Vintage Catalogs & Advertisments [Archive]

carleshicks

Jun-22-2006, 8:48pm

I have that same Gibson window sings. Some one trimmed it to fit in to a frame but it is still in great shape. It has the instructions for tansfering it to a store front window on the back. I don't know if it is an original but i asume it is.

Bob A

Jun-22-2006, 9:08pm

I wasn't aware that celery was famous, but it seems appropriate somehow, now that so many are "stalking" the elusive Loar.

Any details on how Kalamazoo managed the Great Celery Promotion?

danb

Jun-23-2006, 5:38am

carleshicks: cool! I'd love to see a decent photo or scan of it!

carleshicks

Jun-23-2006, 5:59am

I will scan it tonight and post it after I get home

Jun-23-2006, 7:23am

The Kalamzaoo Celery Story (http://www.michmarkers.com/startup.asp?startpage=S0133.htm) http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/blues.gif

danb

Jun-23-2006, 8:22am

OK.. sounding board salesman is nearly completed. I'll try to get that on the archive this weekend. Some real gems in there! There's a vintage "missing/stolen" list, some Gibson employees named & their jobs noted (you could find out who put the finish on your 1920!), etc. I would love to see/scan more of these to share. As it is I do my best given the budget on ebay to get them but if you're willing to loan a catalog or advert, I'll scan/share and mail it back to you http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

danb

Jun-23-2006, 9:00am

Here's a cartoon from the Sounding Board Salesman magazine.. rather corny..

danb

Jun-23-2006, 9:02am

The more things change, the more they stay the same!!!

Jerry Byers

Jun-23-2006, 9:09am

That gave me a chuckle. Sometimes you want to tell people to just get to the point. It would be interesting to see current ratios compared to 1920 ratios.

danb

Jun-23-2006, 10:12am

This is a pretty cool piece of info, names of the men who completed assembly of the mandolins for Gibson in 1920:

Front Row, Left to Right:
Ray Wilson, Glen Cook, Newell Hall, Lester Schilling
Back Row, Left to Right:
"Jimmie" Johnstone, Joe Curtis, Cecil Covey, Myrl Hall, Wayne Spaksbury, Maynard Schoonmaker.

Covey was QA/clear a mando for being set-up, then leveled frets & installed nuts.

Cook & Wilson file the nuts and fit the bridges

Schilling, the two Halls and Schoonmaker put on the tuners, tailpieces, strings, pickguards

"Jimmie" checked the instruments in the records and turned them over to Spalsbury & Curtis for shipping

Wayne was the shipping clerk with Joe as his assistant.

danb

Jun-23-2006, 10:16am

Back inside cover advertises slides available to help at performances etc to advertise the salesman's business

danb

Jun-23-2006, 10:19am

This cartoon (again in Sounding Board Salesman 1920) goes along with an article stating that the factory is increasing output to keep up with demand. Interesting information in the magazine as this is right when the mandolin fad was really starting to die. There are hints of it.. the new fad in Hawaiian music is just starting to show up as well!

Jim Garber

Jun-23-2006, 10:32am

Wonderful stuff, Dan. Is this thread limited to only Gibson ephemera?

Jim

danb

Jun-23-2006, 10:34am

Not at all, it's just what I have the most of !

Jim Garber

Jun-23-2006, 10:51am

I had a few things scanned already but have to scan the others. Here are two pages from a 1930-31 Continental Music Company catalog of Harmony-made Vita/Roy Smeck instruments.

Jim

Jim Garber

Jun-23-2006, 10:52am

Here is the second page.

Jim

Jun-23-2006, 11:00am

The famous Lucky Lindy bridge. Certainly an innovation that should have lasted http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

danb

Jun-26-2006, 4:36pm

Ok folks, I've completed uploading the Sounding Board Salesman (http://www.mandolinarchive.com/documents/1920_sounding_board_salesman/cover.html) magazine in it's entirety. Ol' Man Dolin says: Great stuff there!

http://www.mandolinarchive.com/documents/1920_sounding_board_salesman/ol_man_dolin.gif

Jim Garber

Jun-26-2006, 9:24pm

I have had a pdf file with scans from an 1890's mandolin catalog by Luigi Ricca (http://www.paperclipdesign.com/ricca/) for free download.

