In 1951 Gibson started getting serious about the electric guitar since upstart Fender was taking the market by storm with their new Telecaster. Ted McCarty, who started working for Gibson in 1948, was given the task of developing a solid body electric guitar that would energize Gibson as a company as the US moved out from under the shadow of the Great Depression and WWII. McCarty's team started working on prototypes but McCarty himself recalled what jazz guitarist and electronics tinker Les Paul had shown him.
Les Paul, as a musician, was rather popular in the popular jazz circuit of the day. He and his wife at the time, Mary Ford, were popular on the radio and the personal appearance circuit. In 1953, they had a huge success with an early variety TV show. Paul was an obsessive tinkerer who had a love for building guitars and amplification. Sometime around 1940 he built what was called his log guitar.
The Les Paul Log Guitar was made from an Epiphone hollowbody guitar that Les had cut in half, length-wise, and added a solid chunk of wood between the two halves. He added his own pickup to the guitar. He used this guitar, and others similar to it, on several recordings and radio appearances during the 1940's. He even took his prototype guitar to Gibson. They rejected it at the time, calling Les Paul, "that guy with the broomstick". However, McCarty remembered him and sought him out as Gibson began to seriously pursue a solid body guitar.
What was worked out exactly remains kind of murky, but by the time McCarty and Paul worked things out, Gibson had a new solid body guitar and a sponsor for it and Les Paul had a nice endorsement deal.
