Earl William Muntz

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Earl William "Madman" Muntz ( January 3, 1914 in Elgin , Illinois - June 21, 1987 in Rancho Mirage , California ) was an American entrepreneur , founder, promotional actor , and engineer who made automobiles and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s through the 1930s on his death in 1987 sold and produced advertisements for it. With the character of the mad salesman "Madman Muntz" he was a pioneer of television commercials . He also marketed the "Muntz Stereo-Pak" , a 4-track cassette for car radios , a possible predecessor of the 8-track cassette (8-track) developed by Lear Industries .

According to him, which is "Muntzing" named, thus simplifying colloquially meant of otherwise complex electronic devices. Muntz produced and marketed the first black and white television receivers below 100 US dollars and created one of the earliest functional widescreen - Projection - televisions . He was said to be the author of the abbreviation "TV" for television, although the term was previously used in station identifiers such as " WCBS-TV ". After dropping out of high school, he sold cars, televisions, car radios, and phonograms. A 1968 article in the Los Angeles Times reported that Muntz sold cars for a total of $ 72 million in one year, television sets for $ 55 million five years later, and car radios and phonograms for $ 30 million in 1967.

After his success as a used car dealer with the Kaiser-Frazer dealerships in Los Angeles and New York City, he founded the Muntz Car Company , which brought the "Muntz Jet", a sports car with the contours of a jet plane, onto the market. Less than 400 of this car were produced between 1951 and 1953.

Muntz married seven times. To his wives, the actress Joan Barton belonged (in The Black Rider (1947) with John Wayne occurred) and Patricia Stevens , who in the film Finishing Schools ( girls' starred). Phyllis Diller was one of his many friends. He was friends with celebrities such as singer Rudy Vallee , comedian Jerry Colonna , actor Bert Lahr , television presenter Dick Clark and cowboy actor Gene Autry .

Previous career: 1922–1953

Muntz was fascinated by electronics from an early age. He built his first radio at the age of eight and built another one for his parents' car at the age of 14. During the Great Depression , he dropped out of Elgin, Illinois high school at the age of 15 to work in his parents' store.

Car dealership

In 1934, Muntz opened his first used car dealership in Elgin with a $ 500 line of credit (which equates to $ 9,529 adjusted for inflation in 2020 ). He was only 20 years old, so not yet of legal age, so that his mother had to sign the car papers in order to legally close his business . While on vacation in California, Muntz discovered that used cars were being sold at significantly higher prices there, so Muntz, 26, moved to California in 1940 to open a used car branch in Glendale . In anticipation of a profitable business, he bought 13 brand new right-hand drive vehicles to resell . These vehicles were built for customers in Asia and could not be delivered because of the Second World War. One vehicle was a bespoke Lincoln built for Chiang Kai-shek . Local newspapers reported on the unusual cars and Muntz sold them all within two weeks, still in their original shipping boxes. Shortly thereafter, Muntz opened a second office in Los Angeles and closed its first office in Elgin.

Muntz by no means conformed to the pattern at the time, according to which a used car seller should appear serious. He recognized the possibilities of advertising with strange stunts and developed a character with an insane personality ("Madman" = the lunatic / insane). His cocky posters and eccentric radio and television commercials soon made him famous. In his commercial for used cars, he marketed a model as the “special of the day”. In it, Muntz claimed that if the car wasn't sold that day, he would smash it into pieces with a sledgehammer in front of the camera . Another notorious Muntz used car TV highlight was: "I buy them at retail and sell them wholesale ... that's just more fun!" ("I buy 'em retail and sell' em wholesale ... it's more fun that way ! ”) His commercials generated so much buzz that comedians like Bob Hope , Jack Benny, and Steve Allen tried to outdo each other on television appearances by telling“ Madman ”muntz jokes. At the University of Southern California there was a trick among his fans of pronouncing the name "Muntz" in half the time.

Muntz's auto sales offices became a tourist attraction because of the excitement his appearance in television commercials made. A poll by Panner Motor Tours in 1946 found it ranked seventh among Southern California's tourist attractions. Muntz took great risks to get attention. During the McCarthy period , he asked one of his advisors, "Do you think I would be on the front page if I joined the Communist Party?"