Jim

danb

Jul-02-2006, 4:31pm

Here's a great contribution from CarlesHicks here on the cafe- Carles has the very sign that is mentioned in "Sounding Board Salesman" and kindly sent some scans over. Fresh out of photoshop where my wife put the pieces back together, here's a Gibson Window Sign Circa 1920:

danb

Jul-02-2006, 4:33pm

A detail..

danb

Jul-02-2006, 4:35pm

From Page 32 of Sounding Board Salesman.. Roger Siminoff tells me he's pretty sure the man second from the top left in the photo of a banjo band is Lloyd Loar. My attempt at enlarging and enhancing..

http://www.mandolinarchive.com/documents/1920_sounding_board_salesman/loar.jpg

danb

Jul-02-2006, 4:36pm

I'll take a more intense stab at retouching the gibson sign during the week if I have time to take a few creases and so forth out of it. It'd be fun to stick one in the window of your boattail speedster, wouldn't it?

Jim Garber

Jul-02-2006, 4:43pm

Dan:
That is wonderful. I will place my order for a tee shirt with that on it.

Jim

markishandsome

Jul-02-2006, 5:17pm

Roger Siminoff tells me he's pretty sure the man second from the top left in the photo of a banjo band is Lloyd Loar

Oh yeah, just look at them ears! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

danb

Jul-03-2006, 5:12am

JIM- I just adore old marketing/advertisments, especially from the 20s-40s. The National Guitar co adverts from the Deco period are just fantastic too. I'll get in touch with the folks at Gibson and see if maybe there's a way to resuscitate some of the great old vintage stuff like this.

I just have to say again by the way, that if you have something cool or unusual please post it and share if possible, it's amazing how often this works. I've posted something online here often to find replies that same day from folks with something similar or even cooler, like Carles Hicks sharing this sign! We're uniquely placed at the moment as a well-connected group of enthusiasts to really expand the amount of information we have!

danb

Aug-06-2006, 4:24am

Here's a nice new piece of paper in my folder, a 1911 f4 ad targetted at dealers I reckon. This is *just before* the 3 point shape was retired. Note also the "pineapple" shaped tailpiece cover on the mandolin pictured. There was another very brief period I would assume was "using up the old bodies" where you'll see 3 pointers with teens-style tailpieces. The 3 pointers with raised pickguards are quite rare, being the last of their breed.

Jerry Byers

Aug-06-2006, 7:17am

Jim Garber

Aug-31-2006, 4:01pm

I just posted a promo postcard by an important Italian maker on this thread (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=15;t=12825;hl=new;st=50).

Jim

Matt Bowe

Aug-31-2006, 8:18pm

Try this link for the ultimate in Gibsonite photo fun.
http://www.kpl.gov/collect....ix.aspx (http://www.kpl.gov/collections/LocalHistory/AllAbout/businesses/GibsonInc/GibsonPix.aspx)

danb

Sep-24-2006, 1:44pm

Here are some new fun scans from a tenor banjo tutorial Loar did at some point in his career

danb

Sep-24-2006, 1:45pm

Pick grip, bet the same one was used for mandolin

danb

Sep-24-2006, 1:51pm

One more

danb

Sep-24-2006, 1:57pm

I had to photograph the page to get a decent image. I'll probably be able to get a better image of this with tripod soon

uncle ken

Oct-17-2006, 3:20pm

Gibson ad featuring Dave Apollon from early '60s.

acousticphd

Oct-17-2006, 7:49pm

I recall posting this photo once before, but this is an ad I have taped to my mando case. #I wonder how long ago you could still get one of these for $390, let alone $39:

f5loar

Oct-18-2006, 12:33am

Dave with his '56 F5. Note the aluminumn bridge top. If Gibson had done ads like this for Monroe in the early 50's there may have never been a feud. Monroe was well aware Gibson pushed the F5 with Apollon and the banjo with Earl Scruggs. By 1960's I would think Gibson would know Monroe did more for the sale of the F5 than Apollon. By that time Apollon was just another Vegas lounge act. Monroe was touring heavliy throughout the USA and in college circuits who where major buyers of Gibson instruments.

