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Thread: Old photo(s) with mandolin

  1. #1
    Registered User Alex Timmerman's Avatar
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    Default Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Hi all,

    I recently came across this photo with Dutch immigrants to the USA that I like to share with you.
    It's one that I like a lot!


    Best greetings from Holland ,

    Alex
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    Last edited by Alex Timmerman; Sep-10-2010 at 11:14am.

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  3. #2
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Terrific photo, lots of pipes, ties. And the picker has the mandolin strapped right (north of the first keys!)

  4. #3

    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    WONDERFUL! A very "old New York" image... LOVE it! :-)

    Cheers,

    Victor
    It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)

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    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Accordions and mandolins. What could be better?

    Thanks, Alex.

    Mick
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    Mike Parks woodwizard's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Here's one
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    I Pick, Therefore I Grin! ... "Good Music Any OLD-TIME"

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    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    A mighty young looking Del McC...... When was this photo taken?

    Mick
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    Mike Parks woodwizard's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by brunello97 View Post
    A mighty young looking Del McC...... When was this photo taken?

    Mick


    Not real sure actually but Bill has got his Loar broke in for sure judging from the picture. Mighty young looking Bill Keith too. I would guess the early 60's maybe?
    I Pick, Therefore I Grin! ... "Good Music Any OLD-TIME"

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  9. #8
    Registered User Tavy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by woodwizard View Post
    Not real sure actually but Bill has got his Loar broke in for sure judging from the picture. Mighty young looking Bill Keith too. I would guess the early 60's maybe?
    Looks like "The Gibson" logo is still intact, when did it get scratched out?

  10. #9
    Registered User Plamen Ivanov's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

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    Bulgarian luthiery from the 20's of the last century.

  11. #10
    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Very cool photo, Plami. What more do you know about it?

    Is it the angle of the photo or does that ceiling look VERY low? (Maybe it is sloping..... I love the way the mandolins appear to float above the man's head like helium balloons at a party.

    Mick
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  12. #11

    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Keep them coming, keep them coming... We co-conspirators of the New York Mandolin Ensemble have decided to use some such image, with that classic, heart-warming yet gritty pose of straight-off-the-boat immigrants, for the publicity of our upcoming performances. After all, as co-director Antonelli correctly points out, with last names like ours, it is only fitting ;-)

    So please keep these wonderful images coming. With your permission, we may in fact use one of them for "associative value". Some of the elders in our audiences did in fact pose for such pictures, upon their arrival in America. What better way, then, to do them honor, and bring some fond recollections of a near-mythical past back to life, vivid, vibrant, and ringing with the sound of mandolins?

    Cheers,

    Victor
    It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)

  13. #12

    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    It's impossible not to love such pictures! It reminds me of my great-grandaunt (or what it is called) that went to Chicago from Norway with not much more than her violin and a toothbrush. She ended up playing in the philharmonic there, after what my grandma told me. More photos!

  14. #13
    Registered User Alex Timmerman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Exactly Victor!

    This particular photo with which I started this thread, was in fact taken immediately after these Dutch immigrants had disembarked and set foot at Ellis Island, the island West of Manhattan that was made especially with the purpose to control the flow of immigrants from all over the World at that time (c.1900). The precise place where the photographer shot this photo was just outside the 'Registry Room', better know as the "The Great Hall". The Dutch were indeed "straight-off-the-boat"!


    Best,

    Alex.
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  15. #14
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Rather than post a bunch of my own again, I refer you to this thread: Antique Photo of a Mandolin of the Day.
    Jim

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  16. #15

    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Indeed! Believe it or not, I once attended a formal dinner in that very same hall! A former employer of mine, the third-oldest corporation in the City of New York, with a charter going back to the late 17th century, once hired the entire Ellis Island to commemorate its 300 anniversary. So we were "wined and dined" in that most amazing space. What an experience that was! Docking gently at the island's marina around nightfall, in our chartered boat, one could not help imagining...