Muntz Jet

A fully restored 1953 Muntz Jet at a classic car auction in Monterey

In 1948, Frank Kurtis , racing car designer and founder of the Kurtis Kraft company, tried to market the Kurtis Kraft Sport , a new two-seater sports car . By 1950 only 36 had been sold. In 1951 it had a turnover of just USD 200,000 (which corresponds to USD 1,964,687 adjusted for inflation in 2020 ). Kurtis sold the manufacturing license to Muntz, who quickly put it on in the rebadge as "Muntz Jet" . The Muntz Jet was first produced in Glendale, where Muntz lengthened the two-seater Kurtis Kraft Sport by 13 inches (33 cm) and made it a four-seater, and replaced the Ford V8 engine with a larger Cadillac V8 . After producing just 28 units in California, Muntz moved production to a new factory in Evanston, Illinois , lengthened the body by another 3 inches, and replaced the Cadillac V8 with a less expensive Lincoln V8 SV .

The jet was featured on the cover of the September 1951 issue of Popular Science along with a Jaguar and MG . It was characterized by its own design, with aluminum strips on the body and a removable top made of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GRP). The choice of paint colors was extravagant and had names such as "Mars red", "Stratospheric blue" and "Lemon mist". For the interior, there were options such as alligator or Spanish synthetic leather . A full cocktail bar was built into the armrest of the back seat .

The jet could reach a top speed of 125 mph ( miles per hour (approx. 200 km / h) and an acceleration from 0 to 50 mph (80 km / h) in six seconds, which was outstanding for road vehicles of the time The Pegaso Z-102 Supercharged sports car with 155 mph (approx. 250 km / h) was in 1953. The jet owners at the time were Frank Stanton (CEO of CBS ), actors Mickey Rooney and Al "Lash" LaRue .

The work and materials required to produce the jet resulted in a high price for the final product and in 1954, after selling about 400 cars and losing about $ 1000 ( adjusted for inflation, $ 14,242 in 2020 ), Muntz concluded that Companies. Today, Muntz Jets are valued collector cars and are perceived as the Chevrolet Corvette and are ahead of the Ford Thunderbird .

Muntz TV

Muntz planned to sell televisions from 1946, which he did in 1947. Muntz played the maniac in his unorthodox television commercials, but was actually a skilled businessman and made the self-taught electrical engineer . He disassembled Philco, RCA and DuMont televisions . He found through trial and error how to reduce the number of electrical components in the devices to their minimal functionality. This practice became known as "muntzing" .

In the 1940s and 1950s, most brand name televisions were complex devices that contained about 30 vacuum tubes, as well as rheostats , transformers, and other large components. As a result, they were usually very expensive: the cheapest US-made television before World War II had a 3-inch (7.62 cm) screen and cost $ 125, which is $ 2,296 after adjusting for inflation ; the cheapest model with a 12-inch (30.48 cm) screen was $ 445 ($ 8,175). Although radio television had existed in various forms in the United States since 1928, only 55% of households in the United States owned a television in 1954 . Eight years later, 90% had one.

MuntzTV, model 17A3A, built in 1951

Marketed under the name "Muntz" by his company Muntz TV Inc. , these simplified devices were the first black and white TVs in the USA to go over the counter for under $ 100. Muntz was also the first retailer to display their screens diagonally rather than across. The devices sold well and were reliable because the few tubes produced less heat. They worked well in metropolitan areas near the radio towers where signals were strong. They worked poorly with weaker signals, as most of the components Muntz had saved processed weak signals. It was a calculated decision: Muntz preferred to leave the smaller market volume of higher-quality receivers to companies such as RCA and Zenith Electronics , since his target customers were primarily city dwellers with small budgets. In addition, many urban residential buildings had restrictions not to install roof antennas and, when allowed, an antenna cost about $ 150 to install. Muntz solved the problem by installing an indoor antenna for his receivers. In 1952, his company Muntz TV Inc. had sales of $ 49.9 million, which in 2020 would be equivalent to $ 480 million after adjusting for inflation .

