Mike LeDoux

Mike LeDoux
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Mike LeDoux Software Engineer/Music Director Optigan/Opsonar
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Secretary to Mike LeDoux

Mike LeDoux Optigan > Mike LeDoux

Optigan
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Mike LeDoux
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Mike LeDoux
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Mike LeDoux
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Mike LeDoux at the '74 CES Show

Mike LeDoux A couple of years ago I received an out-of-the-blue email from a guy named Mike LeDoux who claimed that he had seen my website and suggested I give him a call because he had been Optigan's "Musical Director," and had been responsible for making all of the discs. Needless to say, I was at first skeptical of this claim, but later that evening when I had Mike on the phone, all my doubts disappeared. Mike was a very friendly guy, and was totally forthcoming with all sorts of information about how the discs were made, who played on them, the scoop on the Mattel/Miner switchoff and endless other bits of trivia. Luckily for me, Mike was a relatively young guy in his 20's during his 6-year stint with Optigan, so he's not too old now to remember many of the picky details I tend to grill him about!

Conveniently, Mike turned out to live only about 1.5 hours up the coast from me in Fountain Valley, CA. When I finally got a chance to meet him, he rewarded me with more information and artifacts than I could ever desire.
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Mike also shared with me a photoessay he had put together in a notebook detailing the step-by-step process of creating an Optigan disc, and was dutifully amazed that I would be interested in such arcana!!

While he spent the 60's becoming an accomplished guitarist and radio DJ, Mike started out at Optigan as, essentially, a sound engineer. He came to this job by way of his previous involvement with Mattel's talking Barbie line of toys. While he was not brought in at the very beginning of R&D, he eventually became responsible for perfecting the Optigan disc design and execution. In fact, apart from a few experimental prototypes made before he was hired on, Mike is responsible for every single disc that ever rolled off the assembly line. He was the only guy ever to operate the complex disc making machinery, which was custom-built for Optigan by Westrex Corporation.

When Mattel decided to sell the Optigan to Miner Industries in 1973, Mike was the only core employee which was kept on. Without Mike, Miner would not have the ability to create new discs. With this in mind, Mike used his position of power to insist that his office be kept on the west coast, while the rest of the factory and stock moved to New Kensington, PA. He struck up a deal with Circuit Design & Photography (the company which, up to that point, had been Optigan's primary vendor for disc duplicates) to take up office in one of their empty backrooms, and there he stayed for the next 3 years. The operation became much more streamlined, as the mastering lab and duplication/assembly line were now conveniently located under one roof.

Now dubbed "Music Director" in the wake of Johnny Largo's departure, Mike took on responsibility for everything software-related at Optigan.
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In fact, on the "Guitar Boogie" disc, Mike actually played all of the instruments and photographed the disc cover completely by himself!

Unfortunately, Optigan did not come to a happy end for Mike. Along with Optigan, Miner Industries also owned and operated the subsidiary of Magnus Organs. Magnus also had an office on the west coast, and over the years this office and it's employees had sunk to disastrous levels of inefficiency and corruption. As Mike was the only "sane" Miner employee on the west coast, he was essentially coerced into taking care of the problems which had cropped up over at Magnus. To make a long story short, Mike essentially was put in charge of shutting down the Magnus Office, a task which was to occupy him for most of 1976. While Optigan continued sparse production during this period, for all practical purposes Mike's "battle" with Magnus marked the end of Optigan.

This past summer Llyswen and I had the opportunity to get together with Mike and his former secretary Jo Woodraska at Jo's home in Lake Elsinore, CA.
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We had a great time eating pizza and soaking in the jacuzzi as Mike and Jo reminisced further about their collective experiences at Optigan.
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Mike also brought along a slideshow loaded with more obscure photos detailing Optigan's last days with Miner Industries. Of particular interest were the tradeshow snapshots of a couple of bizarre prototype Optigans.

Since I came into contact with him, Mike and I have traded endless emails hashing out the finer details of daily life at Optigan. In fact, many of the details found in various places on this website come directly from his recollections. Currently I'm in the process of compiling this backlog of email into a coherent archive of information. A daunting task, but a worthy one!!

