During this brief but revolutionary\r\nepoch the first Selmer Maccaferri guitars were produced. Maccaferri\r\nsupervised\r\nthe fabrication of each model. Even the cases for the guitars were made\r\nthere.\r\n
By 1933, with production completely\r\noperational, Mario Maccaferri was increasingly less in evidence at the\r\natelier. It seems there was a dispute with Henri Selmer which led to a\r\nperemptory departure from the firm some time late in 1933. Was it a\r\ncontract\r\nproblem? The Selmer company remains discreet on this subject to this\r\nday.\r\n
A consummate guitarist, Maccaferri\r\nlonged to return to touring, to travel and perform once again around\r\nEurope.\r\nDuring the summer of 1933, however, a freak swimming accident badly\r\ninjured\r\nhis right hand, bringing his concertising career to an end.\r\n
Yet his life continued. During\r\nhis time at Selmer, he had discovered and learned the technique of\r\nmaking\r\nreeds for saxophones and clarinets. Maccaferri oriented himself from\r\nthen\r\non with the making of reeds, creating his “French-American Reed\r\nManufacturing\r\nCompany.” In 1935 he filed for a patent for his shaping of reeds. In\r\n1938,\r\nhe set up a branch of that business in New York, moving there the next\r\nyear in order to flee the war in France.\r\n
Surmounting\r\nyet another setback, when the primary source of reed making cane from\r\nsouthern\r\nFrance was cut off by wartime shipping problems, Maccaferri developed a\r\nviable plastic reed, the Maccaferri Futurity reed. Endorsed by Benny\r\nGoodman\r\nand others, his reedmaking enterprise survived the hazards of wartime\r\nshortages\r\nand propelled him into a thriving business in plastics.\r\n
\r\n<\/div>\r\nWith his plastics business on firm ground,\r\noffering clothespins, bathroom tile and a host of other\r\ninjection-molded\r\nproducts, it wasn’t until many years later, in the fifties, that the\r\nirrepressible\r\nluthier in him surfaced once more. Alas, his Maccaferri plastic\r\nguitars,\r\nwhile conceived as a serious musical instrument, were not a market\r\nsuccess.\r\nNonetheless, he handily recouped his guitar losses with the famous\r\nplastic\r\nukes with the Arthur Godfrey Chord Finder. Through his long and\r\ncolorful\r\nlife, Maccaferri’s unique brilliance never diminished. At the time of\r\nhis\r\npassing in May of 1993, he was at work perfecting his plastic violins.\r\n
\r\n \r\n<\/body>\r\n<\/html>\r\n
![\"mario2.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/archives\/mario2.jpg\")
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\r\n\r\n\r\nDrop the name “Maccaferri” to most guitar buffs and more than likely\r\nthe response will involve plastic guitars and, if you’re lucky,\r\nsomething about Django Reinhardt. For a lifetime’s devotion to music\r\nthat literally spanned almost the entire 20th Century, such a reduction\r\nmight be viewed as sadly ironic. However, given the creative genius\r\nthat infuses Mario Maccaferri’s brilliant career, including his\r\nremarkable plastic guitars, it may just be the greatest tribute of all.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nWhether or not you agree with such enthusiasm for Maccaferri’s plastic\r\nguitars, the fact remains that Mario Maccaferri lived a long full life\r\nand achieved far more than most could dream in the pursuit of his\r\npassions, passions which never strayed far from music.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nA lot of parts of the Maccaferri story have been related over the past\r\nfew years, mostly focusing on his early contributions, often at the\r\nexpense of the less politically correct plastic parts. However, like\r\nmost good yarns, the story of the guitars which endeared the late\r\nfamous and indefatigable luthier Mario Maccaferri to guitar lovers has\r\na lot more to it than just some remarkable plastic fabrication. Indeed,\r\nthe tale of Mario Maccaferri is one full of amazing artistic, business\r\nand engineering achievement, and not a little romance and adventure\r\nwoven into its twists and turns. Here, for the enjoyment of guitar\r\naficionados, is the full Maccaferri story, complete with some brief\r\nforays into 19th Century guitar history, and including a detailed\r\naccounting of the plastic guitars.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nOrigins in the Po River valley
\r\nGuitarmaker No.15, a story which also ran in an edited form in The\r\nbeginnings of the Maccaferri story go back to the dawn of the century –\r\nor before – in northeastern Italy. Mario Maccaferri was born on May 20,\r\n1900, in the town of Cento, which lies in the plains along the Po River\r\nhalfway between Bologna and Ferrara, an area fertile with guitar\r\nactivity. As related by Dick Boak in his article “An Unabridged Visit\r\nWith Mario Maccaferri” (Acoustic Guitar Magazine), Mario was one of\r\nseven children, the son of Erminio, a carpenter, and Demetria\r\nMaccaferri. He attended school until the age of nine, whereupon,\r\ndiploma in hand, he held various jobs including dish washer and\r\napprentice carpenter. Fortunately for us and the world, such career\r\npaths were quickly abandoned by the youthful Maccaferri for the call of\r\nmusic. In 1911, several years before Europe would erupt in the War To\r\nEnd All Wars not that far from Maccaferri’s home, he was apprenticed to\r\nguitarist and luthier Luigi Mozzani, who had established a school of\r\nlutherie in Cento.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nLuigi Mozzani
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>To understand the achievements of Mario Maccaferri we have to\r\nknow at least something about Luigi Mozzani, one of guitardom’s unsung\r\nheroes, and touch on a nexus of long-standing technical and political\r\nissues related to guitars, all of which you directly tap into when you\r\npick up a Maccaferri plastic guitar!
