Frank Beacham's Journal

On this day in 1948 — 73 years ago — Columbia Records unveiled the 33 RPM Long Play record at a news conference at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City

On this day in 1948 — 73 years ago — Columbia Records unveiled the 33 RPM Long Play record at a news conference at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

Peter Goldmark, head research scientist at CBS Labs, led the team that developed the long play record. Though research began in 1941, it was interrupted by World War II and resumed again in 1945.

The new format could hold a maximum of 23 minutes of music per side versus the three minutes that could be squeezed onto a 78 RPM disc.

In the photo, Peter Goldmark works on the LP record

On June 18, 1923 — 98 years ago today — the first Checker Cab rolled off the line at the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Remember the Checker Cab, one of the most comfortable and reliable taxi cabs ever built?

On June 18, 1923 — 98 years ago today — the first Checker Cab rolled off the line at the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Morris Markin, founder of Checker Cab, was born in Smolensk, Russia, and began working when he was only 12 years old. At 19, he immigrated to the United States and moved to Chicago, where two uncles lived. After opening his own tailor’s shop, Markin also began running a fleet of cabs and an auto body shop, the Markin Auto Body Corporation.

In 1921, after loaning $15,000 to help a friend’s struggling car manufacturing business, the Commonwealth Motor Company, Markin absorbed Commonwealth into his own enterprise and completely halted the production of regular passenger cars in favor of taxis. The result was the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company, which took its name from a Chicago cab company that had hired Commonwealth to produce its vehicles.

By the end of 1922, Checker was producing more than 100 cars per month in Joliet, Illinois and some 600 of the company’s cabs were on the streets of New York City. Markin went looking for a bigger factory and settled on Kalamazoo, where the company took over buildings previously used by the Handley-Knight Company and Dort Body Plant car manufacturers. The first shipment of a Checker from Kalamazoo on June 18, 1923 stood out as a major landmark in the history of the company, which by then employed some 700 people.

During the Great Depression, Markin briefly sold Checker, but he bought it back in 1936 and began diversifying his business by making auto parts for other car companies. After converting its factories to produce war materiel during World War II, Checker entered the passenger car market in the late 1950s, with models dubbed the Superba and the Marathon. In its peak production year of 1962, Checker rolled out some 8,173 cars. The great majority of those were taxis.

Over the course of the 1970s, however, as economic conditions led taxi companies to convert smaller, more fuel-efficient standard passenger cars into cabs, the 4,000-pound gas-guzzling Checker came to seem more and more outdated.

Markin died in 1970, and in April, 1982, his son, David, announced that Checker would halt production of its famous cab that summer. Though the company still owns the Yellow and Checker cab fleets in Chicago and continued to make parts for other auto manufacturers, including General Motors, the last Checker Cab rolled off the line in Kalamazoo on July 12, 1982.

Since then, most taxi cabs have been poorly built, have little leg room and are uncomfortable. The Checker Cab is fondly remembered for what cabs can be.

On this day in 1884 — 137 years ago — the first roller coaster in America opened at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York

On this day in 1884 — 137 years ago — the first roller coaster in America opened at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.

Known as a switchback railway, it was the brainchild of LaMarcus Thompson. It traveled approximately six miles an hour and cost a nickel to ride. The new entertainment was an instant success and by the turn of the century there were hundreds of roller coasters around the country.

Coney Island, a name believed to have come from the Dutch Konijn Eilandt, or Rabbit Island, is a tract of land along the Atlantic Ocean discovered by explorer Henry Hudson in 1609. The first hotel opened at Coney Island in 1829 and by the post-Civil War years, the area was an established resort with theaters, restaurants and a race track.

Between 1897 and 1904, three amusement parks sprang up at Coney Island. They were Dreamland, Luna Park and Steeplechase. By the 1920s, Coney Island was reachable by subway and summer crowds of a million people a day flocked there for rides, games, sideshows, the beach and the two-and-a-half-mile boardwalk, completed in 1923.

