I posted a baritone uke for sale
on the marketplace. One kind
fleamarketmusician contacted me to
say that Arthur Godfrey and Eddie
Connors had invented the baritone
uke in the 1960s.
I countered that,to my knowledge,
baritone ukes had become available
in the 1930s and that the Favilla
family claimed to have invented
them.
Then I ran a search on the uke
yak. Chuck dates the Favilla
baritones as 1940s-1960s. (I am
NOT saying that this is a Favilla
baritone I have for sale.)
Okay, anybody have any solid
info/references on the origins of
the baritone uke?
Rivertales, Your seeking �the true
story� about things ukulele brings
to mind many things. Including, if
it�s possible to say it in a non-
offending tone, �who cares�. After
all, what we are talking about
here, or were ever ukulists
gather, is 4 strings and a 3
minute song. Right?
The first think that comes to mind
is a soft summer evening in
Montegue, Massachusetts. A
subdued group of people mill about
in front of the Montegue Grange
Hall. The ambulance carrying Tiny
Tim had just departed. Tim was to
follow the vehicles example some
months latter.
Earlier in the evening I had met
Jim Beloff�s mother, and in this
quite time I met Jim. We quietly
talked. Another participant in
this Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum
event was Leslie Nunes, great
grand son of Manual Nunes. Leslie,
who is a respected and important
member of what, for the want of
another term, might be called the
ukulele community. Leslie, at this
event, was continually referred
to as the great grandson of the
inventor of the ukulele. As a
matter of true, what other kind
would be used, fact, the labels of
early Manual Nunes instruments
have the words �inventor of the
ukulele� printed on them.
Printed!!!
In talking with Jim that he was
publishing a book about ukuleles
came up. I asked him if in the
book he was going to credit Manual
Nunes as the inventor of the
ukulele. Jim didn�t say yes. He
didn�t say no. He did say, it is
my remembrance, that of the three
craftsmen who arrived in 1879,
Hawaii aboard the good ship
Ravenscrag, Augusto Dias, Manual
Nunes, and Jose do Espirito Santo,
Nunes seemed to be the only one to
have descendents who had an
interest in the ukulele and its
history.
I told Jim that it was my
understanding that the ukulele,
like many others, is an evolved
instrument. So I was calmed when I
read, on page 79 of Jim�s �The
Ukulele, A Visual
History�, �According to his
advertisements, Manual Nunes was
the �inventor� of the ukulele in
1879�. (Compare this claimed date
of invention with the arrival of
the ship. Must have taken less
time that one would imagine to
invent the little devil.)
So as I compose this note, I have
before me a baritone ukulele made
by The Vega Company of Boston,
Massachusetts. On the head of the
uke are decals that represent the
signature of one Arthur Godfrey,
the Vega logo, and the
ID �Baritone Ukulele DE LUXE�.
Inside is a nicely shaped printed
paper label that reads: � The
Arthur Godfrey De Luxe Baritone
Ukulele Created and Designed by
Eddie Connors � The VEGA Co.
Boston 16,(16 is a postal number
prior to ZIP) Mass.� There is a
number, �7303�, which may be a
serial number, which would be
important for this instrument, as
compared to the great number of
ukuleles that were produced
without serial numbers, because
Mr. Godfrey received some sort of
financial remuneration for
permitting VEGA to use his name on
their ukuleles.
Ignoring that Favilla may not have
constructed any baritone ukuleles
with Mr. Godfrey�s name on them or
paid any remuneration to Mr.
Godfrey for those baritone
ukuleles that they did produce,
there might be a good story about
Favilla inventing the baritone
ukulele, but as I don�t
buy �invention� as a word to
associate with ukuleles, I�d be
unlikely to support the �Favilla
Invented The Baritone Ukulele
Story�.
My favorite �Arthur Godfrey�,
whose egocentric show business
personality, coupled with his
firing of Julius La Rosa �on the
air�, may have led to the
destruction of his
career, �Baritone Ukulele story�
has to do with a reported
conversational exchange between
Mr. Godfrey and C. F. Martin III
of C. F. Martin & Co., a legendary
musical instrument making company.
Mr. Godfrey offered to attach his
signature to baritone ukes that C,
F. Martin & Co. would make, for
an appropriate fee. Mr. Martin,
whose courtesy is as legendary as
is the company that bears his
family name, informed Mr. Godfrey
that the C. F. Martin Co. did not
feel that the endorsement of
celebrity musical figures would
enhance the value of the
instruments that his family had
been making since 1833.
Arthur is gone. Names of the
living, and the dead, now
associated with instruments
currently being produced by C. F.
Martin & co are, Stephen Stills,
Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Jim
Croce, Roger McGuinn, Steve
Miller, Don Mclean, George
Nakashirna, Keb Mo, Clarence Whit,
Gordon Lightfoot, Elizabeth
Cotton, Kenny Wayne Shepaherd,
Woody Guthrie, Steve Howe,
Kenneth �Babyface� Edmonds, and
Jonny Lang.
