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Steve Porter (2)

Baritone vocalist, comedian, and occasional chimes player (born May 1863 in Buffalo, Erie Country, New York ⎯ died January 13, 1936 in Manhattan, New York, NY) Starting out as a bookkeeper, bank messenger, and clerk, Steve Porter became a successful vaudeville comedian who specialized in Irish routines, incorporating characters called Flanagan, Pat O'Brien, Clancey, or, in a duet with [a=Len Spencer], a jealous Irish washerwoman. Porter recorded prolifically for numerous companies, starting with [l=E. Berliner's Gramophone] in 1896. As a baritone, he sang in [a=The Diamond Four] (late 1890s), the [a=Columbia Quartette] or [a=Columbia Male Quartette] (1901-1902), and occasionally with the [a=Haydn Quartet] (1904). Between 1902 and 1905, Porter seems to have lived in London, England. There, he recorded for Waterfield, Clifford and Co., Ltd., then worked for [l=Nicole Frères] and their [l=Nicole Record] label both as performer and as recording engineer. In 1904, he traveled to India with John Watson Hawd to record Indian artists for Nicole Frères. By February 1905, however, Porter was back in New York City, where he resumed his recording career as part of [a=The Rambler Minstrel Company] (1905-1906), the [a=Peerless Quartet] (1906-1909), the [a=American Quartet] (1909-1914), the [a=Heidelberg Quintet] (1912-1914), and again occasionally with the [a=Haydn Quartet] (1914). In 1916, Porter formed a company to market a new form of hearing aid, the Port-O-Phone, that he had developed to help his mother-in-law. This company flourished until the 1929 stock market crash; it was dissolved a few years later.

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Steve Porter (2)

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