The hot dog is said to have been invented at Coney Island in 1867 by Charles Feltman. In 1916, a nickel hot dog stand called Nathan’s was opened by a former Feltman employee and went on to become a Coney Island institution and international franchise. Today, Nathan’s is famous not only for its hot dogs, but its hot dog-eating contest. It is held each Fourth of July in Coney Island.

Roller coasters and amusement parks experienced a decline during the Great Depression and World War II, when Americans had less cash to spend on entertainment. Finally, in 1955, the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, signaled the advent of the modern theme park and a rebirth of the roller coaster. Disneyland’s success sparked a wave of new parks and coasters.

By the mid-1960s, the major amusement parks at Coney Island had shut down and the area acquired a seedy image. Nevertheless, Coney Island remained a tourist attraction and home to the Cyclone, a wooden coaster that made its debut there in 1927. Capable of speeds of 60 mph and with an 85-foot drop, the Cyclone is one of the country’s oldest coasters in operation today.

A new roller coaster, the $1.5 billion Thunderbolt, opened at Coney Island in 2014, but the Cyclone remains popular.

The above photo is of the switchback railway at Coney Island

On this day in 1922 — 99 years ago — President Warren G. Harding became the first president to have his voice transmitted by radio

On this day in 1922 — 99 years ago — President Warren G. Harding, while addressing a crowd at the dedication of a memorial site for the composer of the “Star Spangled Banner,” Francis Scott Key, became the first president to have his voice transmitted by radio.

The broadcast heralded a revolutionary shift in how presidents addressed the American public. It was not until three years later, however, that a president would deliver a radio-specific address. That broadcast featured President Calvin Coolidge.

In 1920, radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, announced that Harding was the official winner of that year’s presidential election. It was the first time election returns were broadcast live. Harding was an advocate for advanced technology. In 1923, he recorded a speech on an early “phonograph” that recorded and played back sound on wax discs.

Harding was also the first president to own a radio and was the first to have one installed in the White House. The way presidents have communicated with the public has changed with each advance in technology over the years. In early America, presidents such as George Washington and James Monroe traveled by horseback or carriage to address crowds in person and published statements in “broadsheets” and early newspapers.

Lincoln had the relative advantage of traveling by locomotive or using the telegraph. Telephones appeared in the White House in 1877 while Rutherford B. Hayes was president. Like Harding, President William Taft used the phonograph to distribute recordings of his speeches.

However, the most rapid advancement in communication for presidents occurred in the 20th century. With the invention of radio and television and then the internet, politicians could transmit information instantaneously. Franklin Roosevelt proved a master at utilizing the radio during the 1930s and 1940s with his “Fireside Chats.”

Many credit John F. Kennedy’s “telegenic” good looks and calm demeanor in televised presidential debates for his victory in the 1960 presidential election. Bill Clinton was the first president to set up a White House website. Improvements in communication technology have also allowed presidents to reach substantially greater numbers of their constituents.

In 1829, President Andrew Jackson spoke to approximately 10,000 people at his inauguration. Harding’s Francis Scott Key memorial dedication was heard by 125,000. President Coolidge’s inaugural radio address reached 23 million via the radio.

White House historians estimate that if George Washington had addressed a crowd of 1,000 people every day during his three month pre-inaugural tour of the country in 1789, he would have been heard by only 100,000 Americans.

In the above photo, Harding is shown in that first radio address

Photo by Pacific and Atlantic Photos, New York City

Jacques Cousteau was born 111 years ago today

Jacques Cousteau was born 111 years ago today.

Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française.

After an automobile accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau indulged his interest in the sea. In Toulon, where he was serving on the Condorcet, Cousteau carried out his first underwater experiments, thanks to his friend Philippe Tailliez who in 1936 lent him some Fernez underwater goggles — predecessors of modern swimming goggles.

His two sons, Jean-Michel (born 1938) and Philippe (1940–1979), took part in the adventures of the Calypso. In 1975, John Denver released the tribute song, "Calypso," on his album "Windsong," and on the B-side of his hit song, "I'm Sorry."

