In the 1890’s, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Orville Gibson designed a mandolin which was a radical departure from the mandolins which had been produced in Italy for hundreds of years. The Italian mandolins had a deep, bowl-shaped back similar to a lute. Orville’s mandolin featured a very slightly arched top and back and a longer fretboard than that of the Italian models. Orville used two body shapes for his unique mandolins: the simple pear-shaped A model, and the Florentine style with fancy points and a scroll.In about 1910, the Gibson Company came up with a very innovative marketing plan. Gibson introduced an entire mandolin family, each member being a different size with a different range of notes. These instruments corresponded to the various instruments of the violin family. Gibson’s mandolin family consisted of the mandolin, the mandola, the mandocello, and the mandobass. To promote these instruments Gibson introduced the concept of the mandolin orchestra. The mandolin orchestra could play the full range of orchestral music—all on these members of the mandolin family. The Gibson Company implemented a program whereby music teachers, on a commission basis, would sell a host of Gibson instruments by organizing a local mandolin orchestra—much like “Professor” Harold Hill in The Music Man. Mandolin orchestras sprang up all over America, and most of them played Gibsons. These orchestras were quite a fad in American culture for about a decade, boosting Gibson's bottom line considerably.
There are a number of mandolin orchestras in existence today. One of them, the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra, was started in 1900 and has been active since that time. Other present day mandolin orchestras include the Providence Mandolin Orchestra (of Providence, Rhode Island) and the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra. As I write this, a very short video clip of the Dayton Mandolin Orchestra may be seen and heard at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3092496367759928501&q=mandolin+orchestra&hl=en
The photo of the orchestra above (not a "pure" mandolin orchestra because of the addition of two gutars and a banjo) came down from my wife’s family. One of her relatives was in this group in the heyday of mandolin orchestras. I sure wish one of those Gibson F-4’s would have come with the photo!