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\r\nLuigi Mozzani was born in Faenza, Italy, on March 9, 1869. He was drawn\r\nto the guitar early on and began studying music under Professor\r\nCastelli at the Conservatory of Music in Bologna.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThat interest in guitars should occur here was no accident. Bologna had\r\nbeen the home of another famous Italian guitar virtuoso, Zani De\r\nFerranti (1802-1878), who had resettled into his birthplace following a\r\nsuccessful European career as a classical guitarist. Another name\r\nassociated with this region of northern Italy is the guitarist and\r\ncomposer Luigi Legnani, who had been born in Ferrara in 1790, and who\r\nmaintained a long friendship with the great violinist (and guitarist)\r\nNicolo Paganini, touring the Continent and for sometime sharing his\r\nhome in nearby Parma with the fiery fiddler. During his career, Legnani\r\nhad been associated with Johann Stauffer in Vienna, the legendary\r\nluthier who trained C.F.Martin. Legnani died in 1877, after devoting\r\nmuch effort to the problem of guitar construction, in Ravenna, Italy.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMozzani, following an aborted start as an oboist in a traveling\r\norchestra, which toured North America in the 1890s, switched to\r\nclassical guitar and began a celebrated concert career. Based in Paris,\r\nMozzani concertized throughout Europe and became a much sought-after\r\nteacher in fashionable Parisian society.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nLike many another guitarist at this time, Mozzani became increasingly\r\ndissatisfied with the limitations of then current guitar design, and\r\nturned his attention to lutherie. This was an era when classical\r\nguitars were very small-bodied, figure-8-shaped “parlour” guitars with\r\nsimple transverse bracing and bearing gut strings. No way to fill\r\nLincoln Center. This is the situation which the renowned luthier Jose\r\nAntonio Torres had been addressing in Spain. Eventually, Mozzani moved\r\nback to his homeland to study guitar construction, finally establishing\r\nlutherie schools in Bologna, Cento and Rovereto.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAside from the fact that Mario Maccaferri would become his star pupil,\r\ntwo other issues attach themselves to Mozzani which relate here:\r\nplaying technique and instrument construction.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMozzani and the thumbpick
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>The first is the question of classical guitar technique, which\r\nwas a hot issue among guitarists desiring to be heard by serious\r\naudiences of the day.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nActually, the technical issue in question dated back a century earlier\r\n(if not much longer, if truth were ascertainable), and involved\r\nfingernails. Modern classical guitarists generally play using a\r\ntechnique promoted by Andres Segovia, striking the strings with a\r\ncombination of carefully shaped fingernails and the flesh of the tips\r\nof the fingers. This was not always so.
\r\n\r\n
\r\n(Sor vs. Aguado)
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Among the technical debates which engaged the attention of early\r\nclassical guitarists was whether the guitar should be played with\r\nfleshy fingertips or with the fingernails. Advocating the former\r\nposition was the great Spanish virtuoso\/composer Fernando Sor, who\r\nparticipated in a public argument with another famous Spaniard,\r\nDionisio Aguado, who favored use of the nails. (Later in his career\r\nAguado compromised and switched to using a nailless thumb on the bass.)\r\nThis technical disagreement continued through the 19th and into the\r\nearly 20th Century, even after Francisco Tarrega solidified modern\r\ntechnique, with Tarrega’s pupils Miguel Llobet and Emilio Pujol\r\nadvocating nails and flesh respectively.
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\r\nMozzani’s solution to this technical dilemma was novel. He performed –\r\nand taught – using fingernails on the fingers and a metal thumbpick,\r\npretty much like those in use today by some bluegrass musicians. This\r\nwas the technique taught to Mozzani’s student, Mario Maccaferri, who\r\nwould build his respected career using a thumbpick.
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\r\nMozzani and the lyre-guitar
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>The second matter important to the Mozzani\/Maccaferri connection\r\ninvolved experiments in guitar construction. Mozzani was a tireless\r\ninnovator and held many patents, but perhaps he is best known (or\r\nprobably “best unknown”) as the inventor of the guitar-lyre or\r\nlyre-guitar, a large instrument which combined a standard guitar with\r\nan extended bass-side soundboard and a number of extra, non-fretted\r\nbass strings to increase the instrument’s range. This contraption\r\nreceived some limited acceptance early in this century and gave rise to\r\nvariants such as the harp-guitars offered by Gibson and other makers in\r\nAmerica and played perhaps most famously by the early folk revivalist\r\nRichard Dyer-Bennet. For part of his concertizing career, at least,\r\nMario Maccaferri would play a Mozzani lyre-guitar or variants designed\r\nby himself.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nLuigi Mozzani passed away in 1943.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThis probably feels like a meandering picaresque novel by now, but this\r\nrather lengthy diversion sets the stage and brings us back again to the\r\nmain narrative of Mario Maccaferri.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMozzani and Maccaferri
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Young 11-year-old Mario Maccaferri joined Mozzani’s school in\r\n1911 as an apprentice and rose to become Mozzani’s premier disciple,\r\nlearning to make guitars, violins and mandolins and eventually\r\nsupervising other apprentices. Accounts differ about Maccaferri’s\r\ntenure with Mozzani. Although he was listed as “Senior Instructor” for\r\nMozzani from 1920 to 1928, confirming a continued relationship as a\r\ntechnical advisor, Maccaferri actually struck out on his own in around\r\n1923. And indeed, Maccaferri advertised himself as a maker of all\r\nfretted instruments after 1923, offering nine different guitar models,\r\nseven various mandolins, as well as violins and cellos.
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\r\nGold Medals
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Clearly Maccaferri had learned his craft well, because in 1926\r\nhe won Gold Medals for his violins at both the Rome and Monte Catini\r\nexpositions, another Gold Medal at the Fiume exposition of 1927, and\r\n2nd place in violin making at the 1927 Rome exposition. A promising\r\ncareer as a luthier loomed, but that was not, strictly speaking, the\r\npath Mario was pursuing.
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\r\nLyre-guitars
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Among the guitars which Maccaferri made during these early days\r\nwere some fascinating lyre-guitars, built in conjuction with his\r\nProfessor, Mozzani. These lyre-guitars had dramatically extended upper\r\nand lower horns which stretched up to the headstock, and which included\r\nextensions of both the spruce soundboard and hardwood body. Soundholes\r\nwere a variety of interesting patterns between the neck and the bridge.\r\nIn addition to the added “wings,” these had six-string necks and an\r\nadditional three, unfretted sub-bass strings which were basically\r\nintended to allow playing lute repertoire on the guitar. To compensate\r\nfor the different string gauges, Maccaferri used three-piece saddles.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe bodies of these lyre-guitars consisted of either figured maple or\r\nburled walnut, carved on the back with an outer relief not dissimilar\r\nto what is known as the “German carve.”
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMost interesting were the necks. Several of these guitars had solid\r\nebony necks. Their profile was extraordinarily thin for the time, 3\/4″\r\nthick at best. Most curious of all, they were bolted on. A regular\r\nslotted headstock was bolted to the upper horn connection, while the\r\nheel was bolted to the body. As a result, the neck was uniformly thin\r\nall the way up, for very contemporary access. Furthermore, the heel was\r\nconnected with two bolts which attached to the body in an open cavity\r\naccessible from the back. Through this cavity the neck-tilt angle could\r\nbe adjusted.
