy DUMMY DAYS, which chronicles Paul Winchell's career, not his rather boring personal struggles.

May he finally rest in peace.

This book is 4 stars worth of evidence that one is entirely justified in their fears of ventriloquists and their dummies.

In reading this book, I came away feeling that Paul Winchell's mother (real name: Clara Wilchin) was a piece of Human Trash, someone who made it a career to disparage other people's reputations, rip them to shreads verbally, ruin their character, dreams, hopes and aspirations and abuse them psychologically and torment them physically.

When Winch's wicked Foul-Mouthed mother, Clara, finally died in the early sixties, by that time, her poor old husband, Sol Wilchin, who had spent so many years being on the wrong end of Clara Wilchin's sadistic and domineering tirades, actually missed all the brutal tongue-lashings the evil Clara used to dish out to him on a daily basis, so much so that he actually killed himself, out of despair that his Dictator wife was no longer alive to boss him around and run his submissive life like a boot camp.

So, depressed and disillusioned, Sol Wilchin jumped one day from the balcony of his apartment building to the concrete pavement below, splattering whatever was left of his brains, which probably wasn't much, considering how Clara had spent the previous forty plus years torturing him. Clara was the kind of nut who could to turn any man into a bedwetter, I'm sorry to say. I felt very sorry for Sol as he deserved much better. Buy the book and read it. If it will prove one thing to you,you should not permit anyone to abuse you, period.

Rest In Peace, Sol and Paul

I grew up watching Winchell-Mahoney Time...
I REALLY wanted to like this book... In most bios, it's the little secrets you learn that keep you reading and make you feel more intimately involved with the subject. But in this book, I felt like "averting my eyes" to preserve the dignity of a human who shouldn't have had to go there.
The book was so embarrassingly tell-all, that I don't believe an enemy of Mr. Winchell's could have hurt him more.
I profoundly admire Mr. Winchell's brilliant talent and contributions to children's television, ventriloquism, and well, the world, but this book was so dark that I needed to remove it from my house.
I wish a second book could come out that chronicles Mr. Winchell's life, but omits the morbid minutia about the mother and ex-wives. Nobody needs to read that.
I still feel for him though, and all the participants in his life. Good luck to everyone concerned.

[...] Paul Winchell, for me, will always be known as the voice of Tigger, which makes him an interesting guy to learn more about. I'm too young to know his ventriloquism, it was nice to find out that he'd done a lot of things pre-Disney, and I enjoyed learning more about his other accomplishments. [...]

I was at an animation award event and I had my four pound Chihuahua with me. (I work on the show with the cat and the chihuahua...) I had the pup in a carrier, and she was behaving herself admirably. All of a sudden, furious barking started coming out of the carrier. I shhh'ed the pup and the noise stopped. A couple of seconds later, the barking started again and I picked up the bag and realized that it wasn't coming from the dog... An old fella stood about fifteen feet away making a shocked expression. The bag barked again... The old fella did a take. It was Paul Winchell! That realization solved the puzzle for me. I marched up to him and shook his hand for fooling me. As a kid, I never missed an episode of Winchell Mahoney Time. He turned out to be a really nice and humble guy. [...]

See ya
Steve