Henry Goldrich, Owner Of Manny's Music, Passes Away at 88

 

Manny's Music

When I was 16 years old our high school band took a trip to New York City. We were scheduled to visit famous landmarks in the city, but my friends and I had only one landmark in mind to visit:  Manny’s Music. 

We got in a little trouble, but it was worth it to visit the most well known music store in the city. In our minds it was better than a trip to Disneyland. I still have an old fuzztone that I bought from the store during that visit. One thing that stood out on that day was the prices for guitars were less than what the Cincinnati music stores were asking. It was a most memorable day

Manny Goldrich opened the store in 1935 on 48th street. The location was close to Broadway theaters, recording studios, 52nd street jazz clubs, music publishing firms, and even the Brill Building. Goldrich thought this would be an excellent location to sell music and musical instruments. And he was right. 

Manny passed away in 1968, but he had groomed his son Henry Goldrich to take over the business.  Henry had grown up at the store. After a stint in the Army during the Korean War, Henry returned to work at Manny's, then took over the business. 

Henry Goldrich
owner of Manny's 

Henry became know as the “Gear Guru to Rock Stars”. He passed away a few weeks ago on February 16th, at age 88. When asked what instrument he played, he said, “I play the cash register.” Henry Goldrich may not have played guitar or bass, but he certainly played an important role in rock by connecting famous musicians with cutting-edge equipment. 

Henry Goldrich 

“To these guys, Henry was the superstar,” his son Judd said. “He was the first guy to get gear they had never seen before.” Manny’s Music attracted many, many famous musicians who purchased guitars, amplifiers, keyboards, and other related equipment. 

Manny's Music

Mr. Goldrich was in the good graces of all of the top manufacturers and distributors of guitars and music equipment, and always stocked his shop with the latest cutting edge gear. 

And though many artists would be provided with gear straight from manufacturers, artists preferred to go to Manny’s. 

Receipt for
Jimi Hendrix

His customer included Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. When Vox introduced the Wah-Wah pedal it was Mr. Goldrich who recommended that they purchase one. The same held true for Fuzztones, and other devices. 

Henry’s son, Ian Goldrich said that Hendrix would by scores of guitars of guitars and gear, and have Manny’s techs set them up. 

John Sebastian at Manny's

John Sebastian, founder of the Lovin’ Spoonful, recalled in an interview how Mr. Goldrich, in the mid-1960s, helped him select the Gibson J-45 that he used on early Spoonful recordings like “Do You Believe in Magic?” 

Goldrich sold James Taylor  Martin guitar early in Mr. Taylor’s career. 

Sting purchased the Fender Stratocaster from Goldrich to compose “Message in a Bottle” and many other hits for the Police. 

David Gilmour's Stratocaster

In 1970, Mr. Goldrich sold the Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour the 1969 black Stratocaster that he played on many of the band’s seminal recordings. That guitar sold at auction in 2019 for a record $3,975,000.

 

Pete Townsend

Pete Townshend of the Who would order expensive electric guitars by the dozens from Mr. Goldrich, who was not happy when he heard about Mr. Townshend’s penchant for destroying his guitars onstage for theatrical effect. “It was good business,” Ian Goldrich said, “but my father was annoyed that Pete was breaking all the guitars he was selling him.”.

Richie Havens, Oscar Brandt,
and Henry Goldrich
50th Anniversary of Manny's

Though the rock stars that were his customer often wore wild clothing, Goodrich always dressed conventionally in a sport coat and kept a blunt demeanor that put his customers at ease. His son said, “He had a gruff personality; he treated them all the same. He’d tell Bob Dylan, ‘Sit in the back and I’ll be with you in a minute.’” 

In 1985, on the busiest day of the year, Black Friday, the store was packed when Mick Jagger and David Bowie walked in to shop. This halted sales from excited customers. An unhappy Goldrich asked them what they were doing there today of all days. 

He sold Mick and David what they wanted and quickly sent them on their way. 

Guns N’ Roses wanted to shoot part of a music video at the store. Goldrich allowed it, but said he was not shutting down the store. 

