Big Poppa
Well-known member
This started out in Mobay's thread about his Dad, and I really was moved by the words. I thought it would be inappropriate to post there as it is such a great thread. I apologize for the longwinded nature and humor me. I just felt like writing a not so brief history of my family.
My Great Granfather Ernest R. Ball was a really interesting fellow so Im told. He was a boxer, baseball player, and singer/songwriter pianist. He really didnt have a clue which to persue because he was really good at all three. He chose music. He went on to be one of the big stars of his day writing a ton of hits like, When Irish Eyes are Smiling, Mother Machree, and many others.
He had two sons. . Roland or Pop as we grandkids called him would tour the country in a well recieved vaudeville show, Ernest R. Ball and Son. My grandfather could play five minutes of piano and you would think he was a genius but he only knew the five minutes. He danced and sang but really didnt have a lot of talent but was the life of the party through out his life.
His dad died on the road in 1927 in Santa Ana California
My grandpa went back to cleveland got married and in 1930 Roland Sherwood Ball was born. You know him as Ernie and I knew him as Dad.
The depression hit and in 1932 Pop packed the Packard and went to California to a house in Santa Monica that his Dad had left him. He had nothing else going and the house was paid for so what the heck. This neighborhood was a really cool place where each house had a speakeasy and it was a rich and powerful group that controlled the place . It was called the Uplifters Ranch and people like Will Rogers and Johnny Weissmiller were my dads neighbors. My dad made his money by shagging polo balls for Tarzan. The Drummer from the Doors lives in the house now.
It was kind of what's wrong with this picture....The rich and famous and Pop. Pop discovered Hawaiian music right when it became very popular and started writing songs and got a nationwide radio show with his buddies. The problem is that none of them were Hawaiian. People would write in and ask for photos so my grandpa went to a little hawaiian bar bought three hawaiians a round took their picture and that was the promo picture that they would sign and return. He had the largest hawaiian music catalog in the world, Ball Music Publishing. At the same time he started door to door with these cheesy stenciled hawaiian acoustic guitars with a crew of boozer buddies and beach bums that taught the lessons and rented the guitars. The greatest Hawaiian guitarist of the day was Dick Mc Intyre so Pop got Dick to put his name on the guitar right above the Ball on the headstock. Strange how history repeats itself? When I was driving down to Eddie's house to finalize the EVH I stopped in a little music store and this guy collected stencil guitars and had a Ball Mc Intrye . He wouldnt sell it to me. I ended up trading him a martin guitar and a 63 jazz bass because I had to have it.
World War two hit and Pop got patriotic and joined the Coast Guard. They made him Captain of the Port of Catalina, (tough gig)He was an officer and had it made in the shade until he got caught messing with his superiors wife and then was sent to the South Pacific where he was injured in action.
He comes home, Grandma has divorced him for a Firestone Tire executive. She never really got this music thing anyway. Her dad was Sherwood Dodge Shankland who founded the National Education Association, NEA. My Great Grandfather was a founding father of ASCAP. Im more proud of the ASCAP.
He also came home to a publishing comapny busted and the music studios gone because hawaiian music died. He bummed around until settling down to sell cadillacs in Beverly Hills.
That left my dad hanging in my grandpa's Batchelor pad where all of the cats would hang. Sol Hoopi and my dads hero Juaquin Murphy the greatest steel player of the day were there. Juaquin could play anything. My dad was hooked and in just a few years was on live radio. Thats how the Ernie came about. The annoucer said "We have a new steeel guitar player here that's named Sherwood Ball, (my grandmother wouldn't let him use the Roland name) and he's really fine, His grandpa was Ernest R Ball and I'm gona call Sherwood Ernie.
My dad went on to tour the country with Tommy Duncan and his Texas Playboys. Tommy was Bob Wills singer and took over the band when Bob quit. He met a nice Indian/irish girl from Oklahoma and got married.
The Korean War hit and my dad was going to be drafted and Pop pulled some strings and my dad joined the Air Force and played Bass Drum (!) in the AIr Force marching band until he got polio.
By then he had two sons Sherwood, and David and was out of the AIr Force and back in LA. He had heard rumblings of this radio maker in Fullerton that was making solid body guitars and steel guitars. He and Leo hit it off right away and my dad went on to be one of his first dealers and he was a beta tester for Leo, (a role I would fill many years later) and an endorsee.
