James Nelligan

    Jim was born, James G. Nelligan in Bangor Maine, on March 3rd 1935. 
   He grew up  interested in  music and photography He remembers listening to a radio show every week called, Hawaii Calls, with his Dad, on KPOA AM Radio. This was when he developed a interest in the steel guitar.
    He had a camera at a early age and all through high school.
    Jim got a job right out of high school with a photo company as a photographer
    In this first Professional Photography job he travel all over the country to colleges taking senior gradation pictures.
   While going around to the colleges, one of his high lights in life was meeting Penn State Football Coach, the great Joe Paterno.
   This job gave him the experience, and the funds to later open his own photographic studio, He drove a truck for 13 years. And at the same time owned and ran J & M Photo Studio in Old Town, Maine outside Bangor.  

    He ran J & M for 45 years before moving to  where he now lives in Greentown IN. and owns and runs   J & J Photo Studio.
    Being so taken with the steel guitar his entire life, about 35 years ago, he when to the Steel Guitar Convention in Saint Louis Missouri. It was there he met  "Scotty" and Mary Scott and their family and became close friends. And the Staff Photographer for The International Steel Guitar Convention and The Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame.
    Starting in the 70s while living in Bangor, Maine. He would come in to St. Louis with live lobsters and Mary would have a pot of boiling water waiting when Scotty picked him up at the airport. They would have a fresh lobster dinner two days before the convention.
    At some point in his life he started collecting
Steel Guitars. This collection grew to over 200.
   Storage becoming a problem after moving,  he has reduced his collection down to about 50 now.

Page 2

                               Jim                               Joe Paterno  -  Penn State Football Coach
at 29 years old                                  Picture taken 1964

  Picture of Jim       While he is taking a
                                     picture of Scotty 







To Jim
working and having fun is the same thing
He doesn't know when he's working

Jim's picture of Scotty


Jim at Louisville Metro Steel Guitar Club
in Fairdale Kentucky
 

Jim                   Lynn Owsley                  Billy Robinson


Jim                   Bud Isaacs                       Don Helms                   Billy Robinson
Bud, Don, and Billy all in The Steel Guitar Hall of Fame

Hawaii Calls Live Radio Show  and Hawaii becoming a State
Click Here "Hawaii Calls"  approximately 5 mins. long
Important:  Minmize The Window that opens, to come back this page
 

December 29, 1949 Show of "Hawaii Calls"
Important:  Minmize The Window that opens, to come back this page

Hawaii Calls was a radio program that ran from 1935 through 1975
that featured live Hawaiian music.

Hawaii Calls (radio show) - Blue Hawaii 1930s
This is from 1930s  78rpm record, grinding noises is removed so that we can hear
what went onto the record instead of nearly a century of misuse