banjo ukulele by dennis taylor
The Wizard Banjo Ukulele
This instrument was featured recently for sale on a Ukulele web site.
There were a lot of unmarked American banjos that were sold by department stores, catalogue
sales outlets, etc. Some were marked by the retailers. I believe that Wizard was a mark of
Montgomery Ward, but can't swear to it.
Almost all of these were made by Rettburg and Lange, in the Buckbee plant which they bought
in 1897.They also made more well known instruments - Lange, Paramount, Orpheum, Bruno
and others in the same plant.
I got this info from Joe Bethancourt's site in an article called "An Encapsulated History of Classic
Banjo Manufacturers" If you run a search for his site, it will be under the "Miscellany" section. It
has serial number lists for many American makers. There is also a large section on British banjo
makers.
My grateful thanks to Glen Simpson, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for the above information