"Calypso" became a hit on its own and was later considered the new A-side, reaching #2 on the charts. Cousteau's legacy includes more than 120 television documentaries, more than 50 books and an environmental protection foundation with 300,000 members. He liked to call himself an "oceanographic technician."

Cousteau was, in reality, a sophisticated showman, teacher and lover of nature. His work permitted many people to explore the resources of the oceans. His work also created a new kind of scientific communication, criticized at the time by some academics.

The so-called "divulgationism," a simple way of sharing scientific concepts, was soon employed in other disciplines and became one of the most important characteristics of modern television broadcasting.

Cousteau died on June 25, 1997 at age 87.

Here is a short film on Cousteau’s work

On Cousteau’s birthday, here’s a personal remembrance of shooting video for his television show onboard the Calypso.

Cousteau had long recorded his documentaries and television programs on film, but in the mid-1970s he began using video.

While based in Miami, I formed one of the first small format video production companies. I got a call to shoot video for Jacques Cousteau and his son, Philippe, on the Calypso for The Cousteau Society.

Over a few months, we shot several segments with Jacques Cousteau on the Calypso. The main producer on the shoots was Philippe, who worked closely with his father on his film and video production.

On June 28, 1979, while the Calypso was on an expedition to Portugal, Philippe — Cousteau’s preferred and designated successor and with whom he had co-produced all his films since 1969 — died in a PBY Catalina flying boat crash in the Tagus river near Lisbon.

Jacques Cousteau was deeply affected by Philippe’s death and it was the last I worked with him. He then called his eldest son, the architect Jean-Michel Cousteau, to be at his side. Their collaboration lasted 14 years.

In the photos are Philippe Cousteau with his Eclair 16mm camera and Cousteau with his diving saucer.

On this day in 1752 — 269 years ago — Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm and collected a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite was struck by lightning

On this day in 1752 — 269 years ago — Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm and collected a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite was struck by lightning. It enabled him to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning.

Franklin became interested in electricity in the mid-1740s, a time when much was still unknown on the topic. He spent almost a decade conducting electrical experiments.

He coined a number of terms used today — including battery, conductor and electrician. He also invented the lightning rod — used to protect buildings and ships.

Born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Franklin was a son to a candle and soap maker named Josiah Franklin and his wife, Abiah Folger. They had 17 children. His formal education ended at age 10 and he went to work as an apprentice to his brother James, a printer.

In 1723, following a dispute with his brother, Franklin left Boston and ended up in Philadelphia, where he found work as a printer. Following a brief stint as a printer in London, Franklin returned to Philadelphia and became a successful businessman.

Franklin’s publishing ventures included the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard's Almanack, a collection of homespun proverbs advocating hard work and honesty in order to get ahead. The almanac, which Franklin first published in 1733 under the pen name Richard Saunders, included such wisdom as: "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

Whether or not Franklin followed this advice in his own life, he came to represent the classic American overachiever. Among other things, he developed a library, insurance company, city hospital and academy in Philadelphia that would later become the University of Pennsylvania.

Most significantly, Franklin was one of the founding fathers of the United States and had a career as a statesman that spanned four decades. He served as a legislator in Pennsylvania as well as a diplomat in England and France.

He is the only politician to have signed all four documents fundamental to the creation of the U.S.: the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris (1783) (which established peace with Great Britain) and the U.S. Constitution (1787).

Franklin died at age 84 on April 17, 1790 in Philadelphia. He remains one of the leading figures in U.S. history.

The Story of the Fortune Cookie

Ever wondered about the origins of the fortune cookie? They are almost certainly not Chinese.

The fortune cookie may trace to Japan, reported the New York Times, but they were made popular in America by Chinese or Japanese immigrants in the early 20th century. Several U.S. companies claim to have made the first fortune cookies.

The largest in the world is Wonton Food, Inc., based in New York City. The factory opened in Chinatown in 1973, but has since moved to Brooklyn. They make over 4.5 million fortune cookies each day. In 1992, the company introduced fortune cookies to China.

Until World War II, fortune cookies were known as "fortune tea cakes" — likely reflecting their origins in Japanese tea cakes.