Muntz continued to use his colorful Madman personality in many of his TV commercials. In one that usually aired after the Ed Sullivan Show , Muntz, dressed in long red trousers and a Napoleon hat, promoted his new 14-inch TV by saying, "I want to give it away , but Frau Muntz won't let me. She went nuts! ”(I want to give 'em away, but Mrs. Muntz won't let me. She's crazy!) . Another television commercial showed animated cartoons by Oskar Fischinger , accompanied by marching music and singing with text on the Muntz television sets. His radio commercials ran up to 170 times a day and initially followed a classical music theme, which was based on the spelling of the name Muntz. However, he had quickly convinced the radio stations to target the advertising on himself. Once Muntz shouted: “Don't stare at your radio!” He followed up his radio advertisement with a direct mail campaign: He collected thousands of control buttons on the television sets and sent them to potential customers with a note: “Call us and we will appear with the rest of the device! "

There are people who claim that Muntz invented the abbreviation "TV". Muntz used heavenly writing as one of his marketing tactics , but after posting one of his advertisements, he found the writing blurred and blown before the pilot could write out "Muntz Televisions". This is how Muntz came up with the abbreviation “TV”. However, "TV" had previously been used in television station identifiers such as WCBS-TV, which had been using this station identifier since 1946. Muntz also called his daughter "Tee Vee", although she was usually called "Teena" and later "Tee".

Brown goods: 1954–1985

Despite his early success, sales declined and Muntz's creditors refused further loans in 1954. Muntz admitted that his business had made a loss of $ 1,457,000 between April and August 1953, and although he attempted restructuring, Muntz TV went bankrupt and he left the business in 1959. (The company was reorganized and made in the 1960s Years without his namesake at the top.) However, Muntz continued to be successful in the sale of cars and consumer electronics.

4-track cassette

The attempt to combine his two main product lines, cars and playback devices, gave Muntz the idea of ​​developing the Muntz Stereo-Pak, the so-called 4-track tape cassette. It was a direct predecessor of the 8-track cassette , called 8-Track , which was later developed by Bill Lear . The Stereo-Pak cassette was based on the endless tape loop of the Fidelipac by George Eash , which was also used as the NAB cartridge by radio stations. Muntz chose stereophony as the standard for the recording format due to its widespread use . Before Muntz developed the Stereo-Pak, the only playback devices for mobile use in the car were turntable-based devices such as the Highway Hi-Fi developed by Peter Carl Goldmark . These devices played specially recorded records with 16⅔ or 45 min -1 , but they tended at bumps on the road to skip. Attempts to reduce this have resulted in increased pressure on the tonearm, which prematurely worn the records.

4-track car stereo

Muntz designed a stereo tape player for cars called Autostereo and had it manufactured cheaply in Japan. The car stereo was able to play the entire tape without turning around or changing tracks and did not suffer from the premature wear and tear caused by skipping as the mobile turntables caused on records. The number of buttons and knobs was minimized so that the driver could concentrate on the road. The device gave customers more control over their listening experience, as neither advertisements nor announcements were shown on the tapes as in radio broadcasts. Muntz sold the devices and cartridges in his own stores and through franchisees in Florida and Texas.

Muntz's audio products were so profitable by 1962 that he ended his contracts with tape duplicating companies and started his own company to manufacture pre-recorded Stereo-Pak cassettes. Most record companies didn't make Stereo-Pak tapes; however, Muntz Electronics Corporation licensed titles from all major record companies and released hundreds of different cassettes between the mid to late 1960s. Muntz exhibited his car stereos and Stereo-Pak cassettes under the trade name Stereo-Pak at the 1967 Consumer Electronics Show .

The car stereo device, which sold for $ 129 in 1963 ($ 1,010 in 2017), was a popular aftermarket perk for cars of the rich and famous of Beverly Hills . Frank Sinatra had one in his Buick Riviera , Dean Martin in his Corvette, and Peter Lawford in his Carrozzeria Ghia . James Garner , Red Skelton and Lawrence Welk also had the car stereo in their cars. Barry Goldwater bought it for his son and Jerry Lewis recorded his scripts on Stereo-Pak tapes so that he could memorize his roles while driving.

