Donald Leslie

Donald Leslie developed ( Donald James Leslie and Don Leslie; ; born April 13, 1911 in Danville, Illinois † 2 September 2004 in Altadena, California ) and produced the eponymous Leslie speakers, a rotary speaker, which expanded the sound of the Hammond organ and established in popular music.

Leslie experimented early on with additional devices and speakers to improve the sound of the Hammond organ almost sinusoidal. He had experience as an electronics engineer, he gained in previous jobs. Among other things, he worked in a repair shop for radios and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC during the Second World War.

As the Leslie organ manufacturer in 1940 his Hammond organ handmade speaker introduced, the company rejected him. Thereupon, Leslie, the speaker decided in his own company Electro Music, Pasadena to manufacture themselves. The Leslie speaker experienced his commercial breakthrough through the use of pop and rock music of the 1960s and 1970s. Only in the 1980s, Leslie products were officially supported by Hammond. Today, the successor company Hammond Suzuki USA builds itself rotary speaker with the brand name Leslie.

Leslie was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Music Conference 2003.