ABSTRACT
American comedian, born in Richmond, Virginia. He was a child prodigy on the violin, but soon became more interested in monologues. He became famous for his Negro and Jewish dialect stories. In 1915 he recorded “Mrs. Rastus at the Telephone” (Victor 17818), and went on to make seven other discs for the label. The final effort was “Mrs. Rastus Johnson’s Joy Ride” (Victor 18517; 1919), One of the Mrs. Rastus monologs was in the catalog of 1927, along with “Goldstein behind the Bars” (#18231). Bingham died in Philadelphia. [Rust 1989; Walsh 1964/4.]
A rare disc issued by the Bing-Wolf Corp. of New York, between ca. 1927 and ca. 1930. It was associated with Grey Gull. Only eight issues have been traced, all dance and popular numbers. One is “Last Rose of Summer” sung by Arthur Fields (#2703A). [Barr 1982; Kendziora 1987/3; Rust 1978.]
