Les Paul Remembered In Exhibit Opening Monday

MIDTOWN, NY – Legendary guitarist Les Paul – born Lester William Polsfuss on June 9, 1915, in Waukesha, Wisconsin and known for his distinctive cross-genre twang as well as his guitar and studio innovations – spent the last 14 years of his life in residency at the Iridium, a nightclub in Midtown Manhattan’s Theater District located underneath the (almost) equally legendary Ellen’s Stardust Diner.

It’s the fitting venue for a photography exhibition documenting his life, “Les Paul Thru the Lens,” which opens on Monday, Oct. 7 at the Iridium, at 1650 Broadway on the corner of 51st Street.

To commemorate the occasion, on Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m. the Iridium will host an “Evening About Les” featuring Chris Lentz, a longtime friend and Paul chronicler, and Michael Braunstein, head of the Les Paul Foundation.

At The Iridium

“He filled the room, two shows every Monday night,” said Ellen Hart, the former Miss Subway and iconic New Yorker who owns both Ellen’s and the Iridium. “He always kept going. He was a soldier.”

Audience members were not only treated to Paul’s music on Mondays, but to the tales of a man who had spent a lifetime in the entertainment business.

“One of my favorite Les stories goes back to World War II, the American army was going through Germany, and they grabbed this machine that had reel-to-reel tape in it,” recalled Scott Barbarino, artistic director at Ellen’s and the Iridium.

“They didn’t know what to do with it, so they sent it back to the United States and gave it to FDR, and he didn’t really know what to do with it – it was a brand new machine – so he gave it to Bing Crosby as a gift. Bing Crosby gave that machine to Les to figure out how to use it. And man did he use it – that machine was one of the things that helped him figure out multitracking,” Barbarino continued.

“That atomic sound in the fifties and sixties – everything ‘atomic’ was good back then - that [machine] was how he figured it out, and all those records like ‘How High The Moon,’ that was what got the kids to run out and buy a Les Paul guitar.”

The Gibson classic, introduced in 1952 and named for Paul, is the instrument of choice for a range of rockers, from Paul McCartney to Slash, of Guns N’ Roses. Both stopped by to see Paul during his years at the Iridium.

“He could jam – he was a musician’s musician,” Barbarino said. “And he was wickedly funny, he always had a joke.

“I sang a song there with him,” Hart said, joining Paul for either “Over the Rainbow” or Fats Waller's “Ain’t Misbehavin’” – or maybe both.

“He was terrific, and he was also very kind. There’s no other Les Paul around these days that I can think of,” she added.

Paul passed away in 2009 at the age of 94.

“Les played up to four weeks before he passed,” Barbarino said. “‘I’m of the age now that I don’t buy unripe bananas,’ he’d joke.”

“We kept expecting he would be back,” Hart said.

Why The Iridium?

“Les had gone into retirement and was having some health issues,” explained Barbarino. “His doctor suggested that he start to play again, once a week to keep himself busy, and so he started playing at Fat Tuesday,” Barbarino continued, referring to an East Side jazz club that closed back in 1995.

“The Iridium opened up across from Lincoln Center, and [manager] Ron Stern knew that Les was at Fat Tuesday – which was closing – and he was able to get Les to come to the Iridium, which was underneath the Empire Hotel at the time.”

The nightclub would soon move from the Upper West Side to Midtown, underneath Ellen’s, where it’s located today.

“He knew this neighborhood,” Hart said. “This was one of his necks of the woods. The Iridium was Havana-Madrid in the 1940s, and it's where Dean Martin supposedly met Jerry Lewis. That’s where they formed their team, right here at 1650 Broadway.”

“Les Paul Thru the Lens” will be at the Iridium through Nov. 18.

Is there an icon still on stage today in the city who Patch should cover? Email michael.mcdowell@patch.com.