By the 20th Century, times were still lean for many Americans and cigars gained even more popularity.

a cigar box fiddle after studying violin pictures in the Sears Catalog. The story, based on the life of Cajun fiddler Canray Fontenot, details the entire building process. "Canray said that he really wanted a fiddle when he was a little boy," Doucet told us, "and an uncle or somebody told him to use a cigar box. It was somewhat 'common knowledge' for them to build instruments like this," she said. Fontenot and the fictional Felix both used a tree branch as a bow, pine tar as resin and screen wire as strings (although Felix eventually replaced the
screen wire with old strings from his uncle's fiddle.)

The Great Depression of the 1930s saw a resurgence of homemade musical instruments. Times were hard in the American south and for entertainment sitting on the front porch singing away their blues was a popular pastime. Musical instruments were beyond the means of everybody, but an old cigar box, a piece of broom handle and a couple wires from the screen door and a guitar was born.