http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Tucker/Where%20We%20Live%2005-15-2012%20Seg%20C.mp3
Quinnipiac University law professor John Thomas teaches health and intellectual property law during the day. When he's not doing that though, he's a guitar geek. He collects, studies and writes about guitars and his latest venture has him looking at World War II-era Gibson Guitars.
Thomas said that Gibson's advertisements of the time, "promised that Gibson would not build guitars until the boys came back home." Thomas looked through Gibson's shipping ledgers though and counted nearly 25,000 guitars.
This mystery started to "haunt" Thomas and came across a photograph of the Gibson workforce. The picture only had women in it. He set off to meet some of the women, many of whom have since died. He interviewed them and started working on a book called Kalamazoo Gals: the Story of the Extraordinary Women (and a Few Men) Who Built Gibson's WWII “Banner” Guitars.
The "banner" guitars refer to a golden banner on the head of each guitar made during WWII that said, "Only a Gibson is good enough." The banners only appeared on guitars when women were in the factory. Thomas thinks this slogan could refer to the nation's attitude at the time. "When our goal was simply to survive to advertise a product like this...was unseemly," said Thomas. He added that it could also refer to the fact that it was a secondary workforce that was making these instruments.
While working on his book, Thomas decided that he should do a music project as well. He met musician Lauren Sheehan and she spent nearly a week at New Haven's Firehouse 12 studio recording an album's worth of material using the guitars crafted by the women that Thomas talked to.
The book is due out later this year. You can hear Thomas' full interview on Where We Live where he discusses the songs that were chosen and his conversations with the "Kalamazoo gals."
