Harry "The Great" Lester was (born Maryan Czajkowsk (Tchaikovsky) on 8 September 1878 – 14 July 1956), best known by his stage name "The Great Lester", he was a seminal Polish-American vaudeville ventriloquist.

Harry was born Maryan Tschaikovsky. He was a cousin to the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, although the two probably never met. While still very young, Maryan Tchaikovsky immigrated with his family to the United States. Tschaikovsky was bright, but he was not inclined to sit still in school. Joining the circus by the time he turned 16.

In the circus young Maryan did every job that he could, his enthusiasm quickly getting him promoted to performer. He changed his name to Harry Lester and worked as a clown, magician, balloon jumper, and in the sideshow circuit as a fire-eater, mind-reader, and sword swallower. While working with sideshow performers, he learned about the art of ventriloquism. Harry read every book about vetriloquism he could get his hands on mastering the craft well enough that by the age of 20 he started performing as a ventriloquist.

He worked with several makeshift dummies during this time. While in Chicago around 1903 he had the Theodore Mack Company carve his most famous dummy, which he named Frank Byron, Jr. Harry claimed he himself had made when he was a boy. Harry assumed the name The Great Lester. He became a sensation, touring Europe, and one of the most in-demand and highest-paid performers of the vaudeville circuit. Featuring such comedy bits as calling Heaven and Hell in search of his sister. He was also the first ventriloquist to walk among the audience while his dummy whistled. Claiming he was the first to throw his voice while drinking water which is disputed.

In 1913, Lester’s vaudeville tour brought him to Rhinelander Wisconsin, to perform in the new Majestic Theater. There he fell in love with the area and a local girl named Charlotte. Harry Lester married his beloved Lottie and moved into a house on North Stevens Street. Although Lester continued performing the vaudeville circuit, Rhinelander became his permanent home. He was in town full-time during the summers and came back during lapses in performance dates during the colder months.

Harry and Lottie adopted two children, a boy named Arnold and a girl named Jessie. Even when on break from touring, Lester was active in his community. He was a member of the local Elks and Masonic Lodges and continually performing benefits for local audiences across the Northwoods.

Being a vaudeville headliner throughout the 1920s, by the end of the decade he suffered setbacks from which he never fully recovered. He took heavy losses in the stock market crash of 1929 a moth after he was forced to file a libel suit against the scandalous Hollywood film, The Great Gabbo, for its false claims of being based on his life. Most tragic of all was the death of his beloved wife Lottie.

Harry and his children moved to a lake house in the Newbold area and made the Northwoods their home through the 1930s. He continued traveling and performing, but his vaudeville act seemed increasingly old fashioned compared to the "talkies" (sound movies).

Harry moved to Los Angles after WW2 and started giving ventriloquism lessons in a studio on Hollywood Boulevard. He became a notable teacher of the art of ventriloquism. Through his innovations he developed a rigorous program of breathing and speech articulation exercises. Students were encouraged to make tape recordings of their sessions with him and, as a result, there are many examples of his course and student recordings that survive and have been made available commercially. Edgar Bergen, being one of the most famous ventriloquists of all time, was one of the Great Lester's pupils.

In 1956, at the age of 77, he needed an appendicitis operation. There were complications, and he did not recover.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85760564/harry_e-lester

https://ventriloquistcentralblog.com/the-great-lester-ventriloquism...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVmXrz6iAlA

http://www.performingartsarchive.com/Performers/Performers-L/Great-...