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23 Sep 02 - 07:09 PM (#789876) Subject: Check your guitar for doodles! From: C-flat This caught my eye today! $2 guitar from thrift store may be tied to music legend By The Associated Press E-mail this article Print this article Search web archive "SPOKANE — The battle-scarred acoustic guitar sold for $2 in the 1960s, when an instrument repairman found it in a thrift store here. He patched it up and sold it six months later to a Whitworth College professor for $200. This year, Jim Kalmenson of Los Angeles paid $5,000 for it. And that'll be chicken feed if it turns out, as he suspects, that the guitar belonged to fabled Dust Bowl troubadour Woody Guthrie, Spokesman-Review newspaper columnist Doug Clark reported yesterday. When the repairman bought the guitar, an inexpensive model called a Slingerland May Belle, it was dirty and split open along one side. There was a bird's nest inside. But inside he also found an intriguing pencil scrawl, "Property of Woody Guthrie OK." Guthrie emerged from the Dust Bowl to champion the nation's downtrodden through his music. His songs include "This Land is Your Land," "Deportee," "Roll on Columbia" and many more. Guthrie spent part of 1941 in the Inland Northwest, where he wrote 26 songs — including "Roll On, Columbia," the official state folk song — while working under contract to the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). He died of Huntington's chorea in 1967. Kalmenson figures Guthrie worked out those songs on the May Belle. Kalmenson, the general manager of a Spanish-speaking radio station in Los Angeles, bought the guitar in April from retired professor Nick Faber, who bought it from the repairman — after passing up the $2 bargain because of its sorry condition. "I figured I'd buy it for $2 and then spend 200 bucks fixing it up," says Faber. So somebody else fixed it up instead. When Faber saw the May Belle at the repairman's shop, he requested first dibs if it ever went up for sale. Months later, he got the call. There are very few known Guthrie guitars left. Rumor has it that one of them was recently sold to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for his Experience Music Project in Seattle. The rumored price: $100,000. Kalmenson wasn't hoping for a windfall when he bought the guitar. He believes displaying it will help keep Guthrie's legacy alive. He's also convinced it's the real deal, though that may be difficult to confirm. Aside from the name and the "OK," the letters "WWG" are faintly scratched on the guitar's back. Woody's full name was Woodrow Wilson Guthrie. "Nobody would do something like that if they were trying to create a replica," Kalmenson said. Guthrie was a compulsive doodler, known for scrawling his name and drawing on practically everything he owned. Kalmenson located Elmer Buehler of Portland, the BPA employee who was Guthrie's chauffeur and guide during his stint in the region. After examining photographs of the May Belle, Buehler signed an affidavit declaring the guitar to have been Guthrie's.
The ultimate proof would be a photograph of Guthrie with the guitar. So far, no such photo has been found." |
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23 Sep 02 - 09:20 PM (#789966) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: GUEST,leeneia Re: 'But inside he also found an intriguing pencil scrawl, "Property of Woody Guthrie OK." ' How could a person write something inside a guitar? What good would it do to write simply "OK" when Oklahoma is so large that the information is useless? How long has OK (rather than Okla.) been in use as an abbrev for Oklahoma? It behooves us to wonder. |
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23 Sep 02 - 11:12 PM (#790001) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: ddw Leeneia, When I lived in Oklahoma City, it was locally referred to as OKC -- not such a stretch to use the letters for just the state. As for writing inside a guitar, take the strings off and it's no problem if you have a small or slender hand -- which I believe WG did, judging by the rest of his stature and build. cheers, david |
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23 Sep 02 - 11:40 PM (#790016) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: Sorcha There is also a Guthrie, Oklahoma. Might be a different Woody from there. OkieCity is another name for Oklahoma City.......who knows for sure? Interesing possibility though. |
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23 Sep 02 - 11:50 PM (#790025) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: DonMeixner Urban legend? |
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24 Sep 02 - 12:27 AM (#790049) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: GUEST,.gargoyle Please give the ORIGINAL publication, page and date for verification. Or, you are tossed into the trash-heap suggested by Don.
Sincerely, |
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24 Sep 02 - 01:05 AM (#790059) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: rangeroger I have a copy of the Spokesman-Review article. It came out in yesterdays paper (Sunday 9-22). rr |
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24 Sep 02 - 01:11 AM (#790062) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: rangeroger For verification, you can contact the author, Doug Clark at (509) 459-5432,or by e-mail at dougc@spokesman.com rr |
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24 Sep 02 - 02:32 AM (#790074) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: C-flat The article I saw is credited to the Seattle times 23/9/02. |
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24 Sep 02 - 03:14 AM (#790087) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: rangeroger C-Flat, in your first post about this,check out the third paragraph, which ends; "Spokesman-Review newspaper columnist,Doug Clark, reported yesterday" rr |
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24 Sep 02 - 07:15 AM (#790164) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: C-flat At the end of the piece there's this "Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company " Maybe they just reported on the Spokesman-Review story? |
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24 Sep 02 - 09:43 AM (#790228) Subject: RE: BS: Check your guitar for doodles! From: GUEST I didn't suggest anything. I only asked at the possibility. But it sure is cool if this be true. Don at work |