Glassweb

Oct-18-2006, 8:50am

Just amazing to think that Gibson never teamed up with Monroe to push the F5 model... what weren't they thinking?!

Jim Garber

Oct-18-2006, 9:07am

Just amazing to think that Gibson never teamed up with Monroe to push the F5 model... what weren't they thinking?!
They were watching TV and focused on the mainstream. They hadn't a clue as to WSM's influence.

Also bear in mind that Dave Apollon loved to play the newest model whereas WSM bought his used and stuck with that same instrument. That doesn't sell new ones.

The artist-endorsed Gibsons were far a few between into the 1950s. I don't recall there even being any mandolins that were artist-endorsed until recently (correct me if I am wrong, please). Guitars, yes: starting with Nick Lucas, Roy Smeck, Les Paul, Tal Farlow, Trini Lopez, Johnny Smith and prob a few others I have left out.

Frankly, they weren't selling all that many mandolins and bluegrass music was ignored by the mass media anyway.

Jim

Glassweb

Oct-18-2006, 10:44am

Good point!

Jack Roberts

Oct-18-2006, 10:57am

I did the math on my A-1. The growth in value (based on what I paid for it) is about 4.4% per year. Not spectacular growth rate, but not bad. If you put the money in the stock market in 1918, you would have gotten back about 5.8% and your $39.00 investment would be worth $6.240.00, so you could buy an F5G and have enough to buy another used A-1! You might be a little too old to start collecting mandolins, but maybe not.

That's your useless information for the day.

f5loar

Oct-18-2006, 11:00am

My '56 Gibson catalog shows Scruggs and Joe Maphis on the banjo(Joe was more of a guitar picker). Neither one a TV personality at that time. On guitars they show quite a bit: Bill Haley, PeeWee King,Jimmy Rainey,Bobby Hill(who?),Bobby Gibbons(who?),Billy Byrd,George Barnes(who?),Willy Lamothe(who?), Hank Thompson,Denise Emond(who?),Jame Kingston(who?),Jimmy Wakely, Tony Mottola(who?),Sal Salvador,Earl Backus(who?),Tony Bradan(who?),Stan Wilson(who?) and of coarse Les Paul. Only Dave Apollon is shown as a mandolin endorser. While Monroe may have prefered the Loar over anything else he did play other mandolins. He had to buy a 2nd F5 in 1964 to have a back-up and do GetUpJohn. With all these (who?)endosers of the 50's there really is no excuss to leave out Monroe(name one other hot mandolin picker of the decade?) When he carefully removed the Gibson name from the headstock I believe that is what killed his chances of becomeing a Gibson endorser of the 50's,60's,and 70's. But to be fair about it they didn't endorse Elvis who had played mostly Gibsons since 1956 either until after he died.

AlanN

Oct-18-2006, 11:10am

Dave was cosmopolitan
Bill was hayseed

Jim Garber

Oct-18-2006, 11:48am

When he carefully removed the Gibson name from the headstock I believe that is what killed his chances of becomeing a Gibson endorser of the 50's,60's,and 70's. But to be fair about it they didn't endorse Elvis who had played mostly Gibsons since 1956 either until after he died.
Carefully? I thought he took a pen (uncle pen?) knife and gouged it out. And I figure it was after he realized that it wasn't going to happen.

Actually, Roy Smeck did similar. I took lessons from him in the 1980s. He did not mention this to me, tho. I bought his main steel at his estate auction and it is a Gibson from the 1940s but with the logo removed.

Roy was an early endorser, but seemed to lose that shine much later. His model was demoted to a Montgomery Ward electric steel. After that he went to Harmony, but I never saw him playing any of those except for an archtop electric guitar. he knew quality but he had to make a living as well and so he appeared in photos with budget instruments.

Didn't Elvis play a D-18 -- the one with the leather sheath for much of his career?

