John Moschitta Jr. is a 66-year-old Italian from Long Island. To many, he is the quickest on the planet. As a boy he tried to break the world record at a charity fair. The first time The Guinness Book of Records mentions Hamlet’s soliloquy is in 1968, when Dr Charles Hunter read the first 218 words of the speech in 35.2 seconds. (Why he couldn’t finish the remaining 42 words is unclear.) Moschitta practiced for months and raced through the soliloquy faster than this, but the fair didn’t have the facilities to verify his speed.
Moschitta began to trade Hamlet for “Ya Got Trouble” from the musical The Music Man, a 545-word song that, by 1980, he could recite in a minute. The Guinness Book of Records’ editor-in-chief Craig Glenday tells me that Moschitta, who has a moustache, minimal hair, and a broad smile, doesn’t appear until the 1984 book’s Stop Press section, where “results of tests by a radio station” indicate that he spoke intelligibly at 552 words per minute.
For years, no one came close to Moschitta. He became a star, appearing in commercials and making a living from his ability. He is in the book in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988, his record unchallenged.
Credit : Daily Beast
Picture Credit : Google
