The dummy "Willie" was created by American ventriloquist supplies maker Revillo Pettee, while the dummy seen at the end was created by English builder Len Insull. "Willie" is in the private collection of magician David Copperfield.
Rod Serling's reference to the "Gray Night Way" is a play on the common nickname for Broadway, which is the "Great White Way."
Other films of disturbed ventriloquists include The Great Gabbo (1929); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)'s The Glass Eye (1957); the low budget British production, Devil Doll (1964); the magnificent Magic (1978); while contemporary film-makers have recently gone to the well again with Dead Silence (2007). But for many people, the outstanding example is that found within the British anthology movie, Dead of Night (1945), which gives us an unforgettable performance by Michael Redgrave as the tormented ventriloquist Maxwell Frere, and a dummy, Hugo Fitch, who will haunt your nightmares.
There is a similar plot of ventriloquist terrorized by evil dummy appearing in Magic (1978) and in some Batman comics and cartoons involving the characters Arnold Wesker and Scarface since 1987.