Muntz tried to create a trend and a modern image for his devices and cassettes. His printed advertisements often showed that the device was installed in an appealing sports car, mostly presented by a young attractive model and a suggestive slogan. Most of his employees in his California stores were attractive young women who were nicely dressed.

In 1963 Bill Lear traded in Stereo-Paks and intended to install the devices in his Learjet aircraft. However, he quickly decided to adapt the devices according to his own wishes and to redevelop them, which resulted in the Stereo 8 system. The market for 4-track systems from Muntz had run out by 1970 due to the competition from Stereo 8, which was due to the cost advantage due to less magnetic tape and the use of a less complex mechanism of the cassette. Although the 4-track system had better playback accuracy because the tape speed was twice that of the Stereo 8 system (and the 4-track system had wider heads for increased bandwidth), Stereo 8 became fast and by the late 1960s the dominant format for car radios. Ford first offered Stereo 8 devices in 1965 and made them standard equipment in new cars in 1966.

In an interview in 1979, Muntz told The Videophile magazine that the Stereo-Pak's biggest problem was its declining business. He explained that in order to reproduce the works of great artists like the Beatles, the Stereo Pak system had to produce hundreds of thousands of cassettes. But as soon as a popular album began to lose popularity, retailers would return the unsold tapes, expecting tapes with new titles in exchange. Muntz was unprepared for these withdrawals, saying that the high cost of unsold goods ultimately made his Stereo-Pak distribution unprofitable.

Home theater

In late 1970, Muntz shut down his Stereo-Pak business after a fire largely destroyed his main offices. He then entered the growing home video market. In the mid-1970s, Muntz thought of fitting a Sony color cathode ray tube (CRT) with a special lens and reflecting mirror, then projecting the enlarged image onto a larger screen . He built these simple assemblies into a large wooden console and successfully marketed one of the first wide-screen rear projection televisions for private use.

The televisions were manufactured at Muntz's headquarters in Van Nuys , California . The US sales office of Sony did not know that Muntz had obtained the TV chassis directly from the OEM department of Sony Tokyo. Thanks to his talent for mass market advertising and self-promotion, Muntz's rear projection televisions were a multi-million dollar business through 1977. Muntz made promptly Sony Betamax and VHS - recorder of JVC and RCA into his store and set up a showroom in order the potential for a "theater experience in own house" show.

In 1979 Muntz decided to sell blank cassettes and video recorders as a lure offer to lure customers into his showroom, where he then tried to sell them his rear projection TVs. His success continued in the early 1980s until he invested heavily in the Technicolor Compact Video Cassette (CVC), (CVC), a quarter-inch system that works with Betamax, VHS, and the Super 8 film home theater system should compete. The CVC format failed in the market and sales quickly eroded. Shortly afterwards, Muntz closed the store.

Late years

Just before he died of bronchial cancer in 1987 , Muntz focused his retail business on cell phones , satellite dishes , an RV rental company called Muntz Motor Mansions, and prefabricated aluminum houses. In February 1985, he made headlines as the first retailer to sell a Hitachi cell phone for less than $ 1,000. Just two years earlier, most cell phones had cost around $ 3,000.

After his death, his children James and Tee took over Muntz's two shops in Van Nuys and Newhall. The other businesses were franchises. James used the same promotional methods as his father's to run high-profile ads listing prices that annoyed his competitors so much that they called them cutthroat.

legacy

The "Madman" method promoted by Muntz was later copied by other retailers, including California auto salesman Cal Worthington and New York electronics chain Crazy Eddie . In Crazy Eddie's TV commercials, radio star Jerry Carroll hopped around the camera and babbled at high speed, always with the final sentence: "Crazy Eddie: Our prices are crazy!" As a result of his Crazy Eddie commercials, Carroll became a major character of the 1980s who even made it into the movie Splash .