Jim

uncle ken

Oct-18-2006, 1:49pm

Dave probably kept a good business relationship with Gibson over the years. If compensation for endorsing was free instruments plus any publicity from the ads, this probably was something more suited to Apollon than Monroe.

f5loar

Oct-19-2006, 10:41am

Elvis is better known and prefered his 50's SJ200 Gibsons over the Martins he had. He went back and forth but in the end died with his Gibson nearby the toliet he croaked over.
He had the leather cover made up for the D18 and the SJ200.
They were much more "flashy" then the Martins.

danb

Nov-04-2006, 7:54am

Here's a cool piece of paperwork, the original receipt for 83841 that just arrived from Banana

danb

Nov-04-2006, 7:55am

The archive has the full record on A model 83841 (http://www.mandolinarchive.com/perl/show_mando.pl?302)

http://www.mandolinarchive.com/images/83841_face.jpg

Jim Garber

Nov-04-2006, 10:20am

Here is a sales receipt for a Lyon & Healy style A sold in New York in 1923. The mandolin turned up for sale at Elderly a year or so ago.

Jim

danb

Nov-20-2006, 9:18am

Here's a view of the F4 in 1908/1909 Catalog F

danb

Nov-20-2006, 9:20am

First known Gibson literature appearance of Lloyd Loar, here he appears to be endorsing gibson mandolins because they can intonate properly! Faint priase http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

danb

Nov-20-2006, 9:23am

Catalog F is neat in a lot of ways. More on that to follow

danb

Dec-03-2006, 10:53am

This one preceeds catalog E in terms of obvious chronology, so is probably circa 1905/1906.

The cover is emossed and overprinted with gilt as well, a very nice little booklet!

danb

Dec-03-2006, 10:54am

Jumping ahead a little..

danb

Dec-03-2006, 10:55am

Here's a close-up of that A4 illustration

danb

Dec-03-2006, 10:56am

Compare it to this photo of 3425 (From ebay a while back) which looks to be a perfect match

danb

Dec-03-2006, 10:57am

More to follow as I get this one up on the archive. Thanks to the anonymous gentleman who has lent me this one, the first in a near-complete collection

mandolooter

Dec-03-2006, 12:09pm

One thing I noticed is in the illustration from the E catalog is the pricing, $50.00 for a top of the line A4, and a mere $25.00 for the plain jane A...wow! Is Spanish Cedar a oldtime term used for mahogany? My 06 A has a mahogany neck. One other question, what year did Orville switch from walnut to maple/birch for back and sides?

Michael Gowell

Dec-03-2006, 12:25pm

Another interesting point about the desciptions of wood used is the claim that "Norwegian Spruce" was used for the top rather than Adirondack (red) Spruce. #Was this true, or a matter of a different common name for the same wood, or outright hype (misrepresentation)?

danb

Dec-03-2006, 12:34pm

We've had some chatters here about what the catalog names were vs the species.. the general thought was that it's quite hard to tell spruce species apart, and "Norwegian" may be a common name rather than a specific species.

Not sure what the Spanish Cedar is either!

I don't believe that Orville himself made the switch between woods- his hand-made instrument designs did not survive more than a hundred or so examples into the factory production that bought the rights to his name. My overall impression is that the factory Gibsons were very quickly considerably more practical to make in quantity than Orville's ever were!

HoGo

Dec-04-2006, 9:07am

Norwegian, or Norway spruce is common name for European spruce used back then. "German" name wasn't probably favored because of the war(s).
There is just one species of spruce in Europe (OK there is also Serbian spruce, but it doesn't grow big enough for telegraph poles and is almost extinct, so I guess it doesn't count). There is no question what they meant. Picea abies.
The Loar specs sheet can be fishy document. I'd love to see it in person or at least direct scan of it.
I'm just not getting why would they advertise Norwegian spruce (which most people except violin makers wouldn't know) instead Adirondack spruce, and in the same paragraph they would describe Michigan maple being the best choice for backs?

danb

Dec-04-2006, 9:30am

Just a note to say that these latest catalog scans come to us by way of a generous loan from Rod McDonald, who doesn't in fact need to stay anonymous http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

We're both hoping to use publication of Rod's extensive collection of catalogs as a catalyst to finding more documentation. Please get in touch if you have any old dated receipts, letterhead, etc that came with an old Gibson instrument or you collected separately. I'd love to eventaully get it all added to the archives