ukeCANjam
Well-known member
That is too awesome!
It's a Martin. Style O, I think, but possibly a Style 1. I couldn't see the "diagnostic feature" (a Style 1 and 2 would have double dot position marker at the 5th fret, but a Style O would just have a single dot there).
There's a sweet little movie called "Stanley's Gig" about a misfit who dreams of getting a gig playing ukulele on a cruise ship and befriends an elderly jazz singer. I think Ian Whitcomb and maybe Jim Beloff did the uke playing on the soundtrack. It's on Netflix or you can watch an abbreviated version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EswIZhjrgnA&feature=player_embedded
Keaton also has a uke in the film "College". He eventually falls on it and smashes it. I'm sensing a theme here...Buster Keaton plays a Jazz Age college kid with a uke at the beginning of "Steamboat Bill, Jr" (1928). He doesn't play it, and it gets stomped on by his dad.
Buster Keaton apparently DID actually play though. I've seen a clip from some movie (I have no idea what it is), where he, Cliff Edwards and some other guy are in WWI uniforms. Keaton is fingering the chords on a Martin Taropatch, while Edwards drums on the strings with drumsticks and does one of his mouth-trumpet things, and the third guy is plucking a rifle like an upright bass while he sings a bass line.