OH Taxonomy
Roy Clark, the Country Music Hall of Fame guitar player, was always proud of his connection with the music products industry. In addition to the products he endorsed over his long career, Roy helped design his signature model for Heritage Guitars. Roy also was close to many in the music publishing...
Johnny Davis had several key roles within the music products industry, which made his Oral History interview particularly meaningful for the NAMM collection as we seek to preserve our industry’s great history. For example, Johnny worked for the Barcus-Berry Company when both founders were still...
Anne McGinty was hired by the Armstrong Flute Company in the late 1970s to run their publishing division after the company aquired Hansen as their distributor. Anne later moved to Florida and worked with the iconic publisher, Mr. Charlie Hansen, who was the founder of the company. While working at...
Fred Allard has been passionate about music making since he began playing guitar in the 8th grade. As a teen he worked for Milano’s Music Center in Mesa, Arizona in the mid 1960s. Fred worked for the music store for over eight years working his way up from salesman on the floor to manager of one of...
Ritchie Fliegler has come to be known throughout the music products industry as “the Amp guy.” He wrote several articles and two popular books on amplifiers. He has been in the forefront of the technology that helped advance the amp, particularly when he was working with Fender Musical Instrument...
Bill Mendello retired as president of Fender Musical Instrument Corp in the fall of 2010 after a long career in the industry. He was hired in the accounting department of CBS Musical Instrument Division in 1978. Bill soon began working with Bill Schultz who was hired by the president of the musical...
Jim Funada has proudly served the music products industry in several important ways over the last 40 years. He began his career by working for the Yamaha Corp. in keyboard retailing. Beginning in the late 1960s, Jim oversaw the Yamaha school programs among keyboard dealers in the San Francisco Bay...
Ginny Mancini always loved singing! When she had the chance to form a backup group for a 17 year old vocalist coming from Chicago to Los Angles for the first time in the 1940s, Ginny jumped at it. The group became known as the Mel-Tones and they became the backup group for Mel Torme for over 3...
Felice Mancini grew up in a home full of music. Her father was an Oscar-winning composer and her mother is the noted vocalist who formed the Society of Singers. Felice has devoted herself to the non-profit world when she became involved with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation in 1998, just two years...
Bruce Bannister is the current president of Samuel Music in Effingham, Illinois. The store was formed in the 1940s by Lowell Samuel, the band director turned music industry pioneer. Bruce was interviewed in the store and recalled working closely with Lowell as well as Dean Samuel, Lowell’s son and...