Bill Woods was a bandleader in Bakersfield who is most famous for bringing up Buck Owens in his band in the early 50's. He played fiddle and piano with Merle Haggard, released tons of great obscure country & rockabilly records, and knew Semie quite well.
One story which Bill Woods always told, and I believe him, was that he was the one who came up with the idea of the red, white, and blue paint job for the Mosrite. As the story goes (and chime in if anybody else has better knowledge) Semie had painted up a few Mosrites with tri-color paint jobs for the jobbers to show the different music stores the paint schemes available. Bill Woods saw this and suggested Semie make a red, white and blue model "to be patriotic." Later Buck Owens had Semie make him a red, white and blue Mosrite acoustic, and Semie was to make a Buck Owens model acoustic, but Buck ultimately went with Harmony and had them made on the cheap, taking the red, white and blue paint job as his own creation.
Bill was so put out by Buck taking his idea he had his original Mosrite painted red, white, and blue sometime in the 1960's. It is now owned by Marc Lipco and can be see in a glass case at Alan's Kern Pawn Shop in Bakersfield. it's not for sale, of course, or I wouldn't be telling you about it. ha.
This one is a bit of an oddity, like the "Buckaroo by Moseley" guitar. The headstock throws back to the earliest Mosrite headstocks but is in more of a "hook" shape. Suffice it to say I think this one was a one-off and Semie never made any other ones exactly like this.
Deke
