I am pretty sure the first time was watching "Hee Haw" yrs ago... and it might have been Roy Clark playing it.

I might have seen one on Hee Haw too.  BUT, I for sure remember hearing a mandolin on Maggie May by Rod Stewart back in 1971 - the solo at the end.  Probably the single most listened to bit of mandolin playing in history.

i really don't remember clearly. here in Spain there it was a great mandolin tradition (although it's body being little bit different). it brings me back a lot of memories of traditional bands from the inner part of Spain, where it is an integral part of the performance. genres as important as "jota" feature almost always the mandolin. also the "Tuna" (not the fish!) tradition from the University students.

Also, as i was really young we used to travel a lot with the family to Portugal, where they play a lot of instruments very close to the mandolin. it is difficult to know which one was the first time!!!!

nowadays i work almost daily with a mandolin player during the summer playing cheesy classical music

Back in the early 1950's my Grandma bought a used mandolin ... as I recall I didn't care for the sound, it had too many strings to play, and, they were hard to push down.  I didn't develop an appreciation for the mandolin until many years later.

'Course, today I wish I had that first instrument!

Ray

The first time I heard mandolin was in the late 50's, played by Arthur Smith on the Arthur Smith Show, broadcast from Charlotte NC. 

When did I first hear a mandolin? Thats a tough one to answer. I was a little kid and it was probably on my parents neighbors porch where we would get together to sing. This was in western Maryland more than 50 years ago.

Grateful Dead  

American Beauty. Ripple and Friend of the Devil.

It wasn't til years later that I realized you could just go out a buy yourself an instrument and learn how to play. I was always just in awe of people who could play an instrument but never really thought about giving it a shot until I was much older.  

Mine is a somewhat similar story. Although I'm sure that I heard the mandolin at some point or another, it was the Garcia/Grisman album, which I discovered in 1992, that really blew me away and led me to seek out more mandolin music, and soon after, learn to play.

I've heard mandolins in various music all my life. But the first time I noticed the Mandolin sound and asked about it was at a Bluegrass festival in Lafayette Indiana in 2003. In July of 2010 I decided to buy a basic Kentucky KM-254 and start taking lessons.

Now that I can play a little I am horribly afflicted by Mandolin Acquisition Syndrome. I just haven't decided on what to get next... a nice F style or an electric.... or maybe a resonator.

I don't know when I first heard a mando.  Possibly as a kid watching "Lady and the Tramp."

I have been playing the mando for 30 years and I don't even remember the first time I heard Bill Monroe playing the mando.