Making The Movie

Chapter 22

(click to enlarge photos)

My guitar playing friend Loli had invited me to sign up with her as an extra in a movie being made by a German film company in Palma . I never did see that picture and still have no idea what it was called, but it seemed to be a promotional film for Mallorca, Los Valldemosa, a local singing group from the village of Valldemosa and Salomé, another popular singer who would represent Spain the following year in the Eurovision song contest.

This was quite an entertaining venture, since at that time there was no internet, no video cameras or colour television. The apartment I stayed in with friends didn't have even a black and white television but that was quite normal. So to see even promotional movies, one went to the cinema, watched the NO-DO black and white news followed by a movie short and then a main feature movie. That's the way things were in Palma de Mallorca in 1968. And so we were going to be working with this crew and I was looking forward to it.

Our first day we were taken in buses to the bullring, where Salomé would be standing down in the centre (no bulls were there, luckily) with a few red carnations at her feet. We were arranged in the stands and given a white square of cloth which we were to wave at her. In a bullfight, the waving of white handkerchiefs by the spectators indicates that the matador has pleased the crowd. So we waved our hankies at Salomé and it was filmed.


Another scene for the movie was taken at the entry gates of the Pueblo Español, the walled enclosure where the guitar factory was located among the replicas of Spanish buildings. We were all given balloons with long strings and were told to stand on either side of the door just outside the gates. Salomé would then come running out the door with arms outstretched, grabbing some of the balloon strings from our hands.

So we did what we were told to do. She did what she was told to do and it was filmed. At the end of each day we lined up at a table and were paid our daily salary. I was thrilled to be earning money as a movie extra, even though it wasn't very much.
That was quite an entertaining day!



Continue on to Chapter 23......A Night in Tagomago

Go back to Chapter 21......Loli

The Guitar Factory

Chapter 12


Mr. G.’s guitar factory at that time was located on the edge of Palma in The Pueblo Español, or Spanish Village, an enclosed area built in 1965 consisting of nearly one hundred replicas of famous Spanish buildings and monuments. It was quite a pleasant place, with its winding streets, main plaza and fountains where one could see, for example, smaller versions of the Alhambra of Granada, the house of Greco and the large and beautiful Palacio de Congresos, the Congress Palace where international events are still held today.


When I arrived in Mallorca it was all fairly new and the little guitar factory, called Los Guitarreros de Mallorca, was installed in one of the buildings seen on the left in the street of the top photo. The guitar builder from mainland Spain, José Orti, also know as el maestro, had left and been replaced by José Ferrer who was aided by two young ladies, Pepa from Andalucia and Maria, who was Mallorquin. They helped with the work as well as the polishing and finishing of the guitars.

El maestro had also been responsible for teaching the Japanese constructors at Yamaha how to make a Spanish classical guitar. A wall of the Palma workshop, el taller displayed framed photos of this elderly gentleman in his black beret surrounded by a group of white lab-coated Japanese in the Yamaha factory as he showed them the intricacies of contructing a classical guitar.

Here below is the first guitar label placed inside the guitars made at Los Guitarreros de Mallorca.


There is no scent to me more captivating than that found inside a guitar workshop. The woods have such a wonderful perfume! The rosewood for the back and sides, the cedar and spruce for the tops and the beautiful ebony for the fingerboards give off their peculiar aromas as they are shaven and moulded into shape. Just being in a workshop where the goal is to build an exquisite instrument for the purpose of creating beautiful music is exciting, and it is even more so as the instrument begins to take form, and is then polished, and then strung and then with great anticipation …..tested for the first time. What satisfaction it is when the creation turns out well!

My present guitar made in June 1968 by José Ferrer, son.


At this point I feel it is time to reveal the identity of Mr.G., my mentor and good friend, whom I had met in the early 1960s in Vancouver in his guitar outlet called The Mediterranean Shop, on tenth avenue near the university gates, where I learned to play and later to teach classical guitar. Since this dear, quiet man, who dedicated himself to studying and improving the construction of guitars is no longer living and has since become a legend not only in the Balearic Isles, but also in the whole of Spain as one of the great contemporary luthiers of the past generation, I should not keep his identity hidden any longer.


His name was George Moore Bowden. There has been much written about him and his parents who came to settle in Mallorca in 1932 and I will elaborate more on my relationship with this unique family in a coming entry.

Here is a photo of George Bowden with his successor, Antonio Morales:


I was just a bystander but I had been drawn deeply into being a part of all this. It began in Vancouver, B.C. around 1964.

Continue on to Chapter 13...... Vancouver Flashback - Mediterranean Shop

Go back to Chapter 11......The Guitar Center