Mike LeDoux
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After the Largos saw our website and we cleared up some confusion about who was the official "Music Director" at Optigan (Mike LeDoux had claimed this title because he had been assigned it after Johnny's departure.

Mike LeDoux's thoughts on optical disc mastering.
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A design change issue from Mike LeDoux.
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3/1/73 Mike LeDoux announces near-completion of the "Country" Style-Pak and Entertainment Folio #3. Both of these products would not be released until after the Mattel/Miner switchover. Also, plans for generating a "Beatles" Style-Pak as well as a "50's Rock" Style-Pak are announced.
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Mike LeDoux is the sole employee to remain with Optigan. Arrangements are made for his software lab to remain on the west coast, while the rest of the "factory" is moved to New Kensington, PA. 6/17/73 Opsonar issues public warning in the NAMM Daily to Chilton Corp. for possible Optigan patent violations in regard to the Chilton Talentmaker. 7/73 Optigan's software division, headed by Mike LeDoux, is moved from the Compton plant to a vacant area inside the Circuit Drafting & Photography building (Optigan's vendor for disc production). 12/73 Mattel announces $13 million in losses due to the Optigan.

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1974 Mike LeDoux at CES
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3/75 Mike LeDoux becomes increasingly entangled in Miner's process of shutting down their ill-managed Magnus Organ subsidiary on the west coast.

Mike, however, refused to leave California, and Miner responded by simply saying "Well, we'll ship the equipment out here, pay you to set it up and show us how to use it, and then we'll go our separate ways."Mike Ledoux knew that all of this was MUCH easier said than done, because by then he had developed Optigan-disc-making to an art, and realistically he was the only guy suitable for the job.However, at the insistence of the Miner brass, he put together a photo essay on the step-by-step process of creating an Optigan disc and took it to the East Coast to show them exactly what they were in for.This is an html version of that photo essay, complete with the original verbatim comments that Mike made in the margins.

As it turned out, Miner's problems only got worse, and they shut down completely before any further attempt to ship the equipment was made.They still owned the disc-making equipment, though, and Mike worked out a deal with them where he would personally store the equipment in his garage for a monthly rate until the Miner brass deemed it feasible to reclaim the equipment and liquidate it.Of course, Miner never actually came through on their end of this deal, and to this day Mike still has much of the equipment, for which Miner technically owes him about $20,000 for 25 years of storage fees!
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The first is an absolute confirmation of something that Mike had mentioned to me: that Mattel bought up all of Harry Chamberlin's patents for the Chamberlin, presumably in order to avoid legal hassles and also to cut out potential competition.
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Mike tells me that the earliest design for the Optigan featured an Edison-Cylinder type medium and a keyboard which lowered needles onto the grooves.But he wasn't actually working for Optigan at that stage, and does not know exactly how the switch was made to the optical format.
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Here's a few items from Mike LeDoux's files that I thought some of you might be interested in reading.There's a couple of technical articles Mike wrote proposing some design change issues, and also a scan of a flowchart (in .pdf format) he worked out which illustrated the timeline of the entire process of making an Optigan disc, from concept to completion.

After the Largos saw our website and we cleared up some confusion about who was the official "Music Director" at Optigan (Mike LeDoux had claimed this title because he had been assigned it after Johnny's departure.

In the early 90s, a chance meeting with guitarist Mike LeDoux, former session player for Phil Spector, resulted in a partnership as a coffeehouse duo, a collaboration Leslie credits with the maturation of her guitar work.

Mike LeDoux
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Mike LeDoux at the '74 CES Show

Mike LeDoux A couple of years ago I received an out-of-the-blue email from a guy named Mike LeDoux who claimed that he had seen my website and suggested I give him a call because he had been Optigan's "Musical Director," and had been responsible for making all of the discs.Needless to say, I was at first skeptical of this claim, but later that evening when I had Mike on the phone, all my doubts disappeared.Mike was a very friendly guy, and was totally forthcoming with all sorts of information about how the discs were made, who played on them, the scoop on the Mattel/Miner switchoff and endless other bits of trivia.Luckily for me, Mike was a relatively young guy in his 20's during his 6-year stint with Optigan, so he's not too old now to remember many of the picky details I tend to grill him about!

