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Trace evidence of cigar box instruments exists from 1840 to the 1860s. The earliest known illustration of a cigar box instrument is an etching copyrighted in 1876 of two civil war soldiers at a campsite, one of whom is playing a cigar box fiddle.
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Leslie Howard Playing the Cigar Box Fiddle
This wonderful piece of music history was given to me by Mrs. Susan Smith of New Bern, NC. The photo was taken by a New York City photographer. Susan's father William Tisdel, made the cigar box fiddle sometime in the early 1900's. Little is know about the circumstances of why Lesilie Howard posed for the photo or if Susan's father was present at the time. An inquiry was made by Susan to the New York Photography studio that took the photo, but sadly the studio's records do not go back to the time the photo was taken. Leslie Howard is best-know for is role as Ashley Wilkes in the film adaptation of Margaret Mitchells's novel Gone With the Wind. Howard's Second World War activities included acting and filmmaking. He was active in anti-Nazi propaganda and reputedly involved with British or Allied Intelligence, which may have led to his death in 1943 when his airliner was shot down over the Bay of Biscay, sparking conspiracy theories regarding his death. This information regarding his death along with his apparent age in the photograph suggests that the photo was most likely taken somewhere between 1930 and his death in 1943.
Kazoo History
Hide-covered vibrating and voice-changing instruments have been used in Africa for hundreds of years, often for ceremonial purposes. There is no evidence to support the claim, but a popular belief is that Alabama Vest, an African-American in Macon, Georgia was the one who invented the kazoo around 1840. The story originated with the Kaminsky International Kazoo Quartet, a group of satirical kazoo players.