Emery 'Jim' Ivan, 81, banjo maker

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Emery "Jim" Ivan, 81, of Southwest Philadelphia, a banjo maker for Mummers string bands, died of heart disease Saturday at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospice in Darby.

Mr. Ivan made his first banjo in the early 1960s. At the time, he played the mandolin and paraded New Year's Day with the South Philadelphia String Band.

The players needed banjos with "lungs," he told a Philadelphia Daily News reporter in 1992, meaning instruments with ringing tones to carry a melody along the concrete canyon of Broad Street.

The banjo he designed had 22 frets, four more than most tenor banjos. It had a higher range and extra volume to provide a rhythmic background for saxophones and glockenspiels.

Mr. Ivan named his banjo Jany, a Hungarian word pronounced "Johnny." His parents, Elizabeth and Gergerly, were Hungarian.

For more than 40 years, Mr. Ivan produced banjos in his workshop in the back of his home. Though he stopped strutting with the Mummers years ago, he was available on New Year's mornings for last-minute instrument adjustments and tune-ups.

In 1992, more than 100 Jany banjo owners serenaded him as "The Banjo Man of Broad Street" at the Philadelphia String Band Association Show of Shows. The musicians praised Mr. Ivan for designing instruments with clear, sharp tones. One player told the Daily News that "comparing a Jany to any other banjo is like comparing a Cadillac Coupe de Ville to a Model-T Ford."

Mr. Ivan developed his woodworking skills making model airplanes as a teenager. He studied music at First Hungarian Reformed Presbyterian Church. He graduated from South Philadelphia High School in 1945 and joined the Navy.

After his discharge in 1946, he earned a mechanic's diploma from the Rising Sun School of Aeronautics in Philadelphia. He reenlisted in the Navy in 1948 and served on the ships Capricornus and Chilton and the ocean tug Paiute during the Korean War. He was discharged in 1953.

He never married and lived with his parents. His father died in 1974 and his mother in 2001. He crafted his last banjo in 2006 but still made repairs until recently, his family said.

He also continued to make model airplanes and flew them in competition through the 1990s, sometimes accompanied by his great-nephews.

Mr. Ivan is survived by sisters Elizabeth Mazda and Mary DiSalvatore, three nephews, and a niece.

Friends may call from 9:30 to 11 a.m. today, with a Masonic service at 10 a.m., at Pennsylvania Burial Co., 1327 S. Broad St. Burial will be in Edgewood Memorial Park, Glen Mills.

Memorial donations may be made to the Mummers Museum, 1100 S. Second St., Philadelphia 19147.