Walter Van Brunt

Van Brunt began his singing career at the age of 17, as an imitator of singer Billy Murray.

Van Brunt was soon performing with Ada Jones and John Bieling, as well as the American Quartet.

[1] In 1917, Van Brunt began using the name Walter J. Scanlan (newspapers sometimes erroneously rendered the name as "Scanlon"), which was the name of a late 19th-century Irish tenor who had had an established career before dying, but never made any recordings.

It has been suggested, but not proven, that the Irish-American composer of Eileen, Victor Herbert, had encouraged the use of this stage name when he cast Van Brunt as the leading man.

It was not a secret that this was a stage name: The New York Times review of Eileen stated that Scanlan's real name was Van Brunt.