ATDTDA (7): 201-203 "Cornell" Guitars From Sears

[Joe Allonby]

Funny. I'm the dubiously proud owner of matching Harmonys. A Sunburst
"Stella" steel-string guitar and a sunburst Stella mandolin, both pre-war.
Not much as instruments, but they look cool on the wall.



On 4/28/07, Keith <keithsz at mac.com> wrote:
>
> "In '05, Sears introduced a new line of upscale flat-tops with
> collegiate names such as the Cornell, Princeton, Yale and Harvard,
> these latter two with pearl trim. These could be Oscar Schmidt
> guitars, but the illustrations show more standard pyramid pin
> bridges, so it may be someone else. The choice of college names is
> easy to understand, by the way. Both the mandolin and banjo
> orchestras, with accompanying guitars, that sprang up in the late
> 1880s and '90s were often related to college campus life. The image
> was of the young man (or woman) who went off to college, sang "Bula
> Bula," got stewed, sowed his or her wild oats, then threw the mando,
> banjo, or guitar in the attic and got down to serious business after
> graduation. While the orchestra/club phenomenon became more of a
> community activity as time progressed, the association of stringed
> instruments with carefree undergraduate days persisted well into the
> 20th century. Thus it was logical for Sears to make the connection
> between guitars and the best colleges when it wanted to create an
> appealing image."
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2v22hm
>
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