Uncovered Photos from Suitcase Reveal Early 20th Century

A suitcase left unopened in an Australian family home for 90 years has unveiled images from another world, as a ventriloquist’s archive comes to light. English journalist Thomas Frederick Parnell, better known by his stage name Frederick Russell, became “the father of modern ventriloquism” after trading journalism for the stage in the late 19th century. Reinventing the practice of miming speech from puppets, Parnell established the now-common practice of using a single comedic dummy as the puppeteer plays it straight. His companion was known as Cockney “Coster Joe.” Alongside his career as a jokester, Parnell’s press work took him around the world from Lake Tanganyika in east Africa to the Western Front, with camera in hand....