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CHAPTER 2

The Early Years

Leo was not the type of man who dwelled on the past. Nor did he speak about his childhood, unless he was provoked. So, that is exactly what I did!

Over the years, I coaxed Leo countless times to tell me his stories, either over dinner or while on a cruise, and usually after some persistence he did talk. It was fun seeing him just being Leo, thinking and being quiet. I would ask him a question and watch as he reluctantly thought back. I prodded him for more, and then I would watch his face finally light up with a wonderful story. His stories would make us either laugh or cry, but mostly laugh! So, let’s start at the beginning.

Leo Fender was born in a barn, literally.

On the corner of Harbor Boulevard and La Palma Avenue, in an unincorporated area of Orange County that was then called Fullerton, stood the Lone Oak Farm. It was named the Lone Oak Farm because it was largely dirt and vegetable patches, except for one huge oak tree that stood near the center.

It was a simple farm, with long rows of carrots, celery, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, and lots of other vegetables and fruits. There were many other farms nearby, mainly orange groves and strawberry patches. A flatbed truck was parked near the farm’s only structure, a wooden barn which housed the tools and workbenches. It also housed a family—until they got around to buying more lumber and building a house.

The original Fender Radio Shop on Harbor Boulevard

Inside that barn, on August 10, 1909, Clarence Monte Fender and Harriet Elvira Wood became parents of a little boy, whom they named Clarence Leonidas Fender, or “Leo.” This couple needed Leo because there was a lot of work to do on the farm.

Little did Mr. and Mrs. Fender know that one day this boy would go on to win a Grammy Award, Academy of Country Music Awards, and a Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award. He would be the Grand Marshal at parades and would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They had never heard of rock and roll. Nobody had—because it had not been invented yet. The world needed Leo to pave the way.

As the family grew with the addition of a sister, Wilda, the place became known as the Fender Farm. It fronted a street that would one day be named Harbor Boulevard. Just across the street, a guy named Karl Karcher would one day start his very first hamburger joint, and call it Carl’s Jr.

Just a short drive south on Harbor Boulevard, another guy would start the world’s first theme park. His name was Walt Disney. To top it off, just a few blocks to the north, in a little radio repair shop located at 107 N. Harbor Boulevard, Leo Fender would one day invent the world’s first modern electric guitar.

You will never find a street like Harbor Boulevard anywhere else in the world. If you want to do something great, I suggest you do it on Harbor Boulevard. There is something magical about that street!

Leo in front of his business

Harbor Boulevard was the place where Leo grew up and was taught a strong, strict work ethic. He was given chores to do from the moment he could walk. When he turned five, he was sent off to Orangethorpe Elementary School a few blocks to the north. He loved going to school because, the moment he got home, there were more chores. He had to hoe the ground into long furrows, plant the seeds, water the crops, pick and clean the vegetables, and carefully pack and load them onto the family’s flatbed truck.

Leo had a very strict father and mother. The German traits of the family taught him to be thrifty and hard working. Leo was taught that you really should not take too much pleasure in life. You should always be working.

It was a different age. There was no time for Little League baseball, skate boards, or lollygagging around. Leo only went to church a few times, and, when he heard that the treasurer had taken off with the congregation’s money, Leo announced that, if this is how Christians behaved, he did not want anything to do with it. Church was not for him. Leo turned his focus to his work.

Leo kept the fences in repair and did any other chore that came along. He winced when his Father often told him, “Leo, you are only as good as the work that you do!” Leo grew up in a family that was too busy to fuss over birthdays. Christmas was a meager affair. Imagine never having a birthday party. This was not the kind of love that every boy needed, but Leo had a home, and plenty of good, fresh farm food to eat.

When Leo was about seven or eight, tragedy struck. It was dark, and Leo was washing down the family’s truck. It had been used to take a load of vegetables to the market, and was filthy from squashed tomatoes and stray leaves of lettuce. As he was scrubbing away, Leo’s foot slipped off the edge of the flatbed and he fell off the truck. In the darkness, he did not see the picket fence, which got him right in the right eye. Leo lost the eye, which was later replaced with a matching, beautiful blue glass eye.

Leo did not complain, and he was not bitter about losing his eye. In fact, I never heard Leo get angry, cuss or yell. He was never moody or temperamental. That was not his style. Leo was just a solid, mild, steady, honest guy. He just worked hard on his chores, his schoolwork, and did his part to help support his family and their farm.

Jimi Hendrix

When the truck was clean, and the chores were done, Leo’s dad would allow him to go into the barn and do his favorite thing, which was to dissect anything mechanical. Leo simply loved figuring out anything that could be taken apart with a screwdriver. At an early age, Leo learned the great benefits of having a screwdriver in his shirt pocket, a habit he kept his entire life. I think that plastic pocket protectors were first made for Leo. For him, they were always in style.