Fortune cookies moved from being a confection dominated by Japanese-Americans to one dominated by Chinese-Americans sometime around World War II. One theory for why this occurred is because of the Japanese American internment during World War II, which forcibly put over 100,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps, including those who had produced fortune cookies. This gave an opportunity for Chinese manufacturers.

Fortune cookies before the early 20th century, however, were all made by hand. The fortune cookie industry changed dramatically after the fortune cookie machine was invented by Shuck Yee from Oakland, California.

The machine allowed for mass production of fortune cookies which subsequently allowed the cookies to drop in price to become the novelty and courtesy dessert many Americans are familiar with after their meals at most Chinese restaurants today.

Lester William Polsfuss — better known as Les Paul — was born 106 years ago today

Photo by Frank Beacham

Lester William Polsfuss — better known as Les Paul — was born 106 years ago today.

Paul was a jazz, country and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, which made the sound of rock and roll possible.

He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.

Paul’s innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing — all of which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s and they sold millions of records.

Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" along with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed.

Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss outside Milwaukee, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Though he took the stage name Les Paul, he used the nicknames Red Hot Red and Rhubarb Red.

While living in Wisconsin, he first became interested in music at age eight when he began playing the harmonica. After an attempt at learning the banjo, he began to play the guitar. It was during this time that he invented and patented a neck-worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play the harmonica hands-free while accompanying himself on the guitar.

Paul's device, worn by Bob Dylan, is still manufactured using his basic design.

By age thirteen, Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music singer, guitarist and harmonica player. While playing at Waukesha area drive-ins and roadhouses, Paul began his first experiment with sound.

Wanting to make himself heard by more people at the local venues, he wired a phonograph needle to a radio speaker, using that to amplify his acoustic guitar.

At age seventeen, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Texas Cowboys, and soon after he dropped out of high school to join Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis, Missouri, on KMOX.

Paul migrated to Chicago in 1934, where he continued to perform on radio. There he met pianist Art Tatum, whose playing influenced him to a career devoted to guitar rather than original plans of taking on the piano. His first two records were released in 1936. One was credited to "Rhubarb Red," Paul's hillbilly alter ego, and the other was as an accompanist for blues-artist, Georgia White. It was during this time that he began playing jazz and adopted his stage name.

Paul's jazz-guitar style was strongly influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt, whom he greatly admired. Following World War II, Paul sought out and befriended Reinhardt.

After Reinhardt's death in 1953, Paul furnished his headstone. One of Paul's prize possessions was a Selmer Maccaferri acoustic guitar given to him by Reinhardt's widow.

Paul formed a trio in 1937 with singer/rhythm guitarist Jim Atkins (older half-brother of guitarist Chet Atkins) and bassist/percussionist Ernie "Darius" Newton. They left Chicago for New York in 1939, landing a featured spot with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians radio show.

Chet Atkins later wrote that his brother, home on a family visit, presented the younger Atkins with an expensive Gibson archtop guitar that had been given to Jim Atkins by Les Paul. Chet recalled that it was the first professional-quality instrument he ever owned.

Paul was dissatisfied with acoustic-electric guitars and began experimenting at his apartment in Queens, NY with a few designs of his own. He created several versions of "The Log," which was nothing more than a length of common 4x4 lumber with a bridge, guitar neck and pickup attached.

For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone hollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body.

These instruments were constantly being improved and modified over the years, and Paul continued to use them in his recordings long after the development of his Les Paul Gibson model.

In 1945, Richard D. Bourgerie made an electric guitar pickup and amplifier for professional guitar player George Barnes. Bourgerie worked through World War II at Howard Radio Company making electronic equipment for the American military. Barnes showed the result to Les Paul, who then arranged for Bourgerie to have one made for him.

While experimenting in his apartment in 1940, Paul nearly died from electrocution. During two years of recuperation, he relocated to Hollywood, supporting himself by producing radio music and forming a new trio.

He was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly after the beginning of World War II, where he served in the Armed Forces Network. He performed on his own, and backed artists including Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters.

