The year was 1954.   I was a senior in high school.    I happened to be in Davenport, Iowa, where I was to sing and speak that weekend in a local church.    It was a Friday afternoon and I was just walking along a downtown street when I happened to look in the window of a novelty store.   There, sitting on a shelf, was a ventrioloquist’s dummy.     I had never seen one before – remember that television was just starting up.   I had heard Charlie McCarthy on radio, but to actually see a “dummy”?   Nope, never had.      I went inside and asked the clerk to please let me see the little fellow.   In a minute or so, I was holding this puppet, this dummy.    I asked the price – $15 dollars!!    Can you believe that?    I slipped my hands inside the dummy’s back and found the controls and the little guy came alive in my hands.    On the spot I named him Louie and purchased him.      I took him back to my room and began “talking” to him.     I used Louie in a public presentation the next Sunday morning, fewer than 48 hours after obtaining him.

Some years passed by and I approached an old college buddy of mine, Don Baldwin, then owner of Hymntone Record Company.   He has since gone on to be with the Lord.   I said, “Don, I have this little dummy – Louie.   We tell Bible stories to children.    I’d like to record them and make them available.    I want to record them with original music and incredible sound effects.”

You know, I grew up in radio days.    I listened to the Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Suspense, Escape, Jack Benny, etc., etc.     Radio fired up your imagination.   You actually saw on the screen of your mind all the action, much more effectively, may I say, than movies or television.     I wanted to record Bible stories with Louie on audio that would cause kids to see the events on their very fertile young minds.

I said, “Don….here’s the premise:   at the beginning of each story, Louie has a question or he’s in trouble or has a problem.   To find the answer to his problem, we go to the fantastic, incredible Bible Storybook Castle.   It has 66 rooms in it.   39 of them are old (The Old Testament) and 27 of them are new (The New Testament).      There is the story of a guy there, Louie, whose name is Samson.   To find him we have to go into the Bible Storybook Castle and go to the old section, to a huge room called ‘Judges.’     That’s where we’ll find your answer.”    So right away kids begin learning the Old and New Testaments, which books are where, and whose stories are in each ‘room.’”    Don thought for a long time and said, “I’ll get back to you.”    Out of Don’s imaginative brain came the whole concept of the recordings – over 100 Bible stories told (then) on audio cassettes.     Since then the stories have been remastered and released on CDs.

We now believe that over a million children have heard the Dan ‘N Louie Bible stories around the world.     In fact, there is a Dan ‘N Louie radio show in Thailand, translated into their language, heard five days a week.     In places in America, Dan ‘N Louie are heard on radio stations in English.     I have received countless letters, e-mails, phone calls and personal communications from children or their parents (or their grandparents) telling me how these stories have impacted their children.    I have had communications from teachers and school principals, informing me of the positive influence these stories have had.     I honestly believe that the writing and performing these stories with Louie ( a manuscript of over 2,000 pages, by the way!) is the single most important thing God has ever permitted me to do in a half-century of ministry.

Recently, Jim Bakker has begun promoting these CD’s on his syndicated television show.     You can obtain them from him for $15 per CD or you can buy the entire 20 CD set (107 stories – 21 hours) for $200.    The money goes to his ministry to assist him in his Master’s Commission ministry.    Here’s the toll-free number to call:   1-888-988-1588.     

Every parent or grandparent ought to seriously and prayerfully consider this investment.    Your children will bless you for it.      In the meantime, Louie and I will just continue telling the stories from the fabulous, incredible Bible Storybook Castle!!

Oh, by the way:    Louie is 55 years old now – same dummy!    However, on two different occasions I have sent him back to the factory for what Louie calls “dummy-tucks.”     He looks great!   In fact, he told me to tell you, “Hello.”