Cowboy Loye Parlor acoustic guitar 1930's rare vintage old antique

This is a rare gem of a guitar. Very collectible! It's a Cowboy Loye Acoustic Guitar. Cowboy Loye used to play on the Wheeling Jamboree among many other things (see below) and this guitar is from the 1930's. We believe this was a limited run just one year. It is missing the strap pin at the bottom. It's string height is high so that would need adjusted to play and there is a crack on the top - see the picture. Playing wise it's going to need some work. The top is not flat and as mentioned has a crack and there is a harline crack on the back. The action is high. We're considering it as a "nostalgia guitar for our wall in our store if it doesn't sell where we've got it as it's to cool to give away cheaply. This guitar just oozes of nostalgia and has that classic vibe that you just don't see with guitars anymore. This would look great on a wall in a den, game room or restaurant etc. setting that classic mood. Any collector should be happy to have this.

Cowboy Loye was a popular radio star in the late 1920s and 1930s who, unlike most singing buckaroos, was an actual working cowboy before he decided to ride the radio waves rather than the wide open range. His real name was Loye D. Park and over the years he performed on numerous radio shows, including the Wheeling Jamboree, a country music radio show that started in 1933 and is still going strong. He never made a record but he was famous for being able to sell thousands of songbooks over the air. His ability to sell books and sheet music most likely inspired him to try his hand at plugging guitars, as well.

This particular guitar is made from birch and unlike most cheap guitars associated with singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, it has very little ornamentation. The binding is painted on, the mystery wood fretboard was stained black to mimic ebony and the even the grain pattern on the top and back is painted on.

b. Loye Donald Pack, 3 June 1900, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, d. 15 March 1941. Although Loye was born in Nashville, it was a long time before it became associated with country music, and, in any event, he never actually made a single record. In the 20s, a yearning for a different lifestyle saw him leave home and hobo in several states, during which time he learned to play guitar and developed a wide repertoire of songs. He eventually settled to work, for several years, as a cowboy on a Nebraska ranch. In 1929, he sang on local radio in York, Nebraska, and after a spell at Columbus, Ohio, he arrived at WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia, in November 1933. He often performed there with another singer known as Just Plain John Oldham. He gained a reputation for being able to sell his songbooks and for the amount of mail that he received from the listeners. In 1936, he organized his Blue Bonnet troupe which, at times, had 12 members, but the following year, after a short time back in Nebraska, he relocated to WMMN Fairmont, West Virginia, where he immediately became popular and sometimes worked with the Blue Bonnett Girls (Sylvia, Lillian and Florence Curry). On 12 March 1941, troubled by stomach ulcers, he entered the Cleveland Clinic for an operation. There were complications, possibly from bleeding after stitches torn when he was partially conscious, although other reports detailed a kidney problem. Loye died on 15 March and his wife, Zeta, had his body taken back to be buried at their home in Ponca, Nebraska.