The winners are:
Brad Einhorn
Andy Bing
Wayne Fugate
Vinny Nugent
For funniest comment, Jake Moskowitz
February 12, 2021 TRIVIA QUESTION
A musical friend of mine successfully bid on a batch of unsold leftovers at the auction of Bill Monroe’s estate, including an old trunk and its contents. To his great surprise, the lot included some of Bill’s stage clothing, including a couple of suit jackets/sport coats that are on some iconic LP covers.
Inside the trunk he found one of Bill’s father Buck Monroe’s account books, faithfully tracking all income and payments made for the family business; by date, name, $$ amount and brief notes explaining the entries. We flipped through this book and found a riveting entry… on July 9, 1923 Buck Monroe paid Pendleton Vandiver (Bill’s Uncle Pen) for a day’s labor. This was the only documentation of Uncle Pen in the entire account book. We got goosebumps (chill bumps as they would say in Kentucky) reading this!
Trivia Question: What else in the Bill Monroe life story is EXTREMELY significant about July 9 1923?
Additional Bowden Comments
July 9, 1923. The only day Uncle Pendleton Vandiver’s name was recorded in Buck Monroe’s business ledger, and the day that Gibson’s Acoustic Engineer Lloyd Loar signed and dated the F5 Master Model mandolin that 22 years later Bill Monroe’s purchased from the window of a Miami FL barbershop. THE mandolin Monroe relied on for the rest of his long career. The one he scratched the finish off, and dug out the “Gibson” inlay from the peghead, using his jack knife, in a fit of pique, because Gibson didn’t do the repairs he requested. The one that a vandal nearly destroyed in the 1980s with a fireplace poker. The mandolin in all those LP cover photos. The one Gibson repaired for him to show their gratitude for all the mandolins they sold because of him. The mandolin that was there when Flatt, Scruggs, Wise and Rainwater recorded the classic bluegrass sound. One of roughly 300 that were made from 1922 to 1924. Lloyd Loar mandolins in excellent condition reached prices as high as $250,000 prior to the Great Recession. Selling prices have fallen by at least 50% since. Monroe’s mandolin was purchased for $1,100,000 after his death, and DONATED to the Country Music Hall of Fame (for a tax write off).
Just one of those cosmic coincidences about dates.
I was pleasantly surprised how many readers knew the answer. Well done all!
July 9, 1923 was the date on the label bearing Lloyd Loar’s signature inside Bill’s Gibson Master Model F5 mandolin.
Gibson F-5 #73987 was signed by Lloyd Loar on that date and later purchased by Bill Monroe at a Florida barbershop. It is arguably the most famous mandolin in the world.
Well, I have absolutely no idea, but here’s what I’m thinking. Bill Monroe’s first love must have been the 5-stringed banjo, but having burned his hand fooling with July 4th fireworks a few day’s earlier, was unable to clawhammer properly, so that’s when he must have discovered the mandolin.
July 9, 1923 is the date on which Bill Monroe’s famous Gibson F-5 mandolin was made.
His mandolin date signed.
He purchased his life long Mandolin on that date