Donald J. Leslie, Inventor Of Popular Speaker For Organs, 93

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It was reported from Los Angeles, Californai, that Donald James
Leslie, who created and manufactured a speaker that refined the sound
of the Hammond organ and helped popularize electronic music, died on
September 2, 2004, at his home in Los Angeles, at the age of 93.

He died of natural causes, according to Wendell Cabot, owner of Cabot
& Sons Mortuary in Pasadena, California.

Mr. Leslie was captivated with the sound of the Hammond organ at the
furniture store in downtown Los Angeles where he repaired radios. In
the store's large showroom, the organ, introduced in 1935, sounded
much like a theater or church pipe organ.

But Mr. Leslie was unimpressed with the organ's sound in the confined
space of his home.

He began tinkering with devices to make the instrument sound more like
labyrinthine pipe organs, using mechanics and electronics experience
from a series of jobs, including one at the Naval Research
Laboratories in Washington, D.C., during World War II.

When Mr. Leslie presented Hammond with an organ speaker that he had
built by hand, the company rejected it - and turned him down for a
job.

He later founded Electro Music in Pasadena to manufacture his speaker,
which he called a Leslie speaker. It made electronic music more
popular during the 1940's by improving the sound of organs and
keyboards.

It was not until the 1980's that Hammond bought Mr. Leslie's speaker,
which is now built by Hammond Suzuki USA.

Mr. Leslie and Laurens Hammond, who engineered the Hammond organ, were
inducted into the American Music Conference Hall of Fame in 2003.

From AP