Recently I looked at the history of the Hammond organ/Leslie speaker industry feud and got some very kind feedback. So, here is a look at other two companies in the audio business, and how one individual (shared by both firms) helped shape the sound you hear: the sound you hear on your home stereo, in recording studios, at the movie theater, the speakers your favorite guitarist or bassist uses ... and the audio system at concerts. This story doesn't have quite the human drama of Laurens Hammond/Donald Leslie - but nonetheless is a story worth telling.
The birth of modern high-fidelity audio in the 20th Century can be traced back to the rise of radio around WW-I, which threatened the success of silent-film movie theaters. Eventually "talking pictures" spawned by the radio revolution premiered by the late 20's and AT&T's Western Electric set about creating sound systems for theaters. Those early models became a success .... alas, just as the Depression set in, and by 1936 Western Electric wanted out. They sold the business to a group of young engineers: George Carrington, Mike Conrow and Alvis Ward (who believed he had installed a sound system "in every East Texas theater"). They named their purchase the "All Technical Service Company" - Altec for short.
But their growth was hampered by a lack of manufacturing ... when fate smiled upon them in 1941 in the form of a nearly bankrupt Los Angeles audio manufacturer- the Lansing Manufacturing Company. Purchased for $50,000, the new outfit became known as Altec Lansing which spent some of its early years also working for the Navy on magnetic detection equipment after WW-II began. But soon Altec Lansing become synonymous with its Voice of the Theater systems (center photo) which were a staple in American movie theaters - and some remain in service to this day.
Perhaps the best asset from the purchase Altec made in 1936 was the founder of its acquisition: Illinois native James Martini, who later changed his name to James B. Lansing (photo left) in 1927 at his wife's suggestion, and who first worked as a radio engineer and then for the Baldwin loudspeaker outfit before founding his first company with his business partner Ken Decker. It was Decker's death from a plane crash in 1939 (that left Lansing without his partner's business acumen, which Lansing was deficient in) that helped lead to their financial difficulties. When he sold out in 1941, Lansing was given a 5-year contract to remain as Altec Lansing VP of Engineering.
Altec Lansing over time produced audio systems for recording studios (Abbey Road was one), home audio speakers as well as sound systems for concert halls. Years later, it was their speakers that were used in 1969 at the Woodstock Festival. But by the 1980's, their star had fallen: not only due to increased competition from home and abroad, but when the original founders sold the company in 1958 the new corporate owners had trouble servicing its debt (both bad debt as well as the financing of the purchase) and sales went down over time as a result of the lack of attention resulting from the financial situation.
By the year 2000, Altec Lansing's Professional Products division was gone. The remnants of the company today make products for the computer industry: InMotion speakers for the iPod as well as speakers and headphones for several PC manufacturers.
Meanwhile (after his 5-year contract ran out in 1946) James Lansing decided to form his own company again - this time naming it the James B. Lansing Sound Company, or by its familiar name (photo right) JBL for short. The first JBL speakers were based on existing Altec Lansing designs, but soon Lansing's expertise led to innovations: in particular, his use of Alnico magnets made by Arnold Manufacturing.
In the burgeoning home stereo speaker market, James Lansing became one of its early legends - along with Vincent Salmon of Jensen, Paul Klipsch and Rudy Bozak (of Klipsch and Bozak, respectively) and Henry Kloss of Acoustic Research (and years later, KLH).
JBL speakers were especially prized in the recording studio: JBL 4320's were used as playback systems for many a top-grade studio. And Leo Fender began to use the JBL D130 speaker in many of his amplifiers, paving the way for JBL to become a major speaker supplier on-stage for guitarists and bassists. Finally, they achieved perhaps their most significance as the rock music era took hold: all of those huge black sound system boxes you saw at concert halls/arenas over the years either had JBL's in them (or if not, then Altecs).
In 1969 the company was sold to the Harman-Kardon Company, led by another audio pioneer Dr. Sidney Harman (the husband of California congresswoman Jane Harman). Today JBL also sells speakers for the computer and iPod market, as well as the automobile industry (Toyota most prominently).
As mentioned, there were many early stereo speaker innovators - and others who specialized in other areas. Dr. Amar Bose is a somewhat more recent innovator whose company's products extend into more than one arena. Yet it's difficult to find someone whose legacy affects audio systems found in home stereo, movie theaters, recording studios, musical equipment amplifiers and PA systems across the western world than James B. Lansing. By all rights, that individual should be a well-known figure - but he is a largely forgotten figure for a reason.
Alas, the company's founder never lived to see this success. James Lansing had problems that might described as being bi-polar today: for example, secretaries arriving to work on Monday morning might find him sleeping on a sofa in the ladies' lounge (after working all weekend). Although he was an excellent engineer and salesman: he was a poor businessman, and after business/personal problems began to mount: just over sixty years ago (September, 1949) James B. Lansing committed suicide (via hanging) at home. .... at only age forty-seven. Nine years later, the Audio Engineering Society awarded one of its very few posthumous Citations to Lansing "for contributions to loudspeaker design."
Perhaps the most appropriate song to feature in this essay: should be one that I heard at my first rock concert, where I would have listened to a sound system powered by one of these two companies. Having just turned fourteen, I saw Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden in New York nearly forty years ago: on September 19, 1970 - a Saturday 2:00 PM matinée (they also had an 8:00 PM show). Although not their first gig in New York - Robert Plant asked if anyone had seen them previously at Carnegie Hall or Central Park? - it was their first show at the Garden, which they went on to play numerous times that decade. Soon Zep were to move away from their blues roots and in a direction I didn't care for (and thus I lost interest them) but this show - a few weeks before the release of Led Zeppelin III - was a good first concert for one to attend, and the sound system was first-rate.
My favorite song from that day was What Is and What Should Never Be (fair-use extract below) which you can hear the BBC studio version of it below.
And if you say to me tomorrow
Oh, what fun it all would be!
Then what's to stop us, pretty baby?
But what is and what should never be?
Catch the wind, see us spin
sail away, leave today
way up high in the sky
But the wind won't blow
you really shouldn't go
it only goes to show:
That you will be mine
by taking our time ...oooh