When Leo was about thirteen years old, his uncle ran a repair shop up the California coast in Santa Maria. His uncle sent him a cardboard box filled up with old radios, alarm clocks, and batteries. Later, Leo went on a family trip to visit his uncle’s shop. He was fascinated by a tube radio his uncle had made. Radios were rare, and Leo said that the music he heard on that tube radio made a huge impression on him. Leo immediately started to tinker with, build, and repair radios on the barn’s workbench. Soon his workbench interests spread to anything electronic or mechanical, such as alarm clocks, vacuum cleaners, and record players.

While living on the farm, Leo was drawn to music. Leo told me that when he worked in the vegetable fields, he would turn the radio volume way up and listen to Jimmie Rodgers. He learned to play the piano, saxophone, and trumpet. But Leo never pursued a career as a performer. “I wasn’t really adapted to it,” he said. Generally, Leo liked being at home; he did not want a life on the road.

Leo always took school seriously. He took almost everything seriously. After all, with a glass eye, he had no chance in sports.

The Jackson Five

Besides, Leo was a thinker. In addition to the farm work, Leo did janitorial work in high school. I think that between farm work and janitorial work, he was motived to do well in school and move on.

In September 1928, Leo graduated from Fullerton Union High School on Chapman Avenue in Fullerton. He did not go far for college. In fact, he just crossed the street and enrolled at Fullerton Junior College as an accounting major. Today, the same campus is simply called Fullerton College. While studying accounting, Leo continued to spend his spare time tinkering with radios and anything electric. Remarkably, the creator of the world’s first electric guitar never enrolled in an electronics class!

Leo was fascinated with designing, inventing, and building. Next to the old Fullerton College campus, construction started on Plumber Auditorium, which is a beautiful building that still stands to this day. The project immediately caught Leo’s attention, and he would sit and do his homework on the lawn while watching the construction. The young man’s presence became so predictable that the workers noticed Leo and invited him to come onto the site and watch the construction up close. Leo was a mild-mannered, friendly kid and the workers liked him. He studied every phase of construction, from breaking ground and grading the site to laying the foundation and framing. He intently studied the installation of the electrical system and the roofing. Leo was like a sponge soaking in knowledge, and he asked lots of questions. It became a daily part of his practical learning that supplemented his formal college studies.

After two years, Leo graduated from Fullerton Junior College with an associate’s degree in accounting. In those days, very few went to college, so that was a big deal. Leo got a job as a delivery man for Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company in Anaheim, but that was not his thing. However, the company saw Leo’s real strengths, and he was hired as their bookkeeper.

During this same time, the word was spreading in Fullerton that Leo was good with electronics. A local band asked Leo if he would make a public-address system to use at dances up in Hollywood, and he agreed. Leo ended up building six of these PA systems, which was his very first business venture.

With a college degree and the beginnings of an entrepreneurial flare, Leo was a good catch, and one lady took notice. In 1933, Leo met Esther Klotzly, and they were married in 1934. Leo got another job working as an accountant for the California Highway Department up the coast in San Luis Obispo. During the Depression, Leo was laid off, but he was hired again, this time as an accountant for a tire company. After only about six months, all the accountants, including Leo, were laid off. By this time, Leo realized that accounting was not for him, he wanted to do something else.

Buddy Holly

Despite the Depression and the repeated layoffs, Leo still had drive. In fact, he had lots of drive. The farm upbringing taught him a strong work ethic, selling vegetables at the market taught him some people skills, making tools in the barn taught him woodworking and metalwork, and the accounting work taught him the dollars and cents of business. Studying the daily construction of Plumber Auditorium showed him how to build a facility, his tinkering with radios schooled him in electronics, dissecting alarm clocks showed him the world of mechanical engineering, and building and successfully selling PA systems gave Leo a spark of the entrepreneurial life. Leo knew how to create value and cut costs. He was a practical, hands-on guy. Leo’s motto was always, “I’ll buy it used, or I’ll make it myself.”

Jimmy Page

Conventional wisdom says to specialize in one thing. Yet no job was beneath Leo, and no job was too big. Leo did not know it at the time, but his unconventional spectrum of skills provided him with exactly the skills he needed to do something epic!

In 1938, with a young wife to take care of and tired of being laid off, Leo got bold. He borrowed $600 and returned to Fullerton, the hometown he loved. Leo started his own radio repair shop, Fender Radio Service, at 107 S. Harbor Boulevard. Despite a tough childhood just a few blocks to the south, Leo did not want to get away from the town. In fact, he stayed right by the old Fender Farm site. It was part of who he was, and he was okay with it.

Leo worked hard in his new shop, building and repairing radios and record players and doing anything else that leaned toward his interests in music. Soon, musicians heard about Leo and asked him to build more public-address systems. He built, repaired, rented, and sold them. Guitarists also came into Leo’s shop to get amplification for their lap guitars and Hawaiian steel guitars, which were coming onto the Southern California music scene.

Leo was happy. He had established a small shop in the town he loved. Music was now a part of his daily work routine. Business was good and getting better. Word was spreading that Leo was the guy for all things electric.

Leo and Esther’s first home, just a few blocks from his first shop in Fullerton