Harry Chapin - Taxi

Henry Goldrich adviced Harry Chapin that his song, “Taxi” was nice but too long and it would never be a hit. 

Paul Simon bought his first guitar at Manny’s, Goldrich told him Simon and Garfunkle was a lousy name for their act. But he also gave some great advice to new and upcoming musicians and groups, to not squander their new found wealth because their fame may not last forever. 

Itzak Perlman

Henry Goldrich became close friends with many musicians, Mr. Goldrich once described selling the violinist Itzhak Perlman an electric violin. When Mr. Perlman tried bargaining, Mr. Goldrich parried by asking if he ever reduced his performance fee. “He said, ‘It’s different, I’m a talent,’” Mr. Goldrich recalled. “I said, ‘I’m a talent in my own way, too.’” 

A portion of The Wall of Fame.

Then there was the store’s Wall of Fame, which includes thousands of autographed publicity photos of famous customers that constituted a Who’s Who of popular music. These were placed along the walls of the store. Many of them were inscribed to Mr. Goldrich.  

He had to stop his employees from stacking merchandise in front of them. 

Old Yellow

Henry routinely purchased used instruments for resale, and on this day someone brought in a full set of instruments repainted with new, bright colors. Among them was an unremarkable Danelectro guitar that had been painted bright yellow.  His son Ian recalls “It wasn’t a factory color, in fact now that the guitar has aged, you can see it probably came from the factory as black. It had one lipstick pickup in it, all stock parts, just the color was different." The other repainted instruments were eventually sold, but “the yellow guitar” hung around the store. 

Old Yellow at Sam Ash Music

Goldrich was well-known for his strict policy of forbidding customers to try out new guitars unless they were serious about buying them. Henry’s “show us your money” approach was fair enough; no shopkeeper wants his wares damaged pre-sale. 

Old Yellow On Display

But where did that leave customers looking to test out new amplifiers or effects pedals, who actually needed a guitar to play. Henry realized Old Yellow was a good-playing guitar, and paid nothing for it  and wasn't going to sell it. So when somebody wanted to try out an effects pedal or an amplifier he wouldn’t let you pull down a new Strat out of the showcase; he said ‘Here, this is the tryout guitar.’ It didn’t matter if you were some kid from Cincinnati or Joe Walsh from The Eagles: if you were in the market for a new amp or effects unit or amp, you played Old Yellow. 

It is currently in a display at Sam Ash Music in NYC.

The guitar passed through countless famous (and not-so-famous) hands over the ensuing decades. Ian Goldrich stated “Everybody who played it said it played really well,”  “My father tells the story of George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and John Sebastian sitting in the back of the store so it’s got to be in the mid-70s or something like that, and they’re all passing this guitar around when George offered my father $200 to buy it. And my father turned him down!” 

Eventually, however, “Old Yellow” met an abrupt end of sorts. “It fell off a guitar stand and the headstock broke off,” Ian says. “That was the end of that.” Despite being damaged beyond repair, the guitar remained in a glass display through the ‘80s and ‘90s as a totem of years past. Currently Old Yellow resides at Sam Ash Music on 34th street in New York City.

Manny's closed in 2009

In 1999, Mr. Goldrich sold Manny’s to Sam Ash Music, a rival store, which largely retained the staff until Manny’s closed in 2009, as Music Row began to disappear.  

Remnants of Manny's Music

Manny's closed it's doors in June of 2009, and eight years later was demolished.  

Bonamassa With The Manny's Sign  

Guitarist and collector extraordinaire, Joe Bonamassa, was able to save the huge sign that hung in front of Manny's. It is on display at the Songbird Museum until Joe decides to move it. 

 

Wall of Fame Book

The Wall of Fame photos are property of the Goldrich Family and can be accessed on line or Amazon has a book of Manny's Wall of Fame.

Mr. Goldrich died on Feb. 16 at his home in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 88. His son Ian, who confirmed the death, said his father had been in frail but stable health.

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