    So it is fitting to celebrate the lovely mandolin as part of the fabric of America, part of what made this country what it is. (In fact, I recall writing a MOST profusely poetic plea to some officer of the Department of Labor, copying also his/her counterpart at the Immigration & Naturalization Service, on behalf of a present-day mandolinist who wished to move to the U.S. I'm not ~quite~ sure they were moved by my fervent oratory...)

    Cheers,

    Victor
    It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)

  17. #16
    Registered User Plamen Ivanov's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by brunello97 View Post
    Very cool photo, Plami. What more do you know about it?

    Is it the angle of the photo or does that ceiling look VERY low? (Maybe it is sloping..... I love the way the mandolins appear to float above the man's head like helium balloons at a party.

    Mick
    Hi Mick,

    I'd guess it is the premise right under the roof of a house, that's why it looks like this.

    It is a picture from the first workshop that have produced instruments in a manufacture way. They built quality instruments through the years and the factory is still in business, they just don't build mandolins anymore because of the low demand. But i used to play a flatback mandolin built by this factory and it was a decent instrument.

    Here you can find out more and see some more interesting pictures like this one:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by Plamen Ivanov; Sep-13-2010 at 2:49am.

  18. #17

    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    A picture of my Dad aged 20. he played all three instruments....shame this pic is with him holding Banjolin rather than mandolin.....as its him who originally inspired me to play!Click image for larger version. 

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  19. #18
    Registered User Alex Timmerman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Hi Alison!

    Thanks for sharing and you know what(?); there IS a bit of mandolin in the photo: your father is playing a mandolinbanjo! Wonderful .


    Cheers,

    Alex.

  20. #19
    Registered User Margriet's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    I like to share this photo. It has nothing to do with immigrants in the USA, but with the history of the mandolin in Greece. It is a photo of a mandolinschool at the Ioanian islands. I found it on the website of Ano Kato, a Dutch group that plays Greek music.foto mandolineschooltje.doc
    (Hope this works properly)

  21. #20

    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Deeply heartwarming, especially considering the poverty and hardship of those bygone days. Thank you for posting this!

    Cheers,

    Victor
    It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)

  22. #21
    Registered User Alex Timmerman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Hello Margriet and Victor,

    I flipped the photo of the Mandolinschool at the Ioanian islands that Margriet found into my computer to post it here. Here it is. Thanks Margriet; a lovely picture!

    See you both soon,

    Alex
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  23. #22
    Registered User Margriet's Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Thanks, Alex. I am not yet so handy and experienced with this. I took it from the website of Ano Kato, but had problems to copy it here, so I copied it in "word". Will be a long way around.... I saw a type mistake I made, which is going on now: it must be Ionian

    I hope to place another old Greek photo with a mandolin player, first asking permission to the owner.

  24. #23

    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Margriet View Post
    ... it must be Ionian
    Yes, that's what it is, named after the early Ionians, one of the original, Bronze-Age Hellenic tribes.

    Sometimes, a thing too obvious, too plain, too humble to mean ANYthing in particular, ends up striking a deeply emotional chord. You know... like a picture of a WWII refugee, holding a can that reads "Sardines"— a near impossibility that it would have ever actually contained sardines at that dreadful time, and most likely to have become a second-hand container for some pitiful, water-boiled broth of, say... roadside weeds.

    So the picture that Margriet was kind enough to post reads "Elementary School". Such a thing brings both a smile, and a tear.

    Sentimentally yours,

    Victor
    It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)

  25. #24
    Registered User Lefty J.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Found those two online for sale on turkish version of ebay


    the text on the second one says "graduation day"/"the day of graduation"

    I have the exact same book they have, and the same mandolin the girl at the right end has.

  26. #25

    Default Re: Old photo(s) with mandolin

    Sweet!

    That's exactly what we need: more youngsters, playing the mandolin!

    Cheers,

    Victor
    It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)

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