History of French American Reeds

produced their reeds was unavailable due to the war. After an unsuccessful attempt to grow cane in Arizona, Mario adapted and formulated a solution: plastic reeds. Upon the invention of the plastic reed, many in the music industry scoffed at Mario’s idea. How could a piece of thin plastic have the same quality and resonance as a piece of fine French cane? The scoffing ended when Benny Goodman came to Mario’s side, again offering praise to Maccaferri and his latest invention. The plastic reeds soon became the popular and endorsed choice of many Big Band stars. The plastic reed was just the beginning of Mario’s career in the plastics industry. With his ability to foresee a window of opportunity, Mario invented the next piece of ingenious plastic work: the plastic clothespin. During the summer of 1944 when the Maccaferris were at their vacation home in the country, Maria noticed that she did not have enough clothespins so she asked Mario to go to the market in the village and buy some. When Mario asked the shopkeeper about clothespins, the shopkeeper replied that it was wartime and there were no clothespins to be had. Mario returned home and told Maria that he was going to the plant and would be back soon. That night, Mario brought home six prototypes for the plastic clothespin. After Maria hung her silk slip out to dry, she noticed two holes in it from the clothespins. The next day, Mario perfected the design and the plastic clothespin was born. Mario was able to foresee that a demand for the clothespin existed, and he sought to supply it as quickly as possible.

Mario eagerly began to market the clothespins, and they became extremely successful. With the war in Europe, consumer goods were incredibly hard to come by and the people were eager to buy the clothespins. The clothespin market grew to the point that millions were produced daily. There was not even enough time to package them due to the fact that some retail stores would come every morning and fill large barrels with clothespins. This led the Maccaferris to establish Mastro Plastics Corporation, which would produce all of Maccaferri’s plastic creations that were to come. Once World War II was over, consumer goods became available and interest in the plastic clothespin fell; however, Maccaferri had already began to turn his attention towards his newest project: plastic tiles. As the soldiers returned to the States, houses were built at an alarming rate. Maccaferri improved the design and added the beveled edges to the plastic wall tile mold and began to produce millions of bath and kitchen tiles. All of the homes that were erected across the United States began to use the Maccaferri tiles.

Mario would return to the origins of his plastic creation, the musical world, for his next undertaking. Maccaferri next sought to integrate the plastics and musical world to a greater degree with the invention of a plastic instrument. The first plastic instrument Mario tried was the plastic ukulele.