All Blog Posts (209)

Henry,

Yes it has been a long time since Les and I came to meet Manny and he sold us Les's first guitar from a real guitar store, then many years later when you gave me a no show job on your sales staff. Fast forward to today and even though I closed the News Bar, I think of you and Judy every time I pass through Fort Lee.

I love you buddy,

Happy Birthday

Larry and Les West

Happy Birthday Henry!!!

I hope that you will enjoy this day with your family,  and have a great meal and birthday cake.

We all miss you in NYC...

Love, Larry Russell

Have the Happiest of Birthdays Henry.....

 From re-outfitting Tranquility after the truck was robbed to your picking out the last of the Brazilian Rosewood D-28's for me when Blood Sweat and Tears bought me a guitar after my apartment with Jimmy Fielder burned to the ground, to picking up mallets for Buzzy Linhart, you were always a mensch Henry. You never gave me less than a hard time whether making a purchase or begging for a schlepper shirt and I will always love you for that. It…

Very best wishes to you on your 79th!

I miss seeing you and the family, as was once such a happy part of my every week.

Enjoy your celebration and spread my greetings to all around you.

Andy Schwartz

You sold me my first guitar, a Guild Starfire, approximately 45 years ago.  The guitar is long gone, sold by me to David Reiff, noted intellectual now, but an impossibly bright high school kid at the time.

I'm sure you don't remember the sale, as since then you must have sold hundreds, if not thousands of guitars to people much better known than myself.  I was just another teenage kid who would haunt Manny's, mostly to gawk, only occasionally to buy.  I might look vaguely familiar-…

Dropping by Manny's was always a special treat! Just meeting all the guys working there, as well as so many musicians I worked with, was like coming home every time! It was clearly "THE spot" you wanted to stop by every time you were near 48th St. I bought my first 4 piece WFL drumset there in 1958 and it's still one of my favorite sets to play on. There will never be another music store meeting place like Manny's. It was…

If memory serves me well, today is the birthday of a very special fellow. His name is Henry Goldrich, and I've had the pleasure of knowing him since I was 16 - when I bought my first "quality" electric from him in the old store (it was a Guild Starfire Emerald III)... he was a mench then, and he's still not only a mench - he's a hero - an urban legend - and my friend!

 …

OK, here comes a memory from 1967.  My band The Age Of Reason was booked to perform a show at The Loeb Student Center on LaGuardia Place.  I had just bought a brand new 18" Paiste Cymbal, which was actually a very new company.  Being a loyal Zildjian owner, I was dubious of this new cymbal product; but being a kid of great curiosity, I had to snatch the newest 'toys' in the drum product…

Manny's Music was amazing. I have such great memories of going down to visit my Dad, on the second floor, in that glass room up above the entrance. It was magical going there. Whenever I think about Manny's, I think about the holidays, the warmth that the place exuded, the generosity that everyone showed.

Closing my eyes, I can visualize the walk, through the main doors, by the front desk, past the elevator,  past the brass section, up the stairs on the left to the second floor, past…