As a last-minute replacement for Oscar Moore, Paul played with Nat King Cole and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles on July 2, 1944. The recording, still available as Jazz at the Philharmonic, reveals Paul at the top of his game — both in his solid four to the bar comping in the style of Freddie Green and for the originality of his solo lines.

Paul's solo on 'Blues' is an astonishing tour de force and represents a memorable contest between himself and Nat “King” Cole. Much later in his career, Paul declared that he had been the victor and that this had been conceded by Cole.

His Body and Soul solo is a fine demonstration both of his admiration for and emulation of the playing of Django Reinhardt, as well as his development of some very original lines.

Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded together several times, including a 1945 #1 hit, "It's Been a Long, Long Time." In addition to backing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters and other artists, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their own on the Decca label in the late 1940s.

Paul was particularly enamored by the Andrews Sisters, who hired The Les Paul Trio as their opening act while they toured in 1946. Lou Levy, the sisters' manager and a music publishing giant of the big band era and beyond, once said, "Watching his fingers work was like watching a locomotive go."

The trio's longtime conductor, Vic Schoen, said of Les, "You could always count on him to come up with something no one else had thought of."

Maxene Andrews remembered, "It was wonderful having him perform with us. He'd tune into the passages we were singing and lightly play the melody, sometimes in harmony. We'd sing these fancy licks and he'd keep up with us note for note in exactly the same rhythm...almost contributing a fourth voice. But he never once took the attention away from what we were doing. He did everything he could to make us sound better."

Two Decca recordings from 1946 pairing Paul with The Andrews Sisters ("Rumors Are Flying" and "It's a Pity to Say Goodnight") exist today to well affirm such comments. Paul's many hits with wife, Mary Ford, recording her vocals in triplicate in the 1950s produced a sound eerily similar to the harmonious blend of The Andrews Sisters.

As Les Paul biographer Mary Alice Shaughnessy noted of Paul's association with The Andrews Sisters, "Les welcomed the opportunity to study them in full flight."

In January, 1948, Paul shattered his right arm and elbow in a near-fatal automobile accident on an icy Route 66 just west of Davenport, Oklahoma. Mary Ford was driving the Buick convertible, which rolled several times down a creek bed. They were on their way back from Wisconsin to Los Angeles after performing at the opening of a restaurant owned by Paul's father.

Doctors at Oklahoma City's Wesley Presbyterian Hospital told him that they could not rebuild his elbow so that he would regain movement. His arm would remain permanently in whatever position they placed it in. Their other option was amputation.

Paul instructed surgeons, brought in from Los Angeles, to set his arm at an angle — just under 90 degrees — that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. It took him nearly a year and a half to recover.

Although Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation with his idea of a solid body electric guitar. They showed no interest until Fender began marketing its Esquire, which later had a second pick-up added and became known as the Broadcaster (renamed Telecaster in 1952).

Paul later said he and Fender were close friends and shared the same workshop in Los Angeles. He said the pair conspired to get the major guitar companies to build their inventions.

Paul’s arrangement with Gibson persisted until 1961, when declining sales prompted Gibson to change the design without Paul's knowledge, creating a much thinner, lighter and more aggressive-looking instrument with two cutaway "horns" instead of one. Paul said he first saw the "new" Gibson Les Paul in a music-store window. He immediately disliked it.

Although his contract required him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not "his" instrument and asked Gibson to remove his name from the headstock. Others claimed that Paul ended his endorsement contract with Gibson during his divorce to avoid having his wife get his endorsement money.

At Paul's request, Gibson renamed the guitar "Gibson SG," which stands for "Solid Guitar." It became one of the company's best sellers. The original Gibson Les Paul-guitar design regained popularity when Eric Clapton began playing the instrument a few years later, although he also played an SG and an ES-335.

Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson and endorsed the original Gibson Les Paul guitar from that point onwards. His personal Gibson Les Pauls were much modified by him — Paul always used his own self-wound pickups and customized methods of switching between pickups on his guitars.

To this day, various models of Gibson Les Paul guitars are used all over the world by both novice and professional guitarists. A less-expensive version of the Gibson Les Paul guitar is also manufactured for Gibson's lower-priced Epiphone brand.