My dad was an entrepeneur before the word became trendy. He taught guitar by day and played on live TV at night with the western roundup and this crazy cat Esquivel. It was when my dad was trying to prove that you could sell electric guitars. JUST electric guitars. He opened in 1953 the first of three failed Guitar stores. He was the first to just sell guitars. In 55 he had me and 58 my sister Nova.
Rock n Roll hit and my Dad's store in Tarzana was where you went to get your Fenders and Gibsons. My dad would set up each and every guitar he sold. He said that it was the difference between the piano store getting the sale. His fellow entrepeneurs in the Valley were Remo Belli (remo drumheads) and Bud Eastman (founder of Guitar Player magazine and Musicans Friend) Folk muisc hit and the cats would buy thier Martins too. Surf music followed and The Beach Boys and all of those bands would hang out too.
Thats when my Dad went to Leo and begged him to sell strings by gauge and to package string sets with plain G strings. Leo wouldn't do it but told Dad that if he thought it was such a great idea he would sell him the strings and the rest is history. Those gauges are history too. All of the competition uses the gauges today that my dad came up with in 1962.
I drove my Dad crazy. From about 5 on until I started growing his business then I was bulletproof. I hung out in the store. By 9 years old I was running the cash register and changing strings for customers. Back then if you bought the strings from Ernie and if the store wasn't too busy either he or one of the kids would restring it for you N/C I changed strings for James Burton, The Byrds, Glen Cambell and on and on.
You guys kind of know the rest but getting back to Mobays post I learned so much from both Pop and Dad. My Dad taught me that if you couldnt figure out something it was because the world was run by D students. He taught me it wasn't a sale if you didnt get paid. Taught me you can't negiotiate with crazy people. Most importantly he gave me a great canvas and let me run with it.
My father died from a rare form of Alzheimers called Lewy Bodies disease. The last years were so sad. Watching a great man lose his mind and dignity was really hard to accept.
I carry a picture of my Dad and think of him and about the values he instilled in me all the time.
Now I'm loving rolling out a new canvas for my sons to create their own future.
I'm a very lucky guy.
My Great Granfather Ernest R. Ball was a really interesting fellow so Im told. He was a boxer, baseball player, and singer/songwriter pianist. He really didnt have a clue which to persue because he was really good at all three. He chose music. He went on to be one of the big stars of his day writing a ton of hits like, When Irish Eyes are Smiling, Mother Machree, and many others.
He had two sons. . Roland or Pop as we grandkids called him would tour the country in a well recieved vaudeville show, Ernest R. Ball and Son. My grandfather could play five minutes of piano and you would think he was a genius but he only knew the five minutes. He danced and sang but really didnt have a lot of talent but was the life of the party through out his life.
His dad died on the road in 1927 in Santa Ana California
My grandpa went back to cleveland got married and in 1930 Roland Sherwood Ball was born. You know him as Ernie and I knew him as Dad.
The depression hit and in 1932 Pop packed the Packard and went to California to a house in Santa Monica that his Dad had left him. He had nothing else going and the house was paid for so what the heck. This neighborhood was a really cool place where each house had a speakeasy and it was a rich and powerful group that controlled the place . It was called the Uplifters Ranch and people like Will Rogers and Johnny Weissmiller were my dads neighbors. My dad made his money by shagging polo balls for Tarzan. The Drummer from the Doors lives in the house now.
It was kind of what's wrong with this picture....The rich and famous and Pop. Pop discovered Hawaiian music right when it became very popular and started writing songs and got a nationwide radio show with his buddies. The problem is that none of them were Hawaiian. People would write in and ask for photos so my grandpa went to a little hawaiian bar bought three hawaiians a round took their picture and that was the promo picture that they would sign and return. He had the largest hawaiian music catalog in the world, Ball Music Publishing. At the same time he started door to door with these cheesy stenciled hawaiian acoustic guitars with a crew of boozer buddies and beach bums that taught the lessons and rented the guitars. The greatest Hawaiian guitarist of the day was Dick Mc Intyre so Pop got Dick to put his name on the guitar right above the Ball on the headstock. Strange how history repeats itself? When I was driving down to Eddie's house to finalize the EVH I stopped in a little music store and this guy collected stencil guitars and had a Ball Mc Intrye . He wouldnt sell it to me. I ended up trading him a martin guitar and a 63 jazz bass because I had to have it.