Muntz's cultural impact was such that he was featured in novels such as the children's book "The Neddiad: How Neddie Took The Train, Went To Hollywood, And Saved Civilization" by Daniel Manus Pinkwater , "The Lost Get-Back Boogie" by James Lee Burke and Franklin Mason's "Four Roses in Three Acts".

A production called "Madman Muntz: American Maverick" (, The insane Muntz: An American loner ') has been shown at film festivals by 2007. The film, directed by Dan Bunker and Judy ver Mehr, was produced by Jim Castoro, an owner of an original Muntz jet, and was an official selection at the 2005 San Fernando Valley International Film Festival and Ole Muddy Film Festival. The film documents the life of Muntz, highlighting his colorful career in particular, and includes interviews with people who knew him and filming of his children at home.

Part of the 1997 KCET documentary "More Things That Aren't Here Anymore" shows Muntz and is broadcast by the station regularly during the recruiting phase of the fraternity.

In 2001 Madman Muntz was posthumously inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h The Associated Press: Earl Muntz is dead; as radio 'Madman,' he sold used cars , The New York Times . June 21, 1987. Retrieved April 11, 2008. 
  2. ↑ a b Dave Thompson: Whatever happened to 8-track's 'four' runner? , Gold mine . April 11, 2008. 
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Robert C. Post: Henry Kaiser, Troy Ruttman, and Madman Muntz: three originals . In: Johns Hopkins University Press (Ed.): Technology and Culture . 46, No. 4, October 2005, ISSN  0040-165X .
  4. ↑ a b c Chris Erskine: And the pitch is ... wild , Los Angeles Times . June 21, 2006. Retrieved April 9, 2008. 
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Mark Zaloudek: Madcap millionaire Muntz , Sarasota Herald-Tribune . March 13, 2005. Retrieved May 17, 2008. 
  6. ^ A b c d Janelle Walker: First 'crazy' car dealer focus of movie , Sun-Times News Group, (Illinois Courier News ). February 7, 2005. 
  7. ^ Staff: Muntz Car Co. to handle Graham-Paige products , New York Times . October 10, 1946. 
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Jerry Turnquist: A one-in-a-million 'Madman' movie spotlights Elgin's Earl Muntz, quintessential entrepreneur , Daily Herald . July 17, 2005. 
  9. ↑ Mad Man Muntz weds model agency director , Los Angeles Times . January 29, 1956. 
  10. ↑ a b c d e f Dig that crazy man , Time . July 13, 1953. Retrieved April 11, 2008. 
  11. ↑ a b c d e f Bob Pease: What's All This Muntzing Stuff, Anyhow? In: Electronic Design . July 23, 1992 ( electronicdesign.com ).
  12. ^ Robert Rosenblatt: 'Madman' Muntz, the master of hard sell, is still at it , Washington Post . 4th January 1976. 
  13. ^ Ed Wärme: The Kurtis-Kraft story: History of Frank P. Kurtis whose Racing Cars Dominated American Auto Racing for Three Decades . Interstate, Danville, IL 1974, OCLC 7670426 .
  14. ↑ a b Matt Stone: 365 cars you must drive . Motorbooks, 2006, ISBN 978-0-7603-2414-1 .
  15. ^ A b c David Lillywhite: The encyclopedia of classic cars . Thunder Bay, 2003, ISBN 978-1-57145-990-9 .
  16. ^ Cover , Popular Science . September 1951. 
  17. ^ A b c Dan Scanlan: Purple passion: '52 Muntz Jet a simply cool classic , Florida Times-Union . December 2, 2005. Archived from the original on August 24, 2008 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 21, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jacksonville.com 
  18. ^ Bill Vance: Motoring memories: Pegaso, 1951-1958 , Canadian Driver . June 30, 2006. Retrieved May 18, 2008. 
  19. ↑ Susan Buzenberg, Bill Buzenberg: Salant, CBS, and the battle for the soul of broadcast journalism: the memoirs of Richard S. Salant . Basic Books, 1999, ISBN 978-0-8133-3703-6 .