On January 30, 1962, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Paul a patent, Patent No. 3,018,680, for an "Electrical Music Instrument."

Paul had never been happy with the way his records sounded. During a post-recording session talk with Bing Crosby, the crooner suggested Paul try building his own recording studio so he might be able to get the sound he wanted.

At first Paul discounted the idea only to give it a few more minutes thought before deciding Crosby was right. Paul started his own studio in the garage of his home on Hollywood's North Curson Street. The studio drew many other famous vocalists and musicians who wanted the benefit of Paul's expertise. The home and studio are still standing, but both had been moved to Pasadena at some point after Paul no longer owned the home.

Paul met country-western singer Colleen Summers in 1945. They began working together in 1948, at which time she adopted the stage name Mary Ford. They were married in 1949. The couple's hits included "How High the Moon,""Bye Bye Blues," "Song in Blue," "Don'cha Hear Them Bells," "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" and "Vaya con Dios." These songs featured Ford harmonizing with herself.

Like Crosby, Paul and Ford used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than six inches from the singer's mouth. This produces a more-intimate, less-reverberant sound than is heard when a singer is one foot or more from the microphone.

When implemented using a cardioid-patterned microphone, it emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice due to a cardioid microphone's proximity effect and can give a more relaxed feel because the performer isn't working so hard. The result is a singing style which diverged strongly from unamplified theater-style singing, as might be heard in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.

Paul had hosted a fifteen-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics.

The show was recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood," "Little Rock Getaway," "Brazil" and "Tiger Rag." Over ten of these shows survive among old-time radio collectors today.

The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (also known as Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home) with "Vaya Con Dios" as a theme song.

Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine mouthwash, it was widely syndicated during 1954–1955, and was only five minutes (one or two songs) long on film, therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules.

Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards until his death.

During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, like a guitar sound or a voice. Paul has stated that the idea was to explain to the audience how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster.

In 1965, Paul went into semi-retirement, although he did return to the studio occasionally. He and Ford had divorced in December, 1962, as she could no longer cope with the traveling lifestyle their act required of them.

Paul's most-recognizable recordings from then through the mid-1970s were an album for London Records/Phase 4 Stereo, Les Paul Now (1968), on which he updated some of his earlier hits. It was backed by some of Nashville's celebrated studio musicians, a meld of jazz and country improvisation with fellow guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins, Chester and Lester (1976), for RCA Victor.

In 1987, Paul underwent heart surgery. He then returned to active live performance, continuing into his 90s even though he often found it painful to play the guitar because of arthritis in his hands.

In 2006, at age 90, he won two Grammys at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album, Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played.

He also performed every Monday night, accompanied by a trio which included guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Paul Nowinksi (and later, Nicki Parrott) and pianist John Colaianni. He originally played at Fat Tuesdays, and later at the Iridium Jazz Club, currently on Broadway in the Times Square area of New York City.

Les and his trio held court at the Iridium Jazz Club in midtown Manhattan for many years, playing every Monday night. Often, a wide array of other artists would appear and sit in with or sing in front of the trio. A tribute trio still plays the Monday dates.

On August 13, 2009, at age 94, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York.

In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit."

In 2005, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his development of the solid-body electric guitar. In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Here is a segment from “Chasing Sound,” a documentary about Les Paul

Paul McCartney receives a custom-made left-handed Les Paul Lite guitar presented to him by Les Paul, May 3, 1988, New York City

A personal remembrance of Les Paul on his 106th birthday

Les Paul and Frank Beacham

A personal remembrance of Les Paul on his 106th birthday.

In the late 1980s, when I lived in Los Angeles, my landlord was a former country musician and radio star named Zeke Manners.

He took a liking to me and we used to talk for hours. He was far more interested in my listening to his old war stories than collecting the rent.

Among the many songs that he wrote, Zeke penned one called “Los Angeles.” It became well known after it was recorded by Les Paul. Subsequently, Zeke and Les had become good friends. Their friendship also included an intense interest in electronic gadgetry.