World War two hit and Pop got patriotic and joined the Coast Guard. They made him Captain of the Port of Catalina, (tough gig)He was an officer and had it made in the shade until he got caught messing with his superiors wife and then was sent to the South Pacific where he was injured in action.
He comes home, Grandma has divorced him for a Firestone Tire executive. She never really got this music thing anyway. Her dad was Sherwood Dodge Shankland who founded the National Education Association, NEA. My Great Grandfather was a founding father of ASCAP. Im more proud of the ASCAP.
He also came home to a publishing comapny busted and the music studios gone because hawaiian music died. He bummed around until settling down to sell cadillacs in Beverly Hills.
That left my dad hanging in my grandpa's Batchelor pad where all of the cats would hang. Sol Hoopi and my dads hero Juaquin Murphy the greatest steel player of the day were there. Juaquin could play anything. My dad was hooked and in just a few years was on live radio. Thats how the Ernie came about. The annoucer said "We have a new steeel guitar player here that's named Sherwood Ball, (my grandmother wouldn't let him use the Roland name) and he's really fine, His grandpa was Ernest R Ball and I'm gona call Sherwood Ernie.
My dad went on to tour the country with Tommy Duncan and his Texas Playboys. Tommy was Bob Wills singer and took over the band when Bob quit. He met a nice Indian/irish girl from Oklahoma and got married.
The Korean War hit and my dad was going to be drafted and Pop pulled some strings and my dad joined the Air Force and played Bass Drum (!) in the AIr Force marching band until he got polio.
By then he had two sons Sherwood, and David and was out of the AIr Force and back in LA. He had heard rumblings of this radio maker in Fullerton that was making solid body guitars and steel guitars. He and Leo hit it off right away and my dad went on to be one of his first dealers and he was a beta tester for Leo, (a role I would fill many years later) and an endorsee.
My dad was an entrepeneur before the word became trendy. He taught guitar by day and played on live TV at night with the western roundup and this crazy cat Esquivel. It was when my dad was trying to prove that you could sell electric guitars. JUST electric guitars. He opened in 1953 the first of three failed Guitar stores. He was the first to just sell guitars. In 55 he had me and 58 my sister Nova.
Rock n Roll hit and my Dad's store in Tarzana was where you went to get your Fenders and Gibsons. My dad would set up each and every guitar he sold. He said that it was the difference between the piano store getting the sale. His fellow entrepeneurs in the Valley were Remo Belli (remo drumheads) and Bud Eastman (founder of Guitar Player magazine and Musicans Friend) Folk muisc hit and the cats would buy thier Martins too. Surf music followed and The Beach Boys and all of those bands would hang out too.
Thats when my Dad went to Leo and begged him to sell strings by gauge and to package string sets with plain G strings. Leo wouldn't do it but told Dad that if he thought it was such a great idea he would sell him the strings and the rest is history. Those gauges are history too. All of the competition uses the gauges today that my dad came up with in 1962.
I drove my Dad crazy. From about 5 on until I started growing his business then I was bulletproof. I hung out in the store. By 9 years old I was running the cash register and changing strings for customers. Back then if you bought the strings from Ernie and if the store wasn't too busy either he or one of the kids would restring it for you N/C I changed strings for James Burton, The Byrds, Glen Cambell and on and on.
You guys kind of know the rest but getting back to Mobays post I learned so much from both Pop and Dad. My Dad taught me that if you couldnt figure out something it was because the world was run by D students. He taught me it wasn't a sale if you didnt get paid. Taught me you can't negiotiate with crazy people. Most importantly he gave me a great canvas and let me run with it.
My father died from a rare form of Alzheimers called Lewy Bodies disease. The last years were so sad. Watching a great man lose his mind and dignity was really hard to accept.
I carry a picture of my Dad and think of him and about the values he instilled in me all the time.
Now I'm loving rolling out a new canvas for my sons to create their own future.
I'm a very lucky guy.
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I wish my family history was nearly as interesting 