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\r\nI’ve personally played these Maccaferri guitars and can attest to their\r\nexcellent bass response and well-articulated trebles. They balance well\r\non the leg, and are a pleasure to play.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nProfessor of Guitar and Music
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>While Maccaferri studied lutherie at Mozzani’s school, he also\r\napplied himself to learning classical guitar performance, and it was as\r\na concertizing guitarist in the long northern Italian tradition that he\r\nintended to build his career.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIn 1916 Mario Maccaferri began studying music a the Conservatory of\r\nMusic in Sienna. Maccaferri began to build his reputation as a\r\nperformer by giving recitals from 1920 – some reports say as early as\r\n1919 – until 1923, while he was still with Mozzani. In 1926, Maccaferri\r\nwas named “Professor of Guitar and Music” from the Conservatory, and\r\nwithin the year had begun touring throughout Europe, performing as\r\n“Professor Maccaferri.”
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\r\nMaccaferri in London
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>One of Professor Maccaferri’s tour stops was in London, where he\r\nperformed at prestigious Wigmore Hall. Like so many classical\r\nguitarists before him, he found London a receptive home, and decided to\r\nsettle there, performing and teaching guitar.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nDuring this period, Maccaferri performed on a variety of instruments,\r\noften built by himself, using the Mozzani trick of playing bass notes\r\nwith a thumbpick. Because this allowed Maccaferri to keep his thumb\r\nparallel to the strings (as opposed to diving into them with the\r\nthumbnail), he was reportedly able to develop remarkably facile tremolo\r\ntechnique. One of his treasured pieces was the Sor’s beautiful “Mozart\r\nVariations.” His performances were infused with his strong, romantic\r\npersonality.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAmong the instruments Maccaferri played were his nine-string\r\nlyre-guitars.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIt was during this period, in 1926, that Maccaferri met and became\r\nfriends with the other young lion of the classical guitar world, Andres\r\nSegovia.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nDuring these early days of the century, Maccaferri was regarded by\r\ncontemporaries as being on a par with the late Segovia, ranking right\r\nbehind the Maestro in popular appeal in European guitar circles. Had\r\nevents not transpired as they did, we might today regard the two as\r\nseminal influences on modern classical guitar, but history, for bettor\r\nor worse, had other things in mind.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIt was also during this period in London that Maccaferri began to work\r\nout some new ideas about guitars and build prototypes, some of which\r\nwould eventually become legends in guitardom, and mark a portentious\r\nchange of direction for the still young Maccaferri.
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\r\nA free-standing guitar
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>One of Maccaferri’s novel ideas was not exactly new, but curious\r\nenough to relate. Maccaferri is reported to have once told Andres\r\nSegovia that he found playing classical guitar rather undignified and\r\nthat a classical guitarist looks “like a monkey scratching his belly,”\r\nan amusingly accurate observation! It was Mario’s idea that a guitarist\r\nought to be able to stand up in front of an orchestra as a soloist. To\r\nthat end, in 1931 he invented a free-standing guitar. Resting on a\r\nstand, the guitarist was free to play standing up. In the interest of\r\nincreased sound, this instrument was a resonator guitar. It had a\r\nfloating membrane soundboard mounted on an L-shaped body which ended in\r\na bunch of different-sized resonator tubes. Whether or not this guitar\r\never made it to performance is unknown, but it does seem to be a long\r\nway around to a guitar strap!
\r\n\r\n
\r\nCuriously enough, the guitarist Dionisio Aguado had invented a stand to\r\nhold a guitar almost a century earlier, though without the resonators.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAnother of Mario’s experiments included a harp-guitar with seven\r\nstrings on the fingerboard and an additional five unfretted bass\r\nstrings. However, Maccaferri will be most remembered for his work with\r\nsix-string guitars during this period of his life.
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\r\nThe sound chamber
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Clearly, Mario – like almost every other progressive luthier at\r\nthe time – was thinking hard about increasing the sound volume of the\r\nguitar. This experimentation led to the development for which\r\nMaccaferri’s wooden guitars are best known: the internal sound chamber.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nBasically, Mario’s idea was to isolate the vibrating back of the\r\nguitar’s sound chamber from the damping effects of the “monkey’s\r\nbelly,” as the guitarist clutched the instrument to the abdomen. To\r\naddress this, Maccaferri built a separate free-floating sound chamber\r\ninside the guitar body, which attached to the sides at only four\r\npoints. A reflector plate was mounted diagonally above the soundhole to\r\nproject the resulting sound outward.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nSelmer & Cie
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Through his contacts in London’s music world Maccaferri was\r\nintroduced to Ben Davis, the director of the London office of Selmer\r\n& Cie. Selmer, at the time, was primarily a maker of wind\r\ninstruments built in France. It was through this connection that, in\r\n1931, Selmer asked the “Professor” to design a line of guitars for it,\r\nwhich Maccaferri proceeded to do.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nBasically, Selmer gave Maccaferri carte blanche to do what was\r\nnecessary to set up a guitar operation, which he did in a remarkably\r\nshort period of time.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMaccaferri’s official relationship with Selmer was actually relatively\r\nbrief, lasting approximately from 1931 to 1933. During that time,\r\nMaccaferri exhibited his genius as an equipment designer, personally\r\ndesigning and building the jigs, fixtures and machines needed to\r\nproduce his guitar designs at the Selmer facility in Mante La Ville, a\r\nParisian suburb. Maccaferri then proceded to build the first\r\nprototypes. Once the specifications for the guitar line were\r\nestablished, Mario hired Italian craftsmen to build his Selmer guitars.
