Hitler's connection with the Dobro
Posted: 1 Apr 2013 6:42 am
==>Anyone have one of these? provide a s/n??
"Regarding the "Worco" resonator guitar mentioned in "Ask Frets (Feb 89), I'd like to shed a little light on it's history.Adolph Hitler's love for the Dobro became an obsession with him, and in 1937 he proclaimed that every German family would have a resonator instrument in their home. In 1937 he commissioned Italian luthier, Vito Worconni, to design a low budget resonator guitar to be called the "Blitzenplecker". The guitar had a coverplate screwed to the two-ply body, without a cone or resonator. The sound was so inferior that the project was abandoned. In 1939 Worconni fled to the
United States and settled in Chicago.
In 1947 Kay of Chicago built bodies for Worconni"s student guitars. These instruments were sold at J.J. Newberry and W.T. Grant stores for $6.95 retail. Today, the "Worco" guitar is worth its original value, about $6.95.
There is an interesting historical footnote to the story. When Worconni fled Germany he left behind 1,000 coverplates at the Blitzenplecker plant on the Oder River in Frankfurt. Because of a steel shortage in 1939 these coverplates were used as hubcaps on the early Volkswagen. The holes in the coverplates caused the hubcap to whistle when the auto reached the speed of 32 mph and the German people loved it. Unfortunately, this was Worconni's only sucess in the field of sound.
From 1958-79 Worconni was curator at the Dog Collar Museum in Whipsburg, Pennsylvania. Two Worco guitars are still on display at the museum, and one has been made into a floor lamp. Vito Worconni died of gunshot wounds in Richmand, Virginia, Oct. 14, 1981."
"Regarding the "Worco" resonator guitar mentioned in "Ask Frets (Feb 89), I'd like to shed a little light on it's history.Adolph Hitler's love for the Dobro became an obsession with him, and in 1937 he proclaimed that every German family would have a resonator instrument in their home. In 1937 he commissioned Italian luthier, Vito Worconni, to design a low budget resonator guitar to be called the "Blitzenplecker". The guitar had a coverplate screwed to the two-ply body, without a cone or resonator. The sound was so inferior that the project was abandoned. In 1939 Worconni fled to the
United States and settled in Chicago.
In 1947 Kay of Chicago built bodies for Worconni"s student guitars. These instruments were sold at J.J. Newberry and W.T. Grant stores for $6.95 retail. Today, the "Worco" guitar is worth its original value, about $6.95.
There is an interesting historical footnote to the story. When Worconni fled Germany he left behind 1,000 coverplates at the Blitzenplecker plant on the Oder River in Frankfurt. Because of a steel shortage in 1939 these coverplates were used as hubcaps on the early Volkswagen. The holes in the coverplates caused the hubcap to whistle when the auto reached the speed of 32 mph and the German people loved it. Unfortunately, this was Worconni's only sucess in the field of sound.
From 1958-79 Worconni was curator at the Dog Collar Museum in Whipsburg, Pennsylvania. Two Worco guitars are still on display at the museum, and one has been made into a floor lamp. Vito Worconni died of gunshot wounds in Richmand, Virginia, Oct. 14, 1981."
