Russell Hunting
Russell Dinsmore Hunting (May 8, 1864 – February 20, 1943) was an American comic entertainer, pioneer sound recordist, and an influential figure in the early years of the recorded music industry. He was described as "the most popular pre-1900 recording artist".
Biography
He was born in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and began his career as a dramatic actor in the Boston Theatre Company. In 1891, he made his first cylinder recordings for Fred Gaisberg of Berliner Records. These were comedy skits featuring Hunting's Irish character of Michael Casey. The recordings consisted of rapid-fire cross-talk between two characters, with Hunting taking all the parts, and became highly popular. From 1892 he recorded the Michael Casey skits for Columbia Records, as well as for other companies, and several of his recordings such as "Michael Casey at the Telephone" and "Michael Casey Taking the Census" (both 1892) became famous. In 1893, Hunting recorded the earliest version of the baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" (Columbia Graphophone Grand, #9649). After that, his popular "Casey" format was often imitated.