Walter van Brunt

Who was Walter van Brunt?

Walter Van Brunt was an American tenor known initially for his recordings on Thomas Alva Edison's Blue Amberol Records and later for his rôle in a scandal involving a stage name and case of adultery.

Van Brunt began his singing career at age 17 as an imitator of singer Billy Murray. He was soon performing with Ada Jones and John Bieling as well as the American Quartet. He worked in vaudeville and on Broadway, including in the musical Eileen. Van Brunt had 40 hits on pop charts, including his 1914 duet "When the Green Leaves Turn to Gold" on YouTube with Elizabeth Spencer.

In the late 1910s, Van Brunt began embroiling himself in a scandal which shook Broadway and put his career into decline. The difficulties started in 1917 when Van Brunt began using the name "Walter J. Scanlan" to assume the identity of Irish tenor Walter J. Scanlan who had had an established career before dying without making a recording. Allegations were raised, but never proved, that Eileen's Irish-American conductor, Victor Herbert, had encouraged the subterfuge.