This pre-war Abbott uke with the old style crown cutouts was originally purchased by Robbie Vincent of 'Happidrome' fame about 1938. Jack Abbott Jr. changed the cutouts in the resonator flange from slots to crowns after his father died in 1936. Very few were manufactured as production ceased in 1940 due to the war, when Jack was called up for duty in the RAF. All the tools were put into storage but these were subsequently lost in wartime raids.
Robbie Vincent's stage name was 'Enoch' and he was originally part of a radio trio - Ramsbottom, Enoch and Me (Mr Lovejoy), their real names were Cecil Frederick, Robbie Vincent and Harry Korris.
Harry Korris and Robbie Vincent appeared in several films made at the Mancunian Studios. 'Somewhere on Camp' starred Frank Randle and he can be seen playing the uke in the film, singing his own version of 'Our Sergeant Major'.
When Robbie Vincent retired from the business he rang Billy ' Uke' Scott and told him that he was quitting show business and taking a job as a floorwalker in a big London store and wanted to sell the uke for £10 (several weeks wages at the time). He told Billy that he wanted it to be used and not stuck in a wardrobe not being played. Since it looked identical to Billy's own uke, Billy bought it and carried it around the country keeping it on the side of the stage and using it in an emergency if a string broke during his act. One day Billy accidentally dropped his own uke into the orchestra pit and broke the rim of the resonator. As the finger board and top frets were quite worn he gave his uke to the Cathedral Strings Company to put in a little museum they had at their headquarters in London. Some months later he was talking to Harold Fallows of the GFS who lived in Bolton. Harold did a bit of repair work on ukes and Billie told him that the Robbie Vincent uke never felt as comfortable as his original uke and that he wished he had it back. Harold told Billy that, with his permission, he could get the uke back and have it repaired.
Founder member of the GFS, Ray Bernard, was involved with organising the repair which may well have been done by Jack Abbott Jr. Jack certainly provided a new resonator (a modern type) and Ray held on the old resonator. The resonator was given to Jack Jones and after Billy sold his uke to Andrew Palmer, Jack sent it by post to Andrew. The holes lined up perfectly proving that it was the original resonator from that uke.
When Billy got his refurbished uke back, he gave the Robbie Vincent uke to Harold as payment. Harold sold it to Jack Jones telling him it had belonged to Harry Korris which Jack always believed to be true.
Jack's adopted soon., Malcolm, says that he remembered going with Jack to Harold's house to pick up the uke which was in pieces and Jack had to put it all together again.
Many years later, Jack’s house was burgled and this Banjo Ukulele was stolen. Several months later, it turned up at one of the Blackpool meetings. It had been purchased in a second hand shop by one of our members, Joe Tafe, who obviously thought that he had bought an absolute bargain However, Jack recognised it straight away as his property and was even able to quote the number stamped on it. Joe insisted that Jack take it back, but that left him £300 out of pocket. So Jack gave him £100 and the other £200 was collected from the members, who all contributed a few pounds each to make up the difference.
Turned out nice again, didn’t it.
Following the death of Jack Jones the instrument was sold several months ago to George Moore from Hull.
My thanks to Alan Southworth to whom Billy 'Uke' Scott recounted the story of the Abbott.
