Researching John Morton

Morton is best known for his use and manipulations of music boxes and their sounds. This may be compared to Conlon Nancarrow's use of the player piano and John Cage's use of the prepared piano. Born in Los Angeles, he studied privately with David Sheinfeld in San Francisco and then attended the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with Morton Subotnick and Lucky Mosko. In summer 2009 he created the Sound Tunnel in New York City's Central Park.

In 1964 he drove with Ken Miles at Sebring in a 427 Cobra for Shelby American Racing. Teaming with Miles and Skip Scott, Morton won the GT class at the Road America 500, second overall, in a team Cobra. That year he bought his second race car: a Lotus 23B.

John raced mostly SCCA Club races through 1968 until Peter Brock (the American designer, motorsports writer and photographer, not the Australian racer) hired him for his new BRE Datsun team. The period between 1969 and 1972 was fruitful for John, Peter and Datsun. The team disbanded after the 1972 season after dominating both SCCA C Production with the 240Z (National Championships in 1970-71) and the 2.5 Trans-Am with the 510 (Championships in 1971-72).

Racing in F5000, Can-Am and IMSA occupied the next few years. A short almost accidental foray into the movie industry in 1975 led to stunt work on a couple of feature films (Gumball Rally and Greased Lightning) and several TV shows (Rockford Files and Fantasy Island). In 1981 Phil Conte joined John's small Can-Am team as a sponsor for two years after which Phil formed his own IMSA team with John as one of his two drivers in the GTP category.

In 1985 Jim Busby hired John as team driver in one of his BF Goodrich sponsored Porsche 962s with Pete Halsmer. The pair won the Times GP at Riverside in 1985. In 1987 John drove for the Group 44 Jaguar team of Bob Tullius and won the last Times GP at Riverside and the West Palm Beach GP, both sharing the car with Hurley Haywood. The Walkinshaw team replaced Tullius' Jaguar team for 1988 and the Electramotive Nissan Team signed Morton. John and Geoff Brabham won several races that year setting the stage for Nissan's domination of the IMSA series for several years.

Other notable Nissan races for John during 1989-95 include an overall victory at Sebring and several class wins, including Le Mans [1994 24 Hours of Le Mans. Morton was third overall in a Joest Porsche in 1986 and class winner in a BFG Mazda Lola in 1984, competing nine times at Le Mans. Several races in various other classes and categories include Sprint cars and karts. He made his CART debut in the first race of the 1984 season at the Long Beach Grand Prix and finished 9th but was never able to get a ride in competitive car.

In his most recent professional races, 1997–2001, John raced Porsches in both the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series. Currently most of John's competition is in vintage races driving a variety of cars, which include Cobra coupes, Corvettes, Porsches, a Sunbeam Tiger and his favorite race car: the Scarab that he saw race at Road America while still a teenager.

Morton has competed at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races many times. In 2010, he suffered a horrific crash when his Scarab flipped end over end near turn two of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, landing upside down with a broken roll bar. He was taken to the hospital, and was determined to be fine. The Scarab was seriously damaged, but it was rebuilt and restored to original specifications and recently won the Amelia Island Concours.

In 2013 the Sports Car Club of America held the 50th Running of the National Runoffs. Because of this momentous event special rules were in place to allow former champions to enter the event without running any of that season's qualifying events. Bonk Brothers Racing and LNA Enterprises prepared a Nissan 240Z for Morton to run at the event. Due to poor weather he was only able to have 2 sessions in the car. He was able to qualify 13th and finish 10th.

In 2013 Motorbooks published John’s first person account: “Inside Shelby American - Wrenching and Racing with Carroll Shelby in the 1960s."

He was born in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. the son of Lemuel Morton and Martha Newcomb. In 1810, he married Anne Cogswell. Morton owned Western Stage Coach. He served as lieutenant-colonel in the militia, as keeper of the rolls for Cornwallis and as justice of the peace for Kings County. He served as a member of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia from 1841 until his death in Halifax at the age of 76.

Morton made his debut in first-class cricket when he was selected to play for Warwickshire against Surrey at Edgbaston in 1929. He made eight further appearances in first-class cricket for Warwickshire to 1930, with his final appearance coming against Middlesex at Lord's. He scored a total of 162 runs in his nine matches, averaging 11.57, with a high score of 38. He later made a single appearance for the Warwickshire Second XI in the 1932 Minor Counties Championship against Durham, but made no further appearances for the first eleven.

He died at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire on 28 May 1966.

Born in Wolverhampton, England, Morton learned to play the piano while he was a child. On leaving school, he started an apprenticeship as a printer, but his love of swing music led him to leave to play in a band. He joined the Union, and gradually rose to prominence, winning election to its executive committee, and leading a boycott of Wolverhampton's Scala Ballroom over its policy of only admitting white people.

Morton worked full-time for the union for a few years, but moved to become a lecturer in industrial relations at Solihull College. Despite this, he remained on the executive committee and, when General Secretary Hardie Ratcliffe announced his retiral, he asked Morton to run for the post.

Morton won election as general secretary, focusing much of his time on opposing the closure of orchestras, and negotiating with broadcasters, particularly the new independent local radio stations. He also became President of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM). He was elected to the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, serving from 1975 to 1985, and again from 1986 until his retirement. Politically, he was considered to have moved from the left-wing of the union to the centre or right during this period.

Morton retired as general secretary in 1990, but remained president of the FIM until 2002, and president emeritus of the FIM thereafter. He died at the age of 95, in 2021.