News + Blog
Clifford-Essex Bass Mandolin (Mandobass)
This is a rare Clifford-Essex Bass Mandolin (mandobass). In 1965, I was playing upright bass with a folk group called "The County Set". I went to John Alvey Turner's shop with the banjo player to buy some banjo strings. While we were there we started chatting and Max...
Chicago Mandolin Club Picnic, Ilgair Park, IL, 1935
Erich O. Legner (bottom row, 3rd from right)
Chicago Mandolin Orchestra, Orchestra Hall, Oct. 1940
Erich O. Legner (far right)
Unidentified Group
Editor: This photo is an eBay purchase. The seller called it a "vintage 1940's photograph - mandolin orchestra - mandola, mandocello, mandolon" (received 4/2012)
2018 CMSA Board Elections
Your CMSA Nominating Committee, Lou Chouinard, Joane Rylander, Sue Lesser, and Susan McLaughlin, has been working since the convention in Milwaukee to bring the membership a slate of candidates to serve three-year terms on the CMSA Board of Directors. The committee...
A Worker’s Union Mandolin Orchestra
This photo is from a union newspaper in Chicago. I believe it was the ILGWU or Amalgamated Clothing Workers, but I’m not sure. The woman sitting lower right is my aunt, Edith Katzman, and I still have that mandolin. I played for a short time but never got very good....