jonm
TDPRI Member
The first 3 photos here, what archtop make is this? (Before the Gibson)
This is my first music teacher-1964-5,before my guitar playing days, I was 9 and 10. He was Don Galvan, the Singing Troubador and also was billed as the Banjo Boy born in Mexico City.
He played the Majestic in San Antonio opening for Jimmie Rodgers, was featured on a number of Britain’s Pathe films in 1937 (available on YouTube), dated one of the famous Hilton sisters (pictured-English conjoined twins who performed as a musical, singing, dancing duo). I’ve seen his picture also in an article from a 1991 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine, an article on the Gibson SJ200, he was pictured in an old Gibson advertisement of famous guitarists that played the SJ200 like Ray Whitley, except Don is holding what looks like a Gibson L5.
I took lessons from him on plectrum banjo and my Dad on mandolin backstage of Knott’s Berry Farm Bird Cage Theater. He mostly played tenor banjo and sang. He would often take me onstage with him to perform at the theater or outside on the stages. He was maybe 75 then and never mentioned his past career.
sidenote: i would sit backstage and wait for my Dad along with the melodrama theater actors, the leading man actor who also played banjo and would sit and play between-shows, he taught me to pick my first bluegrass tunes, it was a unfamous 20 year old Steve Martin.
This is my first music teacher-1964-5,before my guitar playing days, I was 9 and 10. He was Don Galvan, the Singing Troubador and also was billed as the Banjo Boy born in Mexico City.
He played the Majestic in San Antonio opening for Jimmie Rodgers, was featured on a number of Britain’s Pathe films in 1937 (available on YouTube), dated one of the famous Hilton sisters (pictured-English conjoined twins who performed as a musical, singing, dancing duo). I’ve seen his picture also in an article from a 1991 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine, an article on the Gibson SJ200, he was pictured in an old Gibson advertisement of famous guitarists that played the SJ200 like Ray Whitley, except Don is holding what looks like a Gibson L5.
I took lessons from him on plectrum banjo and my Dad on mandolin backstage of Knott’s Berry Farm Bird Cage Theater. He mostly played tenor banjo and sang. He would often take me onstage with him to perform at the theater or outside on the stages. He was maybe 75 then and never mentioned his past career.
sidenote: i would sit backstage and wait for my Dad along with the melodrama theater actors, the leading man actor who also played banjo and would sit and play between-shows, he taught me to pick my first bluegrass tunes, it was a unfamous 20 year old Steve Martin.