Conveniently, Mike turned out to live only about 1.5 hours up the coast from me in Fountain Valley, CA.When I finally got a chance to meet him, he rewarded me with more information and artifacts than I could ever desire.
...
Mike also shared with me a photoessay he had put together in a notebook detailing the step-by-step process of creating an Optigan disc, and was dutifully amazed that I would be interested in such arcana!!

While he spent the 60's becoming an accomplished guitarist and radio DJ, Mike started out at Optigan as, essentially, a sound engineer.He came to this job by way of his previous involvement with Mattel's talking Barbie line of toys.While he was not brought in at the very beginning of R&D, he eventually became responsible for perfecting the Optigan disc design and execution.In fact, apart from a few experimental prototypes made before he was hired on, Mike is responsible for every single disc that ever rolled off the assembly line.He was the only guy ever to operate the complex disc making machinery, which was custom-built for Optigan by Westrex Corporation.

When Mattel decided to sell the Optigan to Miner Industries in 1973, Mike was the only core employee which was kept on.Without Mike, Miner would not have the ability to create new discs.With this in mind, Mike used his position of power to insist that his office be kept on the west coast, while the rest of the factory and stock moved to New Kensington, PA.He struck up a deal with Circuit Design & Photography (the company which, up to that point, had been Optigan's primary vendor for disc duplicates) to take up office in one of their empty backrooms, and there he stayed for the next 3 years.The operation became much more streamlined, as the mastering lab and duplication/assembly line were now conveniently located under one roof.

Now dubbed "Music Director" in the wake of Johnny Largo's departure, Mike took on responsibility for everything software-related at Optigan.
...
In fact, on the "Guitar Boogie" disc, Mike actually played all of the instruments and photographed the disc cover completely by himself!

Unfortunately, Optigan did not come to a happy end for Mike.Along with Optigan, Miner Industries also owned and operated the subsidiary of Magnus Organs.Magnus also had an office on the west coast, and over the years this office and it's employees had sunk to disastrous levels of inefficiency and corruption.As Mike was the only "sane" Miner employee on the west coast, he was essentially coerced into taking care of the problems which had cropped up over at Magnus.To make a long story short, Mike essentially was put in charge of shutting down the Magnus Office, a task which was to occupy him for most of 1976.While Optigan continued sparse production during this period, for all practical purposes Mike's "battle" with Magnus marked the end of Optigan.

This past summer Llyswen and I had the opportunity to get together with Mike and his former secretary Jo Woodraska at Jo's home in Lake Elsinore, CA.
...
We had a great time eating pizza and soaking in the jacuzzi as Mike and Jo reminisced further about their collective experiences at Optigan.
...
Mike also brought along a slideshow loaded with more obscure photos detailing Optigan's last days with Miner Industries.Of particular interest were the tradeshow snapshots of a couple of bizarre prototype Optigans.

Since I came into contact with him, Mike and I have traded endless emails hashing out the finer details of daily life at Optigan.In fact, many of the details found in various places on this website come directly from his recollections.Currently I'm in the process of compiling this backlog of email into a coherent archive of information.A daunting task, but a worthy one!!

3/1/73 Mike LeDoux announces near-completion of the "Country" Style-Pak and Entertainment Folio #3.Both of these products would not be released until after the Mattel/Miner switchover.Also, plans for generating a "Beatles" Style-Pak as well as a "50's Rock" Style-Pak are announced.
...
Mike LeDoux is the sole employee to remain with Optigan.Arrangements are made for his software lab to remain on the west coast, while the rest of the "factory" is moved to New Kensington, PA.

6/17/73 Opsonar issues public warning in the NAMM Daily to Chilton Corp. for possible Optigan patent violations in regard to the Chilton Talentmaker.

7/73 Optigan's software division, headed by Mike LeDoux, is moved from the Compton plant to a vacant area inside the Circuit Drafting & Photography building (Optigan's vendor for disc production).
...
Mike LeDoux at CES
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3/75 Mike LeDoux becomes increasingly entangled in Miner's process of shutting down their ill-managed Magnus Organ subsidiary on the west coast.

Mike LeDoux Software Engineer/Music Director Optigan/Opsonar
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Secretary to Mike LeDoux