  20. ^ Dan Jedlicka: The Muntz Jet: A life too short , Chicago Sun-Times . July 18, 2007. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 27, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com 
  21. ^ A b Robert Sickels: The 1940s (American popular culture through history) . Greenwood Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-313-31299-1 .
  22. ^ Albert Abramson: The history of television, 1880 to 1941 . McFarland & Co, 1987, ISBN 0-89950-284-9 .
  23. ^ A b Albert Abramson: The history of television, 1942 to 2000 . McFarland & Co, 2003, ISBN 0-7864-1220-8 .
  24. ^ On the beam , Time . August 1, 1949. Retrieved May 21, 2008. 
  25. ↑ a b Lynn O'Shaughnessy: Earl Muntz, 'Madman' of zany ads, dies , Los Angeles Times . June 21, 1987. 
  26. ^ Richard Wright: Sarasota museum instills a passion for cars in its visitors , Detroit News . April 5, 2005. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved August 20, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / info.detnews.com 
  27. ↑ Fred R. Shapiro , Antedating of TV Antedating of TV ( Memento September 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (quoting New York Times , August 31, 1946) (accessed August 27, 2008).
  28. ↑ a b Time clock , Time . March 15, 1954. Retrieved May 21, 2008. 
  29. ↑ a b c d e f g h David Morton: Sound recording: the life story of a technology . Greenwood Press, September 2004, ISBN 978-0-313-33090-2 .
  30. ↑ Howard Klein: Highway stereo: Speaking vous Italiano, Senor? , New York Times . May 28, 1967. 
  31. ^ Peter Goldmark: Maverick inventor: my turbulent years at CBS . Saturday Review Press, 1973, ISBN 0-8415-0046-0 .
  32. ↑ Consumer Electronics Association: 40 years of CES (PDF). In: Consumer Electronics Show 2007 Brochure . Archived from the original on May 29, 2008 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 18, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cesweb.org 
  33. ^ A b A tape for the road , Time . 1963-08.09. Retrieved May 18, 2008. 
  34. ↑ Russell Sanjek: American popular music and its business: the first four hundred years volume III: from 1900 to 1984 . Oxford University Press, 1988, ISBN 978-0-19-504311-2 .
  35. ↑ Eric D. Daniel, C. Denis Mee, Mark H. Clark: Magnetic recording: the first 100 years . Wiley-IEEE Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0-7803-4709-0 .
  36. ^ A b Earl Muntz interview , The Videophile . 
  37. ^ Robert Rosenblatt: 'Madman' Muntz rides again , Los Angeles Times . October 26, 1975. 
  38. ^ Fisher Dan: Recycled Madman Muntz rides again , Los Angeles Times . 18th July 1971. 
  39. ↑ James Murray: Wireless nation: the frenzied launch of the cellular revolution . Basic Books, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7382-0688-2 .
  40. ↑ James Bates: Philosophy's same, but pitch for car phones in some ways 'more sedate' Madman Muntz's heirs keep the volume up , Los Angeles Times . September 13, 1988. 
  41. ^ Robert Lindsey: For that big model, try a used car , The New York Times . October 16, 1977. 
  42. ^ Stuart Elliott: Fake products and the movies that loved them , The New York Times . January 8, 2006. Retrieved April 11, 2008. 
  43. ^ A b Anthony Ramirez: The media business: advertising; the man folks thought was Crazy Eddie is back. He seems saner. , The New York Times . August 18, 1995. Retrieved May 19, 2008. 
  44. ↑ Daniel Pink Water: The Neddiad: How Neddie Took The Train, Went To Hollywood, And Saved Civilization . Houghton Mifflin, 2007, ISBN 978-0-618-59444-3 .
  45. ↑ James Burke: The lost get-back boogie . Pocket Star, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4165-1706-1 .
  46. ^ Franklin Mason: Four roses in three acts . Fiction Collective 2, 1981, ISBN 978-0-914590-65-1 .
  47. ↑ Cecilia Rasmussen: An LA legend you've never seen or heard , Los Angeles Times . December 16, 2007. 
personal data
SURNAME Muntz, Earl William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Muntz, Madