The life of Clarence Leo Fender, widely credited by legendary musicians from every genre for revolutionizing the music industry with his invention of the Telecaster, the Stratocaster and Fender Precision Base guitars, has been well documented in books, articles and films.
And now, a local theater company is telling the story of Fender, arguably the most famous inventor ever to come from Fullerton, on stage, in way that is both unique and fitting.
“The Leo Fender Project,” an original musical geared toward children, is being performed at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton throughout the week for groups of school children and on Saturday morning, Feb. 18, for the public.
The project received a $5,000 California Humanities Grant, which are awarded to local public humanities projects that support new or underserved audiences.
The 55-minute long musical, which covers several significant events in Fender’s life from childhood to his death in 1991, is being produced by the Electric Company Theater, the resident theater company of The Muck.
“I don’t know if we necessarily planned to write such a traditional musical about this man’s life, but that is what it has turned in to,” said Callie Prendiville Johnson, who is the theater company’s co-artistic director, along with her husband, Brian Johnson. “We knew we wanted something about music and we knew we wanted something about local history and we knew that the Leo story really combines those things in a cool way.”
Fender, who graduated from Fullerton Union High School, opened a radio repair shop in the downtown before getting interested in guitars and amplifiers and starting his Fender Electric Instrument Company in Fullerton. He invented and built musical instruments and equipment in town for the rest of his life.
In researching Fender’s life, Prendiville Johnson said she read several books written about the inventor, including some by his former employees. She also visited the Leo Fender Gallery at the Fullerton Museum, which offers a wealth of information about Fender, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
The production features eight songs, all written by Wes Chavez, who has collaborated with Prendiville Johnson multiple times over the last decade.
“Callie would just send me these ideas,” Chavez said about the creating process. “We would send things back forth. It was all based off of Callie’s research and trying to understand the tone of every scene that she had.”
“The Leo Fender Project” features five performers, including the part of Fender, which is played by Ron Gutterman.
Not wanting to give away too much about the production, Prendiville Johnson did say there would be one live musical number featuring electric guitars.
The scenes performed in the musical mostly recreate instances that played a formative role in Fender’s future inventions.
For example, Fender suffered two tragic accidents, one resulting in the loss of sight in one eye and the other resulting in hearing loss. The injuries meant Fender was considered unfit for military service, so when most of his peers were serving in World War II, the inventor was home in Fullerton, often tinkering with amplification systems.
“That setback winds up being the thing that allows him to (invent),” Prendiville Johnson said.
Chavez said he doesn’t think children will struggle with the production’s more mature topics.
“I think kids are way smarter than we give them credit for, so I think some of these heavier issues within the show are just the reality of life,” he said, “and I think if it’s told in a pretty effective way, I don’t think kids are beyond understanding it.”
Tickets for Saturday’s public performance at 11:30 a.m. are $25 and are available online at electriccompanytheatre.org.
