Les Paul's bootleg apartment radio station / jam session from the 40s

Modern Mechanix blog has a cool re-print of Les Paul's very bootleg radio station / jam session he set up in his apartment building in the 40s. The pictures are great, expecially "Static" the cat, who you can see after the jump.  Great, now I have to get another cat named "Static." 

For those who don't know, Les Paul is a legendary jazz guitarist who was responsible for the development of the electric guitar.

Comments

[Ray Sweeney]

Les Paul is one of the greatest innovators in today's music. Every once in a while I hear him on Joey Reynold's radio show and am reminded what a giant he is.

Ray Sweeney
Kaneohe, Hawaii

[Some guy]

I don't want to diminish Les Paul's achievements in any way, in fact I love this guy and owe him much but I have to set this straight:

Les Paul suggested and invented an incredible amount of things that changed the music production forever (sound-on-sound recording, later multitrack overdub recording, tape delay...) but he was not "responsible for the development of the electric guitar."

The first solid body electric made by Gibson was named after him (1952) but that was decades after Rickenbacker invented the principle, years after the first mass-produced electric guitar (Audiovox) and years after Leo Fender sold his electric lapsteel guitars and amplifiers and finally the first solid body guitar (1948). He was amongst the first who were obsessed by the idea and if Epiphone and Gibson wouldn't have treated him like a jerk, he could have been "the inventor" but like many other technologies, the electric (solid body) guitar has many fathers and Les Paul is a contributor.

[rikomatic]

Thanks for the clarification. As I have learned most inventions have many contributors to the point that its hard to point to any person as "the inventor". Malcolm Gladwell has a great article about this in the latest New Yorker.