Topo Dunkelman
From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.
Contents |
Early life and career
Topo was born in the Lower East Side of Westland, Michigan, on February 29, 1933, one of a litter of 628 puppets. His father was a sometime shoeshine rag who left the family soon after Topo's birth. Topo's mother was a frail little mouse named Idgie, who supported the family as a dishrag at a Chinese restaurant.
Topo got his stage name from his first manager, Tommy "No Face" Krum, who got Topo a part on the short-lived DuMont network variety show, "The Hour Of Pain And Death" in 1949. Despite the show's failure, Topo was able to find work as a hand puppet to such 1950's TV stars as Arthur Godfrey (who fired Topo for "getting too fuzzy") and Jackie Gleason (who wiped his copious backside with Topo on the first US TV show to aired via satellite in 1961).
Hollywood
Topo was brought to Southern California by Ernie Kovacs, who taught Topo the ins and outs of being a champion poker player. (Ironically, Kovacs was killed in an auto accident in 1962; the night of Kovacs' death, he had left Topo's house after blowing four grand trying to fill an inside straight.) Roles for Topo's brand of cheekiness dried up in the 1970s, but Topo was still a welcome sight at Hollywood nightclubs, winning a king's ransom at poker and bedding every woman in sight.
Assassination attempt
Topo Dunkleman was shot by an unknown gunman outside the Pink Flamingo Hotel in Miami Beach in 1983; the case has never been solved, though many believe it was payback for sleeping with a local crime boss' wife. Topo recovered physically but lost his "poker eye" and soon spiralled into drug, alcohol and corduroy addiction. By the dawn of the twenty-first century, Topo was living in a rest home, a shell of his former self, forgotten even by his one-time chums Farfel the Dog and Ollie the Dragon.
Comeback
When Ryan Seacrest read of Topo's sad state of affairs, he rescued him from the home, had him dry cleaned, and invited him to appear on a new program that was about to come on the air: American Idol. The rest, as they say, was history. Actually, they don't really say that, but it sounds good, no?
Tragedy
After tasting success on- and off-screen (he had regained his card-playing prowess, and won a record 314 straight games of Strip Poker with Paula Abdul), Dunkelman left Idol for a puppet-themed vehicle on ABC called Real Puppets. On April 1, 2003, during a routine run-through with co-star Lord Foggybottom, Topo suddenly collapsed. He was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, but to no avail: Topo Dunkelman was dead at the age of seventy, due to complications from rug burn.
Tributes
President George W. Bush declared a National Day of Mourning for Topo; basketball player Alonzo Mourning also declared a National Day of Me in Topo's honour. An estimated 2.7 billion people worldwide watched all or part of Topo's televised funeral, held in Michigan (the entire state; over 200 million tickets were purchased).
In a tribute, Seacrest signed off from every episode of American Idol's second season with the phrase, "Seacrest says to remember the puppets."
Legacy
Topo was voted "Coolest Puppet In the Universe Ever" in a nationwide poll in 2005.
The philanthropic organization that Topo founded in 2002, The Topo Fund, annually gives more than $8.62 to deserving charities such as PETP, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Puppets.
