*****************************************************************************************************
In 1960 I rode with Marty Rosen, his wife Imogene and son David to Chicago to attend the National Association of Music Merchants Show. At that time the entire show was quartered in the Palmer House Hotel in the downtown Loop. One day while I was there I walked to a movie theater to see my first Cinerama film, “Mondo Cane.” It was during the day and the theater audience was sparse. The lights were up and the movie had not started. I found a seat. In a few minutes a guy came in and sat next to me. I saw by his NAMM badge that he was attending the same show I was. He told me his name was Semie Mosley and that he was the founder of Mosrite guitars, as his badge indicated. Semie would have been about 25 that Summer; I was 24. We chatted briefly about the NAMM Show and then the movie started. That was my first encounter with Semie.
About 1965 I contacted Mosrite and became a Mosrite dealer, in keeping with my goal to have “all major brands under one roof”. I don’t recall how many I sold, probably just a few because they were competing with Fender, but there were a lot of loyal “Ventures” fans at that time.
Fast forward to 1992. Semie had moved Mosrite to North Carolina and they had been operating from there for 10 years. I don’t recall whether he called me or I called him, but I told him we were having our 30th Boyd Music anniversary event the first Saturday in March. He told me that was about the time he would be passing through Little Rock on his way to move into a factory in Booneville. He asked if he could display all his new models at Boyd Music that day and I quickly agreed. He told me he would be staying overnight at the La Quinta Inn at Fair Park and I-630.
On the morning of the Big Event I called his room and he answered “Mosrite of Arkansas.” Soon he came over and brought his guitars. I set him up with a table in the front window. He put on one of our “In the Beginning..I was there” T-shirts with the drawing of our first little shop. He celebrated all day with us, showing his guitars to all our customers. We really had a big event that day, with many bands playing on the roof.
The next day he moved on to Booneville. That summer I heard he had died of bone cancer on August 7, 1992. That date is easy for me to remember because it is my only brother’s birthday and my wife Donnie’s only brother’s birthday.
I read the Wikipedia article about him. It didn’t mention that he had been critically injured in an accident either early in 1992 or late 1991. He was still recovering when he displayed at Boyd Music, although I saw no evidence of injury and he was cheery and jovial. I am glad I got to know him. I believe he was a dedicated Christian whose only fault, perhaps, was in giving away too many of his guitars to gospel artists. At one time he had 107 employees in his California factory. One’s name was Ronnie (I haven’t been able to recall his last name) who lived in Lake Village Arkansas and dropped in to see me occasionally. He had a huge stash of the nylon Mosrite picks with the logo molded into them. I bought several lots of them over time. I wish I could remember his last name.
Bob Boyd