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\r\nNew ideas
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>The guitars Maccaferri designed for Selmer were based on the\r\ndesigns he’d worked on in London and included the internal sound\r\nchamber and several other innovations. Among these new ideas were the\r\nfirst sealed, lubricated, self-contained tuning gears, a concept which\r\nis now commonplace on almost all new guitars, and the first production\r\nsingle-cutaway guitar.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe cutaway on these guitars was a dramatic right-angle rounded cut on\r\nthe treble side. Other distinctive features included slotted\r\nheadstocks, a neck joining the body at the 12th fret, and the large\r\n“D”-shaped soundhole with wide marquetry rosettes. Maccaferri’s unique\r\ninternal sound chamber was available only as an option. Fingerboards\r\nwere dot-inlaid and featured zero frets. Fingerboards had a small\r\nextension over the soundhole to give the treble string a two-octave\r\nrange. Almost all of these had multiple-bound solid spruce tops with\r\nrosewood laminate bodies, with only a few, including at least one\r\nharp-guitar, having solid mahogany bodies. Some time after Maccaferri\r\nleft off his association with Selmer a number of these guitars were\r\nalso built with birdseye maple bodies.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe first production Selmer\/Maccaferri guitars appeared in 1932. In\r\n1933, once production was self-sufficient, Maccaferri left the Selmer\r\noperation and returned to his concert career, a move that had been\r\nmutually agreed upon by both parties, although, as we shall see,\r\nanother event intervened to hasten the departure.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe Selmer\/Maccaferri guitars
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Basically, there were five different Selmer\/Maccaferri guitar\r\nmodels, which Selmer touted in its catalog as being by Mario\r\nMaccaferri, a man who, said the copy, displayed “astonishing\r\nadaptability, both as a performer and designer of guitars.” The\r\nSelmer\/Maccaferri guitar line consisted of the Modèle Espagnol,\r\nModèle Concert, Modèle Orchestre, Modèle Jazz,\r\nModèle Hawaienne, and a hybrid tenor called the Guitare Eddie\r\nFreeman.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe Espagnol or Spanish model was a small-bodied gut-string flattop\r\nwith a classical-style bridge and a round soundhole. Notable about this\r\ndesign was a split two-piece saddle which offered improved intonation\r\nbetween treble and bass strings.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe Concert had a bigger body more often associated with Maccaferri and\r\nGypsy jazz guitar legend Django Reinhardt (more on that subject soon).\r\nThis had an arched top and a “D” soundhole. It too had a\r\nclassical-style glued-on bridge (split saddles) and was intended for\r\ngut strings. A single cutaway was optional.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe Orchestre was a Maccaferri-bodied steel string guitar which came\r\nwith either a round or a D soundhole, with or without a cutaway. This\r\nmodel name was often applied to custom made instruments. This guitar\r\nhad a floating bridge which made contact with the top all along the\r\nbottom, and a special tailpiece (which would come to signify later\r\nMaccaferri guitars).
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe Jazz was another Maccaferri body with a cutaway designed for steel\r\nstrings. It had the typical D soundhole and a floating bridge centered\r\nbetween two “mustaches.” This guitar proved to be Selmer\/Maccaferri’s\r\nmost popular model.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe Hawaienne was basically the Jazz outfitted with a bigger neck and\r\nraised nut for steel playing. This was typically non-cutaway. A\r\nseven-string version was optional.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe Eddie Freeman guitar – ironically the most numerous of Selmers from\r\nthe strictly defined Maccaferri period – was a four-string tenor built\r\nfor an English jazzman by that name. Freeman, who played a lot of\r\nrhythm guitar in jazz big bands, got tired of playing endless\r\nfour-voice chords on a six string, and therefore specified the tenor\r\nformat. Actually, this was designed for a re-entrant tuning (fourth\r\nstring high like a treble string), not the usual upper four strings as\r\non most tenors. This was intended to give the guitar more cut-through\r\nin the rhythm section. Most of these were sold to the London\r\ndistributor who started the Maccaferri ball rolling. The Freeman never\r\ndid catch on, and many of these were later converted to six-string\r\nguitars, with widened necks and fingerboards.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nRare birds
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Production of the Selmer\/Maccaferris began in 1932 and lasted\r\nuntil 1934, by which time some 300 genuine Maccaferri guitars had been\r\nbuilt, nearly 100 of them Eddie Freeman models. These guitars all had\r\nheadstock logos including both the Selmer and Maccaferri names and bore\r\nlabels reading “Fabriqué en France sous la direction technique\r\nde M. Maccaferri, Selmer & Cie, Paris.” The majority of these 300\r\nMaccaferris were archtopped steel stringed guitars, rather than the\r\nclassicals which were his true love.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nA word on the internal sound chamber. This was, as mentioned, an\r\noption, but a good number of guitars were equipped with them. Those who\r\nhave played good examples of these guitars report that they were clear,\r\ncrisp, well balanced and loud. They were also not significantly\r\nsuperior to guitars without them. In addition, the sound chambers\r\nfrequently came loose from the minimal anchorages to the body, and\r\nbegan to rattle and buzz, causing many owners to have them removed.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nSeparation
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>For better or worse, Maccaferri’s relationship with Selmer ended\r\nin a dispute regarding their contractual agreement. Reasons for the\r\ndisagreement reflect Mario Maccaferri’s tempermental personality and\r\nhis strong sense of moral rectitude. There are, by the way, a number of\r\nspeculative accounts of this story in print, but this is the version\r\nrelated by Mario himself, as told by his wife Maria.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nOne evening at Maccaferri’s apartment in 1933, shortly after the\r\nintense activity of setting up the Selmer guitar factory was through,\r\nMario decided to read the contract he’d signed, like most folks,\r\nwithout reading the fine print. There in the little type at the bottom\r\nwas a zinger. According to the contract, Selmer could terminate Mario\r\nwithout cause or notice. This was a moral offense not to be brooked.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe following day Maccaferri went in to see Henri Selmer and confronted\r\nhim with the termination clause. As Mario used to relate the event, he\r\npointed to the clause and told Selmer “You won’t have to do that,\r\nbecause I’m leaving now.”
\r\n\r\n
\r\nWith a look of apprehension in his eyes, Mr. Selmer put his hand on\r\nMario’s shoulder and asked, “What are you going to do now?” Beneath\r\nthis ominous question was the fear that Maccaferri was going to set up\r\na competing guitar manufacturing operation.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAsked Selmer with some trepidation: “Are you going to make guitars?”
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMario thought for a moment. Then he looked Selmer in the eye and\r\nreplied: “No, I’m going to make reeds, because I have a new idea about\r\nthat, too!”
