Les Paul to Donate to Wis Museum

[Janice Brooks]

Les Paul to Donate to Wis. Museum


WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) - Electric guitar pioneer Les Paul plans to give memorabilia from his musical career to Waukesha County's historical society for an exhibit.
"This is going to be terribly exciting," Paul said recently. "I am putting one guitar in the Smithsonian (Institution) but most everything else will be going to Waukesha."


The county's historical society is turning an old courthouse into an exhibit dedicated to the 87-year-old jazz musician, who was born not far from the courthouse and lived on nearby Paul Street.


The museum needs to raise $1 million for setup costs before an opening date can be set.


"I keep telling people at the shows that I have a road named for me back in my hometown of Waukesha," Paul said. "I would like to see that. Maybe I will make it into a toll road to help out."


Paul plans to donate some 2,000 records, countless piles of original sheet music and the telephone earpiece he used as a makeshift speaker for electric guitar experiments.


"I told them they can back the truck up to my house and take it," said Paul, who now lives in New Jersey.


Paul pioneered the use of multitrack tape recording by inventing the first eight-track tape recorder in the 1940s. He also is credited with inventing the electric guitar.


The Les Paul Trio's hits include "Tennessee Waltz," "Vaya Con Dios," "Mockin' Bird Hill" and "How High the Moon."



------------------
Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047

[chas smith R.I.P.]

He is/was a very innovative man, but he didn't invent the electric guitar.