The New York Times and the death of the ukulele

THE UKULELE NOW GIVES WAY TO THE MOANING SAXOPHONE 

New York Times, February 3, 1929, (Sunday Section: Arts & Leisure), Page 123. The ukulele has gone the way of all fads. One may look forward to a Summer minus the tinkling of “Aloha, O” throughout a ferry ride and a night’s attempt to slumber. The college boy no longer considers the ukulele an indispensable part of his equipment for higher learning. The high school girl has shelved her “uke” with her slave bracelet.

This perception of decline in the popularity of the ukulele might have inspired one plank of a presidential candidate, Mr. Plushbottom, in 1928. But there is evidence that some college boys saw the advantage of ukuleles in higher learning, at least at Duke University, in the year 1950.

Sophomore, Duke University, 1950 -- with ukulele

Picture from Chanticleer, Duke University, 1950, p. 200 (search — www.archive.org). I suspect (but cannot be sure) that the ukist might be identified on p. 169 of the same publication.