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAnd that’s just was Mario set about to do.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIn the meantime, Maccaferri resumed his concertizing.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAs a sign that the parting was not totally hostile, however,\r\nMaccaferri’s name continued to grace Selmer guitars for several years\r\nafter going their separate ways. Maccaferri’s reputation as a guitarist\r\ncertainly carried marketing weight.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nSelmer guitars continued to carry the Maccaferri association until 1935\r\nwhen a Frenchman was brought in to manage the Selmer operation. As part\r\nof putting his stamp on Selmer, he had Maccaferri’s name removed from\r\nthe headstock engraving and had the name inked out on the printed label\r\ninside. This was done by Selmer, not Maccaferri himself, as has\r\nsometimes been reported. Another change in post-Maccaferri design was\r\nfrom Mario’s flat-bottomed floating bridge to a version with two feet\r\nand an open center.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe oval soundhole
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>In 1936 an anonymous Italian designer in the Selmer Paris\r\nfactory made major alterations to the popular Jazz design. These\r\nchanges included a redesign of the bracing to a simpler pattern, an\r\nextension of the neck to include a 14th fret joint, and the use of a\r\nsmaller oval soundhole to replace Maccaferri’s signature D. Maccaferri\r\nhimself always believed this latter change was done to accommodate a\r\nnew optional electric pickup which Selmer had developed and wished to\r\nmarket. The pickup would not fit on the D soundhole. Many examples of\r\nthe post-’36 Jazz have holes drilled around the soundhole suggesting\r\nthat they once sported these pickups. Maccaferri’s internal sound\r\nchamber was discontinued as an option at this time, although in truth,\r\nvery few of these were actually ever ordered.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nProduction of Selmer guitars continued more or less until the company’s\r\nclosure in 1952 (minus the World War II years, of course). According to\r\nfactory logs, only between 996 and 998 guitars were ever produced in\r\ntoto. Some of these later guitars also carried the Django Reinhardt\r\nendorsement.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nDjango Reinhardt
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Which brings us to the subject of Django Reinhardt. According to\r\nmodern guitar legend, Mario Maccaferri was “Django’s guitar designer.”\r\nIn fact, this is only tangentially the case. Maccaferri actually never\r\nmet Django, and, indeed, as a classical guitarist, was not familiar\r\nwith the great jazzman’s music. Selmer guitars, with their excellent\r\nconstruction and sound, however, were Django’s main choice of guitar\r\nduring the ’30s, and his first one happened to be a D-hole Maccaferri,\r\nsans sound chamber, by the way. When the Jazz model was redesigned in\r\n1936, Django changed to this new guitar and owned four for the rest of\r\nhis career, including one which he considered his main axe. Thus, it is\r\nstretching the point to argue too strong a connection between Mario and\r\nDjango.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAs mentioned, upon leaving the company of Selmer in 1933, Mario\r\nMaccaferri resumed his successful concert career, venturing upon a tour\r\nthat took him to Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Brussels, Antwerp, London\r\nand Paris.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIt was after this final tour as the classical Professor that Maccaferri\r\nin Paris and his life took a dramatic, unexpected turn.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe movies and the accident
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Back in Paris, in what would prove to be a history-changing\r\nevent, Mario Maccaferri was offered a bit part in a movie, “La Fille du\r\nLak,” starring Simone Simone. Mario’s role involved playing guitar in a\r\ncanoe scene. Filming was done in July and it was hot. The cast took a\r\nbreak and went swimming at a local swimming pool. While underwater, the\r\n“break” turned into a real one. Mario collided with one of the other\r\nswimmers and fractured his right hand, so vital to classical technique.\r\n
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAlas, the break never healed properly, and essentially, Maccaferri’s\r\ncareer as a concert classical guitarist (and movie star) was ended.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nFortunately for Maccaferri and the world, the guitarist and luthier had\r\nplenty other cards up his sleeve which would inform the direction of\r\nthe remainder of his career.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe Unknown Guitarist
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Maccaferri’s unfortunate hand accident didn’t actually end his\r\nperforming days, just his public classical playing. The hand injury\r\nmeant that he couldn’t play his classical repertoire up to the\r\nstandards to which he was accustomed. Mario did, however, continue to\r\nplay popular music gigs in Parisian cafes. But, because he felt his\r\nplaying was not up to his former glory, Maccaferri performed wearing a\r\nmask and billed himself as “The Unknown Guitarist.”
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMaccaferri had not neglected his pledge about making reeds, however.
\r\n\r\n width=”1″ border=”0″ style=”font-weight: bold;”>\r\nA wife and business partner
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>It was during this period of the late ’30s in Paris that Mario\r\nmet his future wife Maria Maccaferri. Maria had been born in Foggio,\r\nItaly, in 1920 and as a young girl had moved to Paris, where she was\r\nraised and went to school. Mario and Maria met in Paris, fell in love,\r\nand were married in 1937, when Maria was 16 years old. Maria would stay\r\nwith Mario throughout the rest of his life, contributing to his success\r\nin a dual role as the proverbial devoted wife and as a shrewd partner\r\nwho helped run the hands-on day-to-day operations of the Maccaferri\r\nbusinesses. At the time of this writing, Maria Maccaferri continues to\r\noperate the French American Reeds Company, which the two of them\r\nestablished while in Paris.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nFrench American Reeds
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>During his brief association with Selmer, Maccaferri had had the\r\nopportunity to observe the reed manufacturing process, which involved\r\ncutting the raw cane with metal cutters. He also had observed many a\r\nwind instrument player struggling with warped reeds. Maccaferri had a\r\nbetter idea about how to improve both these circumstances.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMaccaferri got the idea that he could cut reeds using diamonds instead\r\nof metal and cut them in such a way as to counteract warping. He was\r\nacquainted with a jeweller named Pierre Rosier whom he consulted\r\nregarding making the diamond cutters. He then designed and built a\r\nclever machine which cut and trimmed the reed blanks using two simple\r\nhand motions. The result was the warp-resistant Isovibrant reed, a\r\nsuperior design for which he received a patent.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIn 1939, Mario and Maria Maccaferri set up the French American Reeds\r\nManufacturing Company in Paris, began competing with Selmer in Europe,\r\nand exporting reeds to the U.S. (where they were distributed by\r\nBroadus). While Mario handled design and marketing, his young wife\r\nMaria took over managing production and the business side of things.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAmerica
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Maccaferri’s reed success soon caught the attention of the\r\nAmerican outfit Gratz and Company, which approached him about becoming\r\na partner. To that end Gratz brought the Maccaferris to New York. It\r\nwas 1939, time of the New York World’s Fair.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMaria Maccaferri remembers this introduction to New York vividly. The\r\nrepresentative of Gratz installed the Maccaferris, with their new baby\r\ndaughter, in a seedy hotel on Third Avenue. The first night, the baby\r\nwas disturbed, and when Maria turned on the light, she saw bugs in bed\r\nwith her young daughter. She proceded to close up their luggage and\r\ntook her baby out into the hallway where they spent the night in a\r\nchair. The next day they relocated to a decent hotel.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe bed bugs were an inauspicious sign. The Gratz offer, as it turned\r\nout was a 51-49% deal. Maccaferri, who’d quit Selmer just because of an\r\nunexercised contract clause, asked if they thought he was stupid. It\r\nwas his machinery and his reeds. The deal was off.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nBut Maccaferri did get to see the New York World’s Fair, and that got\r\nhim interested in a new material: plastic. Indeed, he quickly became\r\nconvinced that this miracle substance would be the future of America.\r\nHe was, of course, prophetically correct. It was this experience that\r\ninspired him to develop a cane reed impregnated with plastic, further\r\nstabilizing the device. Plastic would soon play a huge role in Mario\r\nMaccaferri’s life.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nHowever, world events were soon intervene, offering yet another\r\nopportunity for Maccaferri to demonstrate his “adaptability.”
