History buffs, can you help with these photos?

Scoredog · October 11

Here is Challain playing a righty upside down…

i am the current care taker of that guitar 823.

pdg · October 11

At least his thumb can take advantage of the cutaway.

Buco · October 11

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/126211#Comment_126211

All the forum's aces coming together to illuminate these old photos. Thank you a bunch, Scot. That's so great to know the bass player's name too. I talked to Dennis today and he found out that their family name was really Slabiak. He said he'll pull out the guitar today and look at the serial number. He told me his dad used to have another Selmer with a round hole but the one in the picture is most likely the one he ended up keeping.

Buco · October 11

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/126213#Comment_126213

I was wondering if there might be some advantage so your thumb is free to access the high frets. I'm still not super comfortable to play in the high register because of the unnatural hand position.

Buco · October 11

And it's the Selmer #486

jazzz · October 11

Awesome! So built around 1940, making the band picture from the 1940s (and not 1935), and the serial just two numbers away from Loulou Gasté's non-cutaway which is 488.

Btw, if that is indeed Jacques Montagne he must have been 13-15, so this is an important archival picture since there aren't many pictures of him around and it shows him not long before he passed away.

PS. There's another non-cutaway petite bouche which is halfway the 500 series. It has a regular Selmer headstock. Since it's from a private collection, I unfortunately can't share any pictures.

Thanks again for sharing.

Teddy Dupont · October 11

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/126208#Comment_126208

He is the middle guitarist in the top photo slightly in front of the other two and the shortest guitarist in the smaller picture of them all standing.

I have never been able to confidently identify the guitarist with Joseph Reinhardt in the middle photo although I did meet an English guy who suggested it was his brother. However, he also told me his brother had unreleased tapes of Django playing at home (recorded on Django's own Webster tape machine) that were given to him by Naguine. He claimed the tapes would never be released because Naguine told his brother she would put a curse on him if they ever were!!! Several years later when I finally managed to locate the brother, he claimed it was all a misunderstanding and there were no such tapes.

..........or perhaps he was afraid of telling me because of the curse 😂🤣😦