Qualifying Exam
Why You’ve Heard Russell Hunting: The Play Within a New Medium and the Emergence of A Soundscape
by Danielle Adair
I. Hunting and His Context
In an article titled “The Phonograph and its Future Uses” that Thomas Edison penned for the North American Review in June 1878, the inventor puts forth his sanctioned practices for his new invention. In 1890 Edison published a list again:
In my article of twelve years ago I enumerated among the uses to which the phonograph would be applied:
1. Letter writing and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer.
2. Phonographic books, which will speak to blind people without effort on their part.
3. The teaching of elocution.
4. Reproduction of music.
5. The “Family Record”—a registry of sayings, reminiscences, etc., by members of a family in their own voices, and of the last words of dying persons.
6. Music-boxes and toys.
7. Clocks that should announce in articulate speech the time for going home, going to meals, etc.
8. The preservation of languages by exact reproduction of the manner of pronouncing.
9. Educational purposes; such as preserving the explanations made by a teacher, so that the pupil can refer to them at any moment, and spelling or other lessons placed upon the phonograph for convenience in committing to memory.
10. Connection with the telephone, so as to make that instrument an auxiliary in the transmission of permanent and invaluable records, instead of being the recipient of momentary and fleeting communication.
[…] I may add that, through the facility with which it stores up and reproduces music of all sorts, or whistling and recitations, it can be employed to furnish constant amusements to invalids, or to social assemblies, at receptions, dinners, etc…
II. The Play Within A New Medium
The Laughing Song (1889) by Cal Stewart
The Laughing Record (1898) by George W. Johnson
Zang Tumb Tumb (1913) by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Casey at the Bat
Recitation entitled “Casey’s at the Bat” for Columbia Phonograph Company of New York and London.
There was ease in Casey’s manner as he stepped into his place;
there was pride in Casey’s bearing and a smile on Casey’s face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
no stranger in the crowd could doubt ‘twas Casey at the bat.
Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
defiance gleamed in Casey’s eye, a sneer curled Casey’s lip.
And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
and Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped—
“That ain’t my style,” said Casey. “Strike one,” the umpire said.
From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
“Kill him! Kill the umpire!” shouted someone on the stand;
and it’s likely they’d have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.
With a smile of Christian charity great Casey’s visage shone;
he stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
he signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
but Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said: “Strike two.”
“Fraud!” cried the maddened thousands, and Echo answered fraud;
but one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
and they knew that Casey wouldn’t let that ball go by again.
The sneer is gone from Casey’s lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
he pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
and now the air is shattered by the force of Casey’s blow.
*Words from “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888,” a baseball poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer. First published in The San Francisco Examiner (then called The Daily Examiner) on June 3, 1888.
Casey at the Telephone
Michael Casey, first experience in using the, uh, telephone. A selection by, uh, Russell Hunting.
(sound of door knocker)
CLERK: Come in
(louder door knocker sound)
CLERK: Come in, sir, Come in.
CASEY: (Rustling sound) Haha, Good morn’, sir.
CLERK: How do you do?
CASEY: Yes, well, I em, well, I would like eh, Well if I feel it, speaking in the thermometer.
CLERK: What’s that?
CASEY: Could I speak in your thermometer?
CLERK: We-ell, what do you mean?
CASEY: I mean that little electrical wire thing there on the wall.
CLERK: Oh, the telephone.
CASEY: Yes, haha, that’s the thing. Would I be let speaking in it?
CLERK: Why, certainly. But do you know how to operate the telephone?
CASEY: Operate? [Well], I drove a knife wagon for three years, haha.
CLERK: Well, that’s alright. Go ahead.
CASEY: Yes, I am much obliged. Now I, I uh, just ring the bell here and speak in the little hole there?
CLERK: Yes, that’s right.
CASEY: Alright, here she goes.
(sound a high pitched ring, like a kettle boiling)
CASEY: I don’t hear a thing but some boiling water. [indiscernible] [different tone, louder] Haha, Hello little girl, hello
CASEY: Whose play? What do I want? I want to speak with [Ginny Marine ?] Saul Sin [?] ! Saul Spin [?] in the alley. Yes. He’s a little man with red whiskers and overalls. And he wears shoes. Eh ? What number? [indiscernible] By the drug store there, the second door from the apothecary. Huh?? [indiscernible] Alright, bid thee off. [indiscernible]
(conversation between Casey and other voices on interception – sounds like betting)
CASEY: Denny Murphy
CASEY: Nevermind, here’s what we know. Hey, hey, Murphy !!! [indiscernible]
CASEY: MIKE CASEY! YEA! AM I SPEAKING TOO LOUD FOR YA?! YEA! WHY HAVEN’T YOU BEEN TO WORK FOR THE LAST TWO DAYS?! Yes, why haven’t you been to work?
CASEY: What? You don’t tell me. Ohhhh, hahaha. When was this? Tuesday night! Ahh, what is it a boy or a child? A little girl. Ten pounds. Oh, well well well, hahah. Yes, certainly I’ll be over. I come back over now. I’ll walk over in the half. Yes, goodbye ya. Oh something me walking. See ya tonight then. Good. [indiscernible]
*Personal transcription.
Michael Casey Exhibiting His Panorama
III. From a Semiotics to a Semantics of Sound
IV. Context and the Advancement of the Phonograph
Related Images:
Further Listening:
Casey at the Telephone by John Kaiser
Michael Casey Taking the Census
Michael Casey at Criminal Court