1. Richard Simonton, known under the pseudonym Doug Malloy, was a Hollywood businessman and entrepreneur, known for his involvement in the Hollywood community, his rescue of the steamboat Delta Queen, his work in preserving the work of musicians in the Welte-Mignon piano rolls and for founding the American Theatre Organ Society.
Richard Simonton's father died when he was three, and his mother subsequently moved to Seattle, where he grew up in the difficult conditions of the Great Depression.
Richard Simonton showed an early aptitude for music and audio engineering, earning money in high school by tuning pipe organs.
Richard Simonton later worked for the Masterphone Sound Company, which installed sound systems in silent theatres adapting to the new talking pictures.
In 1939, Simonton went to New York to meet with the founders of the Muzak Corporation, which had been founded some five years before.
Richard Simonton proposed that Muzak begin franchising, which it had not previously done, and ended up buying the franchise for the seven Western states, which he held until the 1970s.
Richard Simonton became a successful businessman and built an elaborate home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, where he lived until his death in 1979 at the age of 64.
Outgoing and sociable, Richard Simonton was popular in the Hollywood community.
Richard Simonton's best friend for many years was the silent film star Harold Lloyd; He was a trustee of Lloyd's estate.
Richard Simonton was an involved family man, taking his family to live in Hawaii for some months and on other travels.
Richard Simonton founded Pacific Network Inc and California Communications, firms that rented motion picture sound equipment to studios.
Richard Simonton spent several years struggling to regain full command of basic skills, including his speech.
Richard Simonton largely retired from public life, although in time he was able to continue his love of travel and his wide community of friends.
Richard Simonton died in 1979 from a heart problem, possibly related to the damage sustained in the operation.
Richard Simonton's home contained two organs, a church-style Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ upstairs which was dedicated by Virgil Fox, and a Wurlitzer theatre organ downstairs in the theatre, which was equipped with professional recording equipment.
Richard Simonton owned a third organ, the Wurlitzer pipe organ from the New York Paramount Theatre, which has been considered the greatest Wurlitzer pipe organ ever built.
Richard Simonton acquired it with the idea of buying the Belmont Theatre in Los Angeles and installing the organ, but the deal for the theatre fell through and the organ was never set up in Los Angeles.
In 1957, Richard Simonton took his family for a river trip aboard the Delta Queen, a 285-foot steamboat then operating on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
In 1966, Richard Simonton sent his employee Bill Muster to Washington, DC to obtain the first exemption.
Richard Simonton added that he and Bockisch had lost nearly everything in the war, but had managed to hide some of the piano rolls in a barn in the Black Forest.
In 1948 Richard Simonton travelled to Germany and went with Welte to the remains of the factory, which had been completely destroyed by bombing in 1944.
Richard Simonton worked with Welte and Bockisch to rescue the legacy of the rolls.
Richard Simonton remained in correspondence with Welte and Bockisch for many years, sending food parcels and other supplies, and Welte's daughter lived with the Richard Simonton family for a time.
Richard Simonton ultimately donated the rolls to the music library at the University of Southern California.
Richard Simonton is best known in certain communities for his interest in alternative lifestyles.
Richard Simonton's family was largely sheltered from his involvement in the piercing movement and in aspects of the gay or bisexual lifestyle.
Richard Simonton had established contacts amongst body piercing enthusiasts both in Los Angeles and on a global scale, including London tattooist Alan Oversby, Roland Loomis, Sailor Sid Diller, and Jim Ward.
Richard Simonton documented this meeting by means of a tape recording, which has been preserved.
The upsurge in interest in body piercing had created enough interest that Richard Simonton advised Jim Ward, who was working as a picture framer at the time, that he should start a body piercing business.