Zeke had an original “Octopus” eight-track recorder in his apartment, just like the one Les had. The machine was the size of large refrigerator and dominated his living room.

Before I moved to New York City, Zeke insisted that I meet Les Paul when I arrived on the East coast. I only knew of Les by reputation. As a kid, I had a Les Paul Jr. guitar and had taken guitar lessons with the Les Paul songbook. I had also watched Les and Mary on TV.

When I got to the Big Apple, Zeke was good to his word and arranged for me to meet Les. We hit it off immediately. Les was disarmingly friendly and unpretentious, and a very funny man. We became fast friends and stayed that way until he died.

I began recording hours of interviews with Les and thought I had a pretty good understanding of his life. Then one night, a few years later, he asked me to interview him on March 3, 2003 before a music industry audience at Iridium, his new club in Manhattan. I was prepared and knew the right questions. But before the interview began, Les whispered to me:

“Frank, I know you know all my stories, but tonight I’m going to change the answers. Don’t let it throw you.”

Before I could react, we were on the stage.

Les then proceeded to answer every question a different way than he had earlier. He changed the stories and facts. He totally threw me. It reminded me of something Orson Welles had once told me: “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”

From that point on, I never knew truth from fiction from Les. But I figured he had earned the right to re-write his own history.

One night, I was in Les’s dressing room at Iridium and an older lady came in. He introduced her as Anita O’Day, the great jazz singer. He asked me to take care of her at the bar and escort her down to the stage when he called on her to perform.

I honored Les’s wishes, but it was near the end of her life, and Ms. O’Day’s memory of events was very fuzzy. Les picked up the ball and recalled every detail. He carried the show beautifully, as always.

Les had severe arthritis and often his fingers were so stiff before a performance I was amazed he could play the guitar at all. Many times, he gave me large vials of arthritis pills to keep for him while he performed on stage. Whenever anyone was introduced to Les as a doctor, the subject quickly turned to cures for arthritis.

Through the years, I had a FAX machine in my small apartment. When it would go off in the middle of the night, I knew it was usually a message from Les. He seemed to never sleep, and often called all-night radio shows in the wee hours.

Toward the end, Les wore hearing aides — big ones. I will never forget him at a sound check ordering the sound man to make minute changes in the audio wearing those hearing aides. I suspect Les could hear better than the sound operator.

It was at his 90th birthday tribute at Carnegie Hall that it hit me how important Les was. I had only known him as a friend before that. But suddenly he became bigger than life itself. From that point on, there were lines of kids asking him to sign guitars and give them autographs.

One funny comment that sealed our friendship early on. I told Les that I had a Les Paul Jr. guitar and had taken his lessons as a kid. But, I said, I still can’t play. It didn’t work.

Les looked at me and snapped: “Frank, that’s because you have no fucking talent.”

He nailed it cold and that’s why I liked him so much and miss him to this day.

Zeke Manners, the friendly landlord

Anita O’Day, Newport Jazz Festival, 1958

Photo by Bert Stern

Fax from Les in the middle of the night

Les Paul is interviewed by Frank Beacham on the stage at Iridium in New York City, March 3, 2003.

This was the night that Les changed all his answers to questions about his life.

Les Paul - The Interviews with Frank Beacham

Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, was born 154 years ago today

Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, was born 154 years ago today.

Wright was not only an architect, but a interior designer, writer and educator who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 532 works. He believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment — a philosophy he called organic architecture.

This philosophy was best exemplified by his design for Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture."

Wright was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture and developed the concept of the Usonian home, his unique vision for urban planning in the United States. His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels and museums.

Wright also designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. He authored 20 books and many articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio.

Already well known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time."

He died at age 91 in 1959.

Fallingwater is a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 43 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

The home was built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains.

Hailed by Time Magazine shortly after its completion as Wright's "most beautiful job," it is listed among Smithsonian's Life List of 28 places "to visit before you die." It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

In 1991, members of the American Institute of Architects named the house the "best all-time work of American architecture" and in 2007, it was ranked twenty-ninth on the list of America's Favorite Architecture.