Bell Accordions Co.

Aldo Mencaccini, founder of the Bell Accordion Factory in the United States, had made his first accordion at the age of 11 in Italy in the Rimini region. It was a button accordion that he assembled from surplus parts from the accordion factory. Mencaccini learned to make accordions at Italian accordion factories and moved to the United States on the 18th of November 1937.

When Aldo Mencaccini came to the United States, he immediately went to work for the Galant brothers on 783 Broadway. He worked there for three days and received $3.50 during this period. At home, Mencaccini’s father asked him how much he got in salary, and Aldo told him, what he had received. The salary corresponded to approximately 100 lire. HIs father didn’t like this, because the living cost was more than what he got in the salary, at least $5 a day. Because of this, his father told Aldo to stay at home. At that same time, Aldo got a telegram from Excelsior on 333-6th Avenue. Egisto Pancoti wanted a young person like Aldo to work for them. The current tuner at the Excelsior factory wanted to return to Italy, so the factory would have a vacant position. This was between the 21st and 22nd of November 1937. When Aldo started working on Monday at Excelsior, the first thing he had to do was set up the working space, but since the train went regularly by the front of the house, he asked for a more quiet room. By Tuesday, everything was ready and the actual work could begin. The first week ended on Saturday at 1pm, and then the salary came. It was a whopping $124.24. It was a lot more than Aldo’s father could get from his work. In his second week of work, Aldo received $186.35. The father was so overwhelmed by the success, that he just cried of joy. The salary was impossibly high, and indeed – Aldo Mencaccini was Excelsior’s best-paid employee.

Aldo Mencaccini worked at Excelsior for less than 10 years. Then the owner said, that he wanted to make Mencaccini a partner of Excelsior, but Mencaccini refused, since he wanted to try to make his own accordions. He opened a little workshop with a few machines. He started making accordions with Emilio Baldoni. Baldoni was a reed maker and had had his own company in Italy. However, the workshop had been destroyed during the Bombing of World War II, and Baldoni knew his career was over, so he got depressed. Because of that, he took a few tools with him and fled to the United States.

The company of Aldo Mencaccini and Emilio Baldoni was on the third floor of an apartment building, and the trees used in the production of the accordions had to be lifted by ropes up to the window or sawed smaller on the streets below. This lasted 4-5 years. Baldoni then asked Mencaccini that because he had the Ace accordion branded, would did he want to sell the whole brand to Baldoni? Mencaccini said that he would not sell for less than $2,000. Baldoni offered $1,500. Eventually, Mencaccini left Baldoni because he wanted to make even better accordions than they had done together.

Mencaccini founded a new company, which eventually became the Bell accordion factory. When Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI) heard about the Bell accordions, they wanted to be the national distributor of the brand, and eventually became a partner of the Bell Accordion. After 1.5 years of cooperation, the CMI said there was one thing to do. Either Mencaccini would buy CMI’s share of the company or CMI would buy Mencaccin out of the company. Aldo Menccaccini held onto the Bell accordion company, and thus became the owner of Bell Accordions in the United States.

Bell accordions were desired because of their high quality. The Excelsior did also buy one Bell accordion and took it to Italy to copy it for their own production.

The Super VI produced by Scandall, was designed by Aldo Mencaccini. The Bell 4516 model was used as a prototype for the early Scandall Super VI model. This model was often known as 2S or 4S. The Bell 25xx models are made by Scandalli, while the factory’s Super VI model was released also under the name Bell 4511. The only differences were in the design of the treble grill and registers.

Aldo Mencaccini did also design the Cordovox. CMI sold at least 25 Cordovox per week, sometimes up to 100 pieces. Then Mencaccini entered the market with Bell’s Duovox model. Although Mencaccin no longer had anything to do with CMI, they contacted him and asked for a model to sell – the demand was so high.

Bell accordions have also been made by Farfisa, Scandalli and Sonola.

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