RUSSELL, Fred (Thomas Frederick Parnell, 1862 – 1957). Coster Joe, Fred Russell’s Ventriloquist Figure. British [?], ca. 1895. Complete figure constructed from wood, cloth, and leather with moving mouth, leather boots and carved wooden hands, owned and used by Fred Russell, widely regarded as “The Father of Modern Ventriloquism.” Overall height of 33 ½”. All elements in worn but working condition, including significant chips to the carved wooden hands and significant wear to the finish, but in operable condition. Sold together with several later printed photographs of Russell, including images of the ventriloquist using Coster Joe in performance, as well as documents from the restorer, Geoff Felix, with swatches of the original costume retained. Though the clothing was recreated by Felix, the mother of pearl buttons affixed to the new costume are original.
Also included is paperwork tracing the lineage of the figure, including the catalog entry from its previous sale at public auction, as part of the collection of Music Hall and Variety artist, Harry Tate. The doll was passed by Fred Russell to Tate to use in his stage impersonation of the ventriloquist when he replaced the original puppet due to wear and tear. The later model is in the London Museum of the Grand Order of Water Rats. An important figure relating not only to one of the most prominent ventriloquists of the twentieth century, but in the shift to a modern style of presenting the art of ‘belly talk.’
It was in 1896 that Russell – having been offered a contract to perform at London’s Palace Theatre – gave up his career as a journalist to pursue a life on stage as a ventriloquist. What began as a one-week appearance was extended to an astonishing 82-week run of some 400 performances that made Fred Russell a star. It was his trendsetting performance with Coster Joe, the figure offered here, that not only broke away from the traditional presentation of ventriloquism as a performance with a whole “family” of figures and focused on a single puppet seated on the performer’s knee.
But Russell changed the game further by imbuing Coster Joe with a cheeky personality. Their exchanges marked the first instance of a ventriloquist playing the straight man to his wise-cracking figure. Coster Joe quipped and snipped at Russell; audiences roared at the repartee. It was this style of performance, and the interplay between this figure and Russell himself that would literally change the craft of ventriloquism forever after, begetting Bergen, Winchell, and virtually all other vents in modern times.
Addendum (12/5/2023)
This figure may have been manufactured for Harry Tate as a recreation of Coster Joe, for use in Tate's music hall act, not Russell's. For further information about Russell and his career, see Valentine Vox, I Can See Your Lips Moving, at page 87.