Santa Ana Man Saws His Way to Superstar Status

They call him “Super-Saw.” Ask him why and he’ll play a song on his saw. And that’s how he got his moniker.

“I remember I just finished playing a fast-moving Latin song and the announcer cried out, ‘Let’s hear it for Super-Saw,’ ” said James A. Leonard, 56, a Santa Ana gas appliance repairman. “It just stuck with me.”

That was in 1975. Since then, Leonard has not only become a superstar saw player, but also an authority on the history of musical saws, which he has chronicled in his new book, “Scratch My Back.”

“Nothing has ever been written on the musical saw. And after a friend heard me play, I asked what she thought of writing a book on it. So we both wrote it,” he said. His co-author is Janet Graebner of Santa Ana.

He said it’s no wonder a book has never been written about musical saws. “Who ever thought of picking up a tool and playing music on it,” said Leonard, who first became interested after reading an advertisement for musical saws.

Leonard said he has no illusions about the book becoming a best-seller--or even making any money.

“The market is limited,” he admitted. “There are only about 35,000 saw players in the country. Of course, a lot of libraries might want to stock it.”

Leonard figures that there are 800 sawyers--a name he coined--in Orange and Los Angeles counties. “We had 2,000 books printed and hope we’ll make enough money after expenses to afford a couple of malts and hamburgers,” he said.

Although he is marketing the book, Leonard has other irons in the fire. He and three other saw players recently recorded “Can’t Cry Any More” with the rock group Kansas for a television video that he said took 15 hours straight to film.

“That video was a blast,” he said.

Leonard, who has recorded three albums of his own, said he’s never charged anyone for saw lessons or for his saw performances. “I do it for the fun of it,” he said.

He also has appeared twice on the “Gong Show” television program and is an infrequent performer at Disneyland. In between, he formed Sawyers Assn. Worldwide and plans to sponsor an international saw festival at Disneyland in September.

“Saw players have come a long way from the time they would whack a saw with a mallet to get it vibrating,” he said.

“That’s the way I started. But after the second day, I couldn’t stand the banging and bought a bow and started scratching the saw with it. Darned if I didn’t get music from it.”

By his own ranking, Leonard is one of the top saw players in the country, and although he thinks saw playing is getting more popular, especially with younger people, he’s setting the saw aside for a while for the harmonica.

“I’m just trying something different,” he said.

Quila Roder, third-grade teacher at Madison Elementary School in Santa Ana, thought it would be nice to put on a ballet program. So she advertised in newspapers for a volunteer dance teacher.

Up popped Diane Wall, a former professional ballet instructor who now operates a real estate office in San Clemente.

She not only provided classroom ballet lessons to the children three times a week but also supplied costumes for the class production.

After a dress rehearsal, the students performed “The Nutcracker” ballet for the school’s winter program and again for Adams Elementary School.

No doubt Roder believes it pays to advertise.

Acknowledgments--The UC Irvine-North Orange County Community Clinic has received the Employer of the Month award from the Private Industry Council of Orange County for placing youths--including dropouts and teen-aged parents--in jobs.