Russel Hunting

Russell Hunting (b. 1865) was a North American entertainer, pioneer sound recordist, and an influential figure in the early years of the recorded music industry.

Hunting became one of the early stars of the humorous talking record, beginning in 1892, with his Michael Casey series of Irish comedy skits. Here, the multi-talented Hunting, with his trademark "of New York and, uh, Paris" announcement for the Columbia Phonograph Company, performs all of the main speaking parts in this Casey installment.

Russell Hunting was imprisoned in 1896 for making recordings of "indecent" jokes. Although he used various pseudonyms, such as "Michael Casey" when selling his recordings on Coney Island, his voice was very distinct, enough that police officers could track him down and arrest him.

In the late 1890s, a cylinder record company called Leeds Talk-O-Phone (when they made cylinders) had Hunting record a specialty of his called "Cohen at the Telephone". He was paid $5 per "round", as pantographic duplication yielded about 100 acceptable duplacates of a cylinder. At the end of the fourth round (recording into 4 machines yielded 16 masters) he saw a man carting 24 recordings of his "Cohen at the Telephone" away at the end of the studio. Hunting accused Leeds Talk-O-Phone of attempting to defraud him. Leeds Talk-O-Phone, according to Hunting, made good upon being threatened with exposure.

As early as 1901, Hunting had gone to England to employ the valuable experience that he had gained in working in all the recording laboratories of the United States. Well known to owners of all kinds of talking machines for his Casey series, his endorsement of a product was considered an advantage. Until shortly before this, Hunting had been the editor of the Phonoscope. At his arrival in England, he was made recording director for Edison-Bell, and later founded his Russell Hunting Company.

Hunting is represented on the 2007 compilation Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings from the 1890s.