David Cornelius Bangs (May 25, 1860 – 1935) was an American recording artist of the 1890s specializing in recitations.
[3] 1894 Columbia catalogs prominently featured his "'Rastus Series" of comic recitations in black dialect similar to the "Brudder Rasmus" series recorded by Louis Vasnier for the Louisiana Phonograph Company two years earlier (at this time, both Columbia and Louisiana were both subsidiaries of the North American Phonograph Company).
[5][6] He began recording for the Chicago Talking Machine Company by late 1896,[7] performing similar vaudeville-inspired comic recitations like "Old Jed Prouty Crossing the Track" and "P.T.
Though the catalog contains only four selections, it commends his "voice of great strength, flexibility and sweetness" and a "touch of naturalness and finesse that few public speakers possess".
1890) in Washington, D.C.[9] He later married an Illinoisan woman named Bertha Ann Sack and had another son, David Jr. (b.