# General Mandolin Topics > General Mandolin Discussions >  Rare Apollon photo found.  He was a Cruiser!

## f5loar

Finding any candid photo of Dave Apollon is pretty hard to find these days.  Now you can add to his early 30's touring schedule cruise ship entertainment.  It seems he cruised the ultra luxury cruise liners on Cunard with one of his early bands.  A photo was found of one of them along with the program from the cruise ship.  It's on ebay and I don't know how to push the 223 buttons it takes to post the photo here so if any if you mando computer geeks know how to do it here is the link to ebay so it can be preserved here at the café due to the historical importance of Apollon and mandolin music.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-PHOT...E:B:SS:US:1123

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brunello97, 

delsbrother

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## Bill Snyder



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brunello97

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## Michael Weaver



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## uncle ken

Here it is with the damage repaired. I guess if you're trying to sell a photo you shouldn't upload a high quality scan.

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brunello97, 

DataNick, 

delsbrother, 

Larry S Sherman, 

Marty Jacobson

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## brunello97

Great photo.  Love the double-breasted suits.  Anyone willing to venture a date for this?

Mick

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## F-2 Dave

> Great photo.  Love the double-breasted suits.  Anyone willing to venture a date for this?
> 
> Mick


May 2? Just a guess. Great picture.

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## Ken Waltham

This is really cool. I know a couple of you guys have Apollon mandolins...
Tell me, are the band Phillipinos? Why did Apollon use an ethnic band? Was it the music style? Less money to pay them? Exotic stage presence?
I'm sure one of you guys know...

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## mandroid

Cruise ship gigs , talk about a captive audience .. :Whistling:

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## delsbrother

Yes, they are all Filipino names. I wish I knew more of the story behind that. I'm guessing they were an existing _Rondalla_ group. In this case, they may have been impersonating Hawaiians (not uncommon in the '20s).

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## uncle ken

Others have inquired about the names of the band members in the past. Here is a list of names on the program that should help answer that question. I have read that he "discovered" these guys. He probably heard them playing around NYC and hired them would be my guess.

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## allenhopkins

> Others have inquired about the names of the band members in the past. Here is a list of names on the program that should help answer that question. I have read that he "discovered" these guys. He probably heard them playing around NYC and hired them would be my guess.


Newspaper clippings posted at *this website* state that Apollon, after bailing out of Russia around the time of the Communist revolution, played in Shanghai and *Manila* before making it to the US West Coast, and then to NYCity.

He must have been in his early twenties then, since he was drafted into the WWI Russian army at age 15, and was not yet 40 playing in the 1940's.

Apollon could have become familiar with Filipino string ensembles when in Manila, and assembled a similar group in the US.

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## f5loar

It seems we have at least 3 mando "geeks" that know what buttons to push to get that photo to this site and one even corrected the flaws in hi def making it better than if you bought it off ebay.  So I just saved myself $50 as my printed off on glossy paper copy looks super sharp.  Thanks guys I knew you were out there.  I'd still date this photo to late 20's to early 30's.  Probably had his '23 Loar and '28 Fern on board with him.  He always carried 2 F5s due to breaking a lot of strings.  Ole Dave was a heavy hitter.

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## f5loar

Some great news articles on Apollon's entertainment history.  No mention of doing a cruise in those years but I really like the way one news article described his Gibson F5 mandolin in 1939 "Mr. Apollon in spite of a serious mien unbent to participate in the gaiety and proved himself a master of the charming little instrument that he features. This is unlike our mandolins, is flat with a scrolled cripe and its delicacy and grace is reflected in the tone as well as the form."

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## Timbofood

Hey Tom, where did you find that? Sounds like there might be some interesting reading there.
I like the "scrolled cripe" reference!

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## f5loar

It's in the dozen's of articles found on Apollon that Allen posted above.  Go to the website and it's broken down into years.  I'm surprised it did not have the obt. on him.

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allenhopkins

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