Ted Gundersen and Stumpy were a animal act in Vaudeville. They were an unusual act for many reasons. For one thing, Ted Gundersen was the name of the pig, and the man was called Stumpy. Also, Stumpy spoke no English, and he announced the pig's tricks in Esperanto. But the tricks weren't bad, so audiences didn't seem to mind.
When Vaudeville died, Stumpy denied that they killed had it, first of all. Then he set his sights on radio. Clearly, Stumpy was clinically insane. He was bitter that there was no room in radio for a visual act with Esperanto narration.
The act broke up and Stumpy landed a job as a translator at the U.N. Ted Gundersen found work as a stevedore on New York's waterfront.
With the emergance of television, a visual medium, they reunited. They appeared on various variety shows, and things went well for a number of years. Then one night night backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show their career came to an abrupt, permanent end when Ted Gundersen ate Top Gigio.
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