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".

He was born in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and began his career as a dramatic actor in the Boston Theatre Company. He began his recording career around 1891 recording for the New England Phonograph Company. He became famous for his series of comedy sketches about an Irish character named Michael Casey. The recordings consisted of rapid-fire cross-talk between two characters, with Hunting taking all the parts. 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.

In 1896 Hunting founded the first independent magazine for the recording industry, Phonoscope, and set up a phonograph shop in New York with his partner Charles M. Carlson. He also, about this time, recorded a series of indecent recordings, for saloons and amusement arcades on Coney Island, using pseudonyms such as Manly Tempest and Willy Fathand. Hunting was identified by his distinctive voice, and a detective working for , the founder of the newly formed New York Society for the Suppression of Vice arrested him for violating obscenity laws. Hunting was found guilty and spent three months in prison. Some of Hunting's lewd recordings were included on the 2007 compilation Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings from the 1890s.

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