Mr. Anthony Galla-Rini has been reflecting on some of his accordion activities over the years, and has shared the following with us:

"In 1938 I was approached by Sam C. Rowland who came to me in my studio in New York City to ask what I thought about the idea of establishing an accordion association. (He had already established the American Drummers' Association.) He mentioned that of all accordionists, I was the first one to be apprised of the idea. My reply was that I thought it would be timely and that it would be well received.

Therefore, the American Accordionists' Association was established on March 9, 1938, being the first of all accordion associations. When the Charter Membership cards were issued and I received my card, I noticed that it read "Membership No. 1" as shown below.

Summation: I was the first one to be consulted about the creation of the first accordion association ever and I received the Charter membership Card #1.

I feel sincerely humble about this since the rest of the charter members consisted of the "Creme de la Creme" of the accordion profession!

I am grateful that my dear friend Charles Nunzio is still with me as one of the remaining two charter members of the AAA. I trust that we will still be around for another number of years."

I will now refer to some details I have kept in the back of my mind all these years (63 years) in regards to the Mecca Brothers (Dominic and Tony).

"When they were invited to take part in the concert they then approached me to prepare an accordion duet arrangement of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" for them as their one selection on the concert.

I agreed. What happened then at the concert? After they finished the last note and walked off the stage, the applause was so strong and prolonged, they had to come back and play an encore! They chose to play Frosini's "Jolly Caballero".

In the old days of Vaudeville "Parlance" this was described as "Stopping the Show!" In other words, the next act could NOT go on until the audience got their encore"!

May I then say that the Mecca Brothers, playing my duet arrangement of "Rhapsody in Blue", did "Stop the show" at the Carnegie Hall concert. Final detail: The Meccas Brothers paid me $60.00 for my arrangement.

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