In 1959 Jack ' s passion for solving problems began in the garage of his Crawfordsville , Indiana home where he established Terra -Knife , a small supply company that provided fertilizer knives to farmers throughout the United States . As the agricultural industry continued to grow and the needs for new , innovative products were on the rise , Jack met this demand by introducing additional products to the Terra line including a unique liquid fertilizer valve which , coincidentally , resembled a banjo . Given his personal hobby and love for the banjo , Terra was ultimately renamed Banjo Corporation . Jack was quick to point out , however , that before that name change took place , he wanted to make certain that the word “ banjo ” had no negative connotation in any language . Research showed that the only possible concern was the similarity between “ banjo ” and “ benjo ” ( which means toilet in Japanese – which Jack thought was very amusing ).
During a personal tour of his huge Banjo Corporation facility , Jack showed me the copy of a B & D Ne Plus Ultra Silver Bell # 9 banjo that had been built by Dale Small and had become the “ mascot ” of his company . It was that banjo , he explained , which led to his interest in collecting vintage jazz age tenor and plectrum banjos for his personal enjoyment . He admitted that the idea got “ out of hand ” with his ultimately growing his collection to over fifty banjos . Although beautifully displayed in his home , Canine wanted to share his love of the banjo as well as his unique collection with others , and asked me to help him in that endeavor .
While it may sound easy to give away a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of rare musical instruments , there were challenges . Jack wanted the collection to remain intact and to be on permanent display . While I know better now , as a person with no museum experience at the time I was not aware that virtually no museum will accept donations with ( pun intended ) strings attached such as Jack was hoping for . So I naively contacted major institutions such as the Smithsonian in Washington , D . C . and the Henry Ford in Dearborn , Michigan only to be given quick education in museum practices . While they and others might accept the donation , there would be no guarantees of the collection remaining together or ever being put on display . On the contrary , the most likely outcome would be that the collection would be sold with the proceeds being used for museum operations or more relevant acquisitions . As this was not acceptable to Jack , we moved to “ Plan B ”.
After performing for several years at the Guthrie Jazz Banjo Festival in Guthrie , Oklahoma , I was aware that the festival ’ s organizer , Brady Hunt , was hoping to establish a four-string banjo hall of fame to honor his friend Marvin “ Smokey ” Montgomery . I suggested to Jack that Brady , Guthrie and the festival might be a good match to the concept of starting a new museum devoted to jazz age tenor and plectrum banjos . I subsequently put Jack and Brady together and , in short order , a nonprofit corporation was established , Jack ’ s collection was donated , and the National Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame Museum opened its doors above the YMCA in Guthrie , Oklahoma in 1998 .
ALL FRETS SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020 9