\r\n\r\n
\r\nEscape
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>In 1939, Europe was staring down the barrel of world\r\nconflagration in the face of the Nazi Blitzkrieg. In particular, the\r\nbead had been taken on France, but a political agreement created a\r\nbrief sense of false security. Leaving his wife and daughter in the\r\nsafety of America, Maccaferri took advantage of the lull and returned\r\nto Paris to check on the reed business. Fearing what might be coming,\r\nMaccaferri packed up two reed-cutting and two shaping machines and\r\nshipped them off to New York.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThat’s when a call from an old friend in the Foreign Office came,\r\nadvising him that the truce was off and to leave post haste. The\r\nGermans were about to take Paris. Departure might already be\r\nimpossible. Maccaferri beat it to the docks only to find the harbor\r\nblockaded by German warships and the last ship allowed to leave, the\r\nIle de France, loading passengers, with no more tickets available.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe story of Maccaferri’s escape from France has been often related,\r\nbut here is a direct account by Maccaferri relayed to Michael Dresdner\r\nin a 1982 story.
\r\n\r\n
\r\n“I went down to the French Line, which was in the same building as the\r\nEmbassies, and saw a line of people circling more than two blocks.\r\n\u2018What am I going to do,’ I thought? At that time, I was wearing glasses\r\n– I didn’t need them, but I thought they looked good – and sported a\r\nsmall mustache, a dark suit and a Homburg (hat). I knew I had to get in\r\nthere, so I went to a place where they rented limos, hired one, and\r\ngave the chauffeur a $20 tip in advance. I told him, \u2018Take me to the\r\nFrench Line. Drive right up to the entrance, get out of the car, open\r\nthe door for me and salute me.’ When I got out carrying my briefcase,\r\nthe two guards rushed over and saluted me, and I walked right inside.
\r\n\r\n
\r\n“The room was empty, just columns and a skylight, and I thought: \u2018What\r\nthe hell am I going to do now?’ So I stood by one of the columns as if\r\nI were waiting for someone and watched as one man passed by a few\r\ntimes, going from one office to another. So I called him over. I had\r\n$10,000 in my pocket. I said to him, \u2018I’ll give you ten thousand\r\ndollars if you get me on that god-damned boat. I’m going to stay right\r\nhere, so make up your mind.’
\r\n\r\n
\r\n“Anyhow, I got on the boat. When I got here (to New York), the Customs\r\nagent asked me if I had any money. I told him, \u2018Yes, I have three\r\ndollars in my pocket.’ He said, \u2018What do you think you are going to do\r\nwith only three dollars?’ I said, \u2018I’m going to see my wife and baby,\r\nand then I’ll think about it.'”
\r\n\r\n
\r\nBack in New York, of course, Maria Maccaferri was worried to death\r\nabout her husband’s safety. She was, of course, totally unaware of\r\nMario’s adventure in progress. However, once the Ile de France reached\r\nAmerican-controlled waters and radio silence could be broken, Mario\r\nsent Maria a telegram announcing simply: “I’ll be home tomorrow.” You\r\ncan imagine her excitement! She grabbed the baby, squeezing her and\r\ndancing around their apartment for joy.
\r\n
\r\nThe Bronx
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Maccaferri’s first thought upon returning to America was to\r\nvisit a friend who made French Horns. In typical fashion, Mario\r\nobserved the manufacturing process and devised some ways to improve the\r\nquality of the products while decreasing the cost of production.\r\nMaccaferri stayed with his friend’s business for a few months,\r\nwhereupon he struck out on his own again. Taking the reed machines he’d\r\nhad the foresight to send ahead of him from France, space was rented in\r\nthe Roseland Building on 50th Street in the Bronx and the French\r\nAmerican Reeds Manufacturing Company resumed making reeds. As before,\r\nMario served as the idea and marketing person, while Maria supervised\r\nproduction and ran the business.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMaria Maccaferri is often asked what it was like being both Mario’s\r\nwife and business partner. Her answer is simple: “When we were at home,\r\nI was his wife; when we were at the office, he was \u2018the boss.’ “
\r\n\r\n
\r\nBenny Goodman et al
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Initially, Maccaferri’s reed manufacturing company continued\r\nmaking the improved reed design Maccaferri had developed in France.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nFollowing what emerges as a life-long gift of being at the right places\r\nat the right times (combined with his own creative genius), Maccaferri\r\ntook some examples of his reeds to a Benny Goodman performance in\r\nManhattan. Backstage, Mario got to meet Goodman and gave him the reeds.\r\nGoodman found them great and visited Mario at his shop the next day,\r\neventually becoming a good friend.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nSoon all the top musicians were beating a path to Maccaferri’s door,\r\ncalling Mario “Dr. Maccaferri,” because he always wore a white lab coat\r\nat work, and bringing him their instruments to fix. By around 1940,\r\nMaccaferri’s reeds – known as “My Masterpiece” – were endorsed by both\r\nthe famous and now forgotten stars of the day, including Goodman and\r\nhis sax players (Bus Bassey, Buff Estes, Toots Mondelo, Jerry Jerome),\r\nJimmy Dorsey, Eddie Miller and Irv Fazola of Bob Crosby’s Band, Sal\r\nFranzella, Jr., Spud Murphy, Edmund C. Wall, Arthur Rollini, Bernie\r\nDonacio, Les Robinson and Gene Krupa’s sax players (Sam Musiker, Clint\r\nNewbury, Bob Snyder, Sam Donahue). Throughout Maccaferri’s entire\r\ninvolvement with instrument-making, all professional endorsements were\r\ngiven free-of-charge, never with a payment.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIndeed, the war presented a great opportunity. European manufacturers\r\nwere unable to make reeds, leaving Maccaferri almost in sole control of\r\nthe field. He received the contract to supply reeds to the American\r\nArmed Forces bands.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nTo help meet the demand, Maccaferri needed more machines, but couldn’t\r\nobtain new parts because of the war effort. Following his innovative\r\ninventor’s heart, Mario managed to build more machines by adapting\r\nother available machinery to serve his needs. These machines are still\r\nin use to this day.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nPlastic
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>During World War II, the supply of canes used for making the\r\nreeds, largely grown in France, evaporated. Maccaferri, employing his\r\nlegendary “adaptability,” came up with a solution using the newly\r\nemerging material which had already caught his attention: plastic.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIn around 1944, Maccaferri’s military contract allowed him to obtain\r\ninjection molding equipment at a time when most other companies were\r\nrequired to convert operations to producing war items. Maria Maccaferri\r\nrecalls that the equipment was so big that it wouldn’t fit in the\r\nelevator at their building, so the street was blocked, a crane brought\r\nin and a window removed so the machinery could be moved into the\r\nbuilding. Plastic for the new machinery was provided by Dow and\r\nMonsanto.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nWorking with his new injection molding equipment, Maccaferri figured\r\nout how to replicate the cane reed using plastic. Initially the music\r\nindustry scoffed at the idea that one could manufacture acceptable\r\nreeds from plastic, but, of course, the joke was on the nay-sayers.\r\nIndeed, Mario’s good friend Benny Goodman quickly became a fan of the\r\nplastic reeds and began using them, spearheading their rapid acceptance\r\nby many Big Band stars.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMaccaferri’s wartime success put him in a strong position for becoming\r\nthe dominant provider of reeds in the post-war era. Following the war,\r\nMaccaferri attempted to obtain French cane again, but, to his dismay,\r\nfound that he had been wrongly named as a German collaborator,\r\nunwelcome in France. It took some time to clear up this\r\nmisunderstanding, but eventually Maccaferri’s name was cleared and he\r\nset up a French arm of his operation.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nClothespins
