This is going to be a quick post as I have to go teach this
afternoon and then rehearse with the IU Southeast Orchestra
tonight. But I had come across what’s called a “pogo cello” just
a bit ago. The wikipedia entry for the instrument states: The
pogo cello was created in the 1950s in Brooklyn, New York by a
chemist, Mack Perry, the husband of a music educator, Sylvia
Perry. Perry patterned it after a similar instrument called a
bumbass (boombas, boomba, or boom bass) also known as a stump
fiddle (or stumpf fiddle). Pogocellos were manufactured in
Brooklyn and Far Rockaway, New York and in New Jersey. The
pogocello was sold in the United States for decades as a musical
instrument for children, but many adults also bought them for
themselves. Pogocellos have been seen in marching bands in Iowa
and in the Mummers’ parade in Philadelphia, PA on New Year’s
Day. Similar instruments may be found today in Australia,
Czechoslovakia and in Sweden (a Devil’s fiddle or Devil’s stick)
and in other countries, for example