sentences:  Rogers developed a technically highly proficient ventriloquism act with her ventriloquist figure Shorty Harris, first of all appearing as a supporting act in music hall in the 1950s.Like her contemporary fellow ventriloquist Bobbie Kimber, she began life as a man but underwent gender reassignment surgery on the National Health Service in the early 1960s.This brought her some short-lived notoriety but did not hamper her career.