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>As successful as Maccaferri’s reeds were, though, it was a much\r\nmore prosaic product which would come from Maccaferri’s new-found\r\nexpertise in plastics and make his fortune: clothespins.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe story of the plastic clothespin is classic Maccaferri. As Maria\r\nrecalls the tale, the Maccaferri family used to take a holiday in the\r\ncountry during the summer. In the summer of 1944, upon arriving at\r\ntheir vacation home, she noticed that there were not enough\r\nclothespins, so she asked Mario to go into the village to buy some more\r\nclothespins. When Mario asked the shopkeeper about clothespins, he was\r\ntold that there were no clothespins to be had. It was wartime. Well,\r\nhere was another dilemma to be solved. As usual, Mario had an idea.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nWhen Mario returned home, he told Maria that he was going back to the\r\nplant and would be back soon. At the factory, Maccaferri took a sheet\r\nof lucite plastic and cut out six plastic clothespins of the solid,\r\ntwo-legged variety. He returned and presented them to Maria, who\r\nproceeded to use them to hang out a silk slip. Unfortunately, the\r\ngripping ridges put a hole in the slip. Mario went back the next day\r\nand corrected the problem, and the plastic clothespin was born.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMaccaferri began to market his novel device and was wildly successful.\r\nBecause of the war, it was virtually impossible to obtain any consumer\r\ngoods, and the public was eager to buy anything, including plastic\r\nclothespins. Eventually, millions of these would be made each day. In\r\nfact, they could not even find the time to package them. Some New York\r\nretail outlets would drive to the factory each day with their own steel\r\ndrums and have them filled with plastic clothespins.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAs a result of the success of the plastic clothespins, in 1944 or ’45,\r\nthe Maccaferris spun off a subsidiary of the French American Reeds\r\nManufacturing Company called the Mastro Plastics Corporation. This was\r\nthe manufacturing entity which produced all of Maccaferri’s plastic\r\ncreations. Throughout the ’50s French American Reeds was generally\r\nidentified as the parent company of Maccaferri instruments, however, by\r\nthe ’60s instrument manufacturing was identified as being part of\r\nMastro Industries, Inc.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nFrom clothespins to wall tiles
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>The humble two-foot clothespin eventually led to hinged\r\nclothespins, plastic spring clamps and a vast plastics empire which\r\nwould make everything from tape dispensers to clothes hangers,\r\nacoustical ceiling tile and even a motorized fishing lure!
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIn any case, once World War II was over, consumer goods again became\r\navailable, and the plastic clothespin business dropped off. That was\r\nfine, because Mario Maccaferri was turning his attention to his next\r\nproject: plastic tiles.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nOne day a mold was brought in for making plastic wall tiles, but it\r\ndidn’t work, and the tiles didn’t even have bevels on the edges. Mario\r\ncame up with an improved design, which led to the production of\r\nmillions of those plastic kitchen and bath tiles that decorated the\r\npost-war suburban building boom.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nWhile ultimately the seeds of Mario Maccaferri’s successes lay in his\r\nnative genius and unrestrained impulse to invent, the specific roots of\r\nMaccaferri’s plastics empire came from music, the reed solution. So\r\nit’s not surprising – and completely fitting – that, in true Hegelian\r\nfashion, Maccaferri’s career should synthesize clothespins with musical\r\ninstruments.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe plastic uke
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Maccaferri’s first foray into complete plastic instruments began\r\nwith an unlikely candidate, the plastic ukulele, which would become yet\r\nanother business triumph, inexorably tied to the name Arthur Godfrey. A\r\nnumber of accounts of this part of the Maccaferri saga have been\r\npublished, but this is the official version. Contrary to what some have\r\nreported, the plastic uke was entirely Maccaferri’s idea, and not\r\nsuggested by Arthur Godfrey.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMario got the idea for a plastic uke during the late 1940s. However, he\r\nhad one big problem: insufficient capital to start his project. Through\r\nhis connections with music distributors, Maccaferri knew Charlie\r\nSonfield, whom he’d met at C. Bruno. Sonfield had become an executive\r\nat RCA. Maccaferri approached Sonfield with his idea and asked for a\r\n$5,000 loan. But, added Maccaferri in an important caveat, he couldn’t\r\nguarantee that the plastic uke idea would fly, or that he could repay\r\nthe loan. Sonfield gave Maccaferri the money. In return, Mario promised\r\nSonfield the profits from the first 100 cases shipped each week.\r\nSonfield would eventually make a pile of money on his investment!
\r\n\r\n
\r\nMario Maccaferri invented the Islander plastic ukulele, patterning it\r\nafter Martin’s style O uke, in 1949.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nArthur Godfrey
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Enter Arthur Godfrey.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe carrot-topped, befreckled Godfrey, you’ll recall, had built an\r\nenormously successful career as a network radio entertainer and had\r\njust embarked on an equally impressive achievement as a trailblazing\r\ntelevision show host. Indeed, Godfrey has the unique distinction of\r\nsimultaneously having had two of the top-rated shows during network\r\nTV’s early years. “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” debuted on CBS in\r\nDecember of 1948, followed in January of ’49 by “Arthur Godfrey and His\r\nFriends.” Among the talents introduced to American audiences through\r\nGodfrey’s programs were names such as the Chordettes, Julius LaRosa,\r\nPat Boone, the McGuire Sisters, Steve Lawrence, Tony Bennett, Rosemary\r\nClooney, Connie Francis, Al Martino, Leslie Uggams, the Diamonds, Roy\r\nClark and Pasty Cline (Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly didn’t make it\r\nthrough auditions!). These programs rode high in the ratings through\r\nthe early ’50s.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nGodfrey’s shows, as were all TV shows in those early days, were\r\ndirectly linked to their sponsor, Lipton Tea, and Godfrey would always\r\nappear sipping his tea and plugging its pleasures between acts. Typical\r\nof Godfrey’s down-home style was a refusal to promote any product he\r\ndidn’t believe in. A part of Godfrey’s act was displaying a\r\nself-deprecating sense of humor and performing mostly comedy songs on a\r\nukulele. Indeed, from April through June of 1950, Godfrey even had a\r\nCBS network show teaching how to play the ukulele!
