Born in Vicenza, Italy, Gino Borodin became a master of the steel guitar, soon after moving to Paris in 1926. He has been called “the Parisian wizard of the Hawaian guitar” -- a method of playing the six-string guitar flat on his lap, playing with the left hand, sliding a piece of metal or glass along the strings. His career took off in 1927/1928 and he recorded and composed hundred of 78 records. He founded the Orchestre Otto and the Orchestre Hawaien Gino Bordin (the name he took in France). In concerts and radio appearances, sometimes with his wife Margot Pépin (also a guitar player), he played jazz and even African-style music with his Hawaian guitar. His career seems to have faded after the war -- he was taught guitar students at his home on Rue Adran in Paris and at private schools. In Patrick Modiano’s 1982 novel, “De si braves garçons,” he appears as a character as his real rather than fictional self. In 2012, a bilingual (French and English) plaque was installed on the outside wall of his former home in Paris.

French composer and conductor Charles Clerc began his schooling at a high school in Toulouse, but his family moved to Paris so that Charles could attend the École Centrale to train as an electrical engineer like his father. The paternal plan for Charles changed when an army buddy who taught at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique noted that Charles seemed to have some musical inclination. So young Charles was sent for oboe lessons; he succeeded in gaining entrance to the Conservatoire and won first prize there in classical orchestral music. Plans changed again, however, when Charles decided that songs were what really interested him. He began successfully composing songs under the pen name Charles Borel-Clerc. Félix Mayo was one of the first to sing his songs, but there followed many other famous singers, including Maurice Chevalier. He wrote such legendary songs as “Ah, le petit vin blanc,” and sometimes accompanied them with his Orchestre Symphique Borel-Clerc. His songs have been used in many film soundtracks and have sold over 1,500,000 records.

John Douglas Borthwick was born on June 5, 1831, in Glencorse, Midlothian, Scotland.

He was a clergyman and author. He came to Canada about 1850. He taught school, first in Upper Canada, and then in Montreal. In 1866, he was ordained a clergyman of the Church of England. For twenty-five years he was incumbent of St. Mary's, Hochelaga, and in his later years he was Protestant chaplain of the Montreal prison. In his earlier days, he published several general or reference books, but he is remembered chiefly as the historian of Montreal. He was the author of “Montreal, Its History” (1875), “History of Montreal and Commercial Registrar for 1885” (1885), “History and Biographical Gazetteer of Montreal” (1892), “History of Montreal, Including the Streets of Montreal” (1897), “Authentic History of the Eight Prisons of Montreal” (1907), and “History of the Diocese of Montreal, 1850-1910” (1911).

In 1850, he married Charlotte Helena Simpson (d. 1892). In 1894, he married Emma Nicholson Richey. He died on January 14, 1912, in Montreal, Quebec.

Campbell Bosson was born on November 18, 1888, in Chelsea, Suffolk, Massachusetts.

He was an American lawyer, banker, and amateur ornithologist. He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1911 and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1913. Additionally, he taught classes in ornithology.

In 1814, he married Helen Chapin (1889–1984). He died on September 11, 1957, in Milford, Hillsborough, New Hampshire.