We should remember that Eddie
Connors was likely, in his day, as
famous as Kenny Wayne Shepaherd is
in his.
What do we know about the inventor
of the baritone ukulele? Not much
it seems.
regards, robert - founder
Thanks, robert. That was fun to
read. I guess my emphasis on
Favilla and invention led you on
this wonderful tangent. However,
my main interest, or question if
you will, is whether or not
baritone ukes existed in the
1930s. I seem to recall reading
somewhere about a Centennial
Gibson bari uke in the 1930s. But
I couldn't find anything about it
on the Gibson website. Anyway, you
should write a uke memoir.
Here we go again...It seems
companies don't keep records
detailed enough to answer all of
these little questions.
I knew Eddie Conners personally.
He lived in Allentown Pa. until
his death. The story he told me
was that he invented the Baritone
ukulele, Vega made it, Godfrey got
the royalties, and Eddie got a
label!
In more recent years I discussed
this situation with Tom Favilla,
Son of Herc Favilla. Apparently
Herc said that Favilla made some
of the prototypes of the Baritone.
He did not say he put them into
production.
If we take everyone at their word,
it would appear that Eddie had the
idea, Herc Favilla made some
samples, and Vega actually
introduced them in production.
This is just a scenario, but I
knew all the parties involved,
except for Mr. Godfrey. This is
the story which mokes the most
sense to me.
Mike Longworth
Posted By:
Guest_Dan Sawyer
Date: 6/2/2001
I have also been in contact with Tom
Favilla who has made the claim that
his grandfather invented the
baritone. Here is a direct quote
from Tom Favilla about his
grandfather John, "John Favilla
built the first Baritone Uke, at the
instigation of my father Herk
Favilla, (he was teaching guitar at
the time) who's original
idea it was to use it as a stepping
stone for young guitar students who
were too small to handle a full size
guitar, or intimidated by the six
strings of the guitar." Tom goes on
to say that his father "Herk" was
the first one to write a method book
for the baritone ukulele.=========
It also makes sense when you look at
the types of experimentation that
Favilla was doing at the time. They
built a 6-sided 6-string uke called
a Wimbrola and a lute shaped uke
among other types. Vega was a
traditional company not known for
experimentation. As far as i know,
they didn't even build ukes pre-
1950's. The best Favilla instruments
(guitars, mandolins and fiddles too)
rank in quality with Martin and
Gibson. Another interesting thing
about the company is that they
didn't believe in advertising.
Therefore, it would have been very
easy for another company to claim
credit for something the Favillas
had invented.===========
It seems that it's too long ago to
ever really be sure, but i do
believe that Favilla was the first
company to build a baritone uke.====
============= By the way, I'm
working on a history of the Favilla
company. If anyone out there has any
imformation, please contact me at:
soybean@pacbell.net
Fascinating, dudes. Scintillating.
Truly. But when? Did the size
exist pre-ww2? Am i crazy to
advertise a bari uke as being from
the 1930s (as was told to me when
I bought it)? Hey, my reputation
-- what's left of it anyway -- is
on the line here.
Actually, thinking about it, I
have a piece of sheet music from
the 1920s with a woman on the
cover playing a 4-string something
or other with a body shaped like a
coconut and a neck long enough to
be -- I gotta check this. Thanks,
everybody. Anon.
I don't usually read the
marketplace and had no idea that
Rivertales had a ukulele up for
sale.
It all liklihood we shall never
get to the bottom of this Baritone
thing, because the primary persons
involved have passed away.
Leslie Nunes, decendent of Manuel
told me the story of a book put
out in the 1950s by a decendent
of one of the othter two men
usually mentioned in connection
with the origin of the ukulele.
The book stated the other guy
invented the uke.
Over the years I invented new,
original and unique designs for
Martin. Mr. Martin himself told
me these things had not been done
prior to my "Invention". WRONG!
Many thingsI did have since shown
up in older Martin instruments.
Is anything really new?
Creative people frequently come up
with similar ideas. Is it really
fair to state without equivocation
that some particular person was
FIRST? Perhaps not. If
Rivertales uke was made in the
1930s and the other body
dimensions are correct in
proportion, it lends credibility
to the earlier creation of the
Baritone, whatever it may have
been called at the time.
Mr. Martin told me Vega made them
before Martin did. Eddie Conners
lived in the area and they knew
each other. Was Eddie responsible
for convincing Martin to make them?
So many questions, and with, it
seems, more than one answer. I
might mention that in Nazareth, Pa.
There are two different stories of
the origin of the Dreadnought
Guitar. Mr. Martin told me his
father F.H. Martin invented it in
response to a request from the
Oliver Ditson Company. Others in
town swear that one John Deichman
designed the model. Here we have
two men who grew up in the same
neighborhood, lived only a few
blocks apart,and knew each other
from childhood. They couldn't
agree on this point, and both of
them were THERE at the time.