\r\n\r\n
\r\nHawaii
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>The plastic uke was, again, right for the times. The uke was\r\nriding a crest of popularity mainly due to its associations with\r\nHawaiian music, which had an amazing run of sustained popularity\r\nstretching from the ‘Teens through the early ’50s, a remarkable run of\r\npopularity rivalled perhaps only by rock and roll in this century.\r\nGodfrey’s championing of the uke gave it new life, and it was a major\r\nmoney maker for music stores beginning to salivate at the massive\r\nnumbers of children that were making up the now fabled post-war Baby\r\nBoom. Indeed, as one of those earliest Boomers, I recall the Arthur\r\nGodfrey TV show and my first instrument in about 1951 or ’52 was a\r\nlittle blue University of Michigan ukulele, which I quickly mastered,\r\nleading to decades of subsequent demented guitaromania.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAnyhow, by one means or another Godfrey got ahold of one of\r\nMaccaferri’s early plastic ukes and gave it a plug on his TV show. To\r\nparaphrase, he said: “Hey, there’s this guy named \u2018Maca-something’\r\n[mispronounced the name] in the Bronx who’s making these plastic\r\nukuleles and they’re very good. In fact, you even get a nickel back\r\nbecause they only cost $5.95.”
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe following day, the Maccaferris were swamped with phone calls from\r\npeople wanting Islander Ukes, so many that in exasperation Mario\r\nrefused to allow the phone to be answered any more.
\r\n\r\n
\r\n9 million ukes
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>Maccaferri uke production had begun in 1949 and by the end of\r\nthe run in 1969 tallied more than 9 million plastic ukulele sales.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nAwhile later, Mario got a phone call from Arthur Godfrey himself\r\nrequesting a couple dozen plastic ukes for a party he was throwing at\r\nMiami’s Kennilworth Hotel. Godfrey wished each guest to have a plastic\r\nuke. Maccaferri got on a plane and flew the ukes down personally. This\r\nwas the first time he and Godfrey actually met
\r\n\r\n
\r\nDow Styron
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>There are a number of fascinating aspects to these little\r\ngizmos. For one thing, they represent early experiments in complex\r\ninjection molding and use of Dow Chemical Company’s new miracle\r\nplastic, Styron. Styron was both sturdy and resilient. It could be\r\nmolded in almost any shape desired, and was capable of being endlessly\r\ncolored. Maccaferri applied for and eventually received at least six\r\npatents on the manufacture of these instruments which by 1954 gave him\r\ncomplete patent protection for plastic ukes. As you might expect, such\r\na successful product was quickly imitated by companies such as Eminee,\r\nbut once Maccaferri held the patents, all other plastic ukes were\r\nsupposed to be licensed.
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\r\nFor another thing, Maccaferri’s plastic ukes sounded and played pretty\r\ndarned good for a $5.95 instrument. Curiously enough, the molding\r\nprocess allowed intonation to be consistently correct. The ukes’ top\r\nwas an ivory color, while the body could be colored, including with a\r\nmore or less woodgrain effect.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nThe Islander line
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>By November of 1951 the Maccaferri Islander uke line included\r\nthree instruments, “For Happy Moments!” the original Islander, “the UKE\r\nArthur Godfrey made famous,” at $5.95, the Islander Deluxe at $7.95,\r\nand the Sparkle Plenty Islander Ukette at $2.98. The Islander was a\r\nstandard uke which came packaged with a book by Jack O’Brian, Godfrey\r\nthe Great: The Life Story of Arthur Godfrey, an instruction and song\r\nbook by May Singhi Breen, an all-weather polythene bag, felt pick and\r\nkey adjuster. Islander Deluxe had a slightly larger body, a fingerboard\r\nthat extended an extra three frets on the treble side, “metalized\r\nfrets,” and special patented tuning pegs. It, too, came with the books.\r\nThe Ukette was a small-scale (!) uke for small children and came with\r\nan instruction book with songs for children. The Sparkle Plenty\r\nmoniker, by the way, was another curious example of marketing pizazz.\r\nSparkle Plenty was a comic strip character whose name was licensed from\r\nthe Chicago Tribune.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nIn addition to the three ukes, there was also the Islander Visual\r\nChordmaster that could be had for a buck. This was an attachment\r\nsecured to the fingerboard by rubber bands which featured little\r\nbuttons with chord names. Press a button and the strings were\r\nautomatically stopped down, turning the uke into sort of an autoharp.
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\r\nBy April of 1952, improvements in production efficiency (and no doubt\r\ncompetition from knock-offs), allowed Maccaferri to slash the price of\r\nthe Islander from $5.95 to $3.95, without cutting dealer margins. As\r\nreported in The Music Trades, “all Islander Ukuleles are still hand\r\nfinished by master craftsmen.”
\r\n\r\n
\r\nGodfrey and the lawyers
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>One final word about the Arthur Godfrey connection. The Islander\r\nDeluxe was originally intended to be the Arthur Godfrey model. However,\r\njust before the idea was to be presented to Godfrey, on the air Arthur\r\ntrashed a uke being sold by a big retail chain. He was eventually sued\r\nby the retailer and lost over the incident. The Maccaferris’ lawyer\r\nrecommended that the potential liability from Godfrey’s freewheeling\r\nopinions was too great a risk to take, and the uke became simply the\r\nIslander Deluxe.
\r\n\r\n
\r\nOver the years Maccaferri desired to repay Godfrey for the incredible\r\nboost to business the entertainer’s endorsement inspired, but he\r\nrefused to take any recompense. Once Mario even rolled up a bunch of\r\n$100 bills and put them into an expensive cigarette case and sent them\r\nto Arthur, but Godfrey sent the gift back.
\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mario Maccaferri was born in 1900 in Cento, near Bologna, in Italy. At the age of 11, he became apprenticed to the Italian master luthier and renowned musician, Luigi Mozzani. The young Maccaferri assiduously followed his master’s footsteps, bearing his influence for the rest of his life. While learning lutherie, he concurrently pursued the study […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3243,"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.djangobooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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