[Harp-L] Re: Borrah Minevitch Harmonica Thesis

[MilwHarmonica@xxxxxxx]

Hello, Dave Payne.
 
It's my guess that the 5 million copies of Borrah Minevitch's graduation  
thesis from the City College of 
New York in 1924 were distributed to Honner customers sometime between  1925 
and possibly 1928, 
the estimated years that he was working for Hohner as a harmonica  publicist. 
 
It's also possible that Minevitch was creating this thesis story to build  
his reputation. He was a con man and flim-flam artist. The only way to verify  
the story would be to find records of his work at Hohner's New York office.  
Hohner doesn't have an office in New York today, but in Glen Allen,  Virginia.
 
The graduation thesis on the harmonica was Hohner's reason to hire him.  
Someone at Slidemeister wondered if Hohner ever made Minevitch  model harmonicas 
(Hohner harmonicas with Minevitch's name on them).
 
I've seen a picture of a Hohner-Minevitch bass harp, vintage unknown, but  
probably made during his work at Hohner. I've seen no evidence of any other  
Hohner-made Minevitch harmonicas. The bass harp was probably made during his  
early days with the Rascals.
 
In 1927, Borrah Minevitch formed The Harmonica Rascals, a vaudeville  
slapstick comedy harmonica group, and later, he had harmonicas made with his  name on 
them, possibly by the Hugo Rauner company of Klingenthal,  Germany. 
 
It's my assumption that Minevitch would not hire Rauner to make his  
harmonicas while he was working for Hohner. Later, maybe in the late 1930s, he  had 
his own harmonica factory in southern California.
 
John Broecker



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