The Homer Mensch Gagliano...

[Ken Smith]

About a decade later, give or take, I learned thru research that this bass is and was sold as 'Gagliano School' or maybe just Neapolitan and not made by any of the Gagliano family makers. Possibly by Ventapane, but the bass was cut down a long time ago. I have seen since then, at lease 3 other Ventapane basses. All beautiful instruments. One of them, I took lessons on when I was 19 and didn't know then what it was.

In a mint 1934 Juzek catalog (Metropolitan Music), given to me by the Juzek family as a quasi 60th birthday present, there is a picture of Anselme Fortier with this same bass. Fortier was the Principal of the NY Philharmonic. I believe that Homer Mensch had worked in the Philharmonic in his early years as pictured in the 1941 bass section picture. So, it is fair to say that Homer got the bass from Fortier. The shoulders were cut then in the 1934 catalog. I believe the catalog was a re-print of an earlier catalog with updated prices as it was maybe too much work to do a completely new catalog.

This information in no way takes anything away from the bass homer played for decades. In searching now for Joseph Gagliano, this thread came up in Google. My reason is I currently have a certified Joseph & Antonio Gagliano bass that I got last year and is now in restoration.