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Topic: Is this Tommy Castro? |
David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 16 Mar 2014 8:25 pm |
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Some years ago I asked Lorene Ruymar about the photo on the back cover of her book “Hawaiian Steel Guitar Etc†Unfortunately she did not have the ID of this young Hawaiian. Okay, here is my latest theory. The beautiful studio portrait is of a young Tommy Castro with a swag of National instruments. It is one of two pics used in the book that were made in the same studio. Everything suggests late 1920s.
By cross referencing with another picture, it appears the band this young man played in at that time was Duke Akina’s Hawaiian Four. So my first question is: Did Tommy Castro play in Duke Akina’s Hawaiian Four?
Here are three scans for perusal.
The first is one in question, from the back of Lorene’s book.
The second is a crop from a picture of Harry Owen’s Royal Hawaiians about 1934 - page 10 of the Stacy Phillips Hawaiian Vol. 1. Alvan Isaacs with a National, Ray Kinney with uke, and a bass player who looks a lot like the mystery man on the back of Lorene’s book.
The third scan in from page 103 of Hula Blues (Noble Biography). This one is from the early 1940s and few would doubt Tommy Castro is the figure with the Model M Epi under his arm.(Nice suit too.)
If we make metal adjustments for the intervening years, can we say the young man was Tommy? I think so, but I before drawing any conclusions I would like to hear from others.
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Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother. |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 17 Mar 2014 1:23 pm
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| My vote is a definite no. Too much Hawaiian in the mystery man's features and would have aged much differently than Tommy did. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 17 Mar 2014 2:40 pm
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Is the middle photo possibly Alvin Isaacs, Barney Isaac's father?
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Tom Snook
From:
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA
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Posted 17 Mar 2014 2:46 pm
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That is Barney's father.In the Barney segment of the Spectrum Hawaii Show with Jerry and Barney and Merle Kekuku,they show that same pic.
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I wanna go back to my little grass shack........ |
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David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 18 Mar 2014 2:06 pm
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Andy,that is indeed Alvin Isaacs with whom Tommy later played, in Alvin's orchestra. The presence of the look-alike bass player might be a link in the time line. It is interesting that in photos of the Royal Hawaiians Alvin has a square neck National, yet the guitar he left behind was a round neck.
Here are two more pics separated by about 25 years. The mystery man and Tommy Castro in later life.
_________________
Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother. |
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David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 23 May 2015 7:30 pm
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At the risk of seeming pedantic, I would like to offer another photo which I think at least identifies the young musician in the early photos from Harry Owens' orchestra. It is scanned from the book Song Bird of Hawaii about Lena Machado. The picture appears on page 68 and positively identifies Tommy Castro playing steel guitar with Dan Machado and Steppy De Rego standing. If he is not the person from the HO band, there was a look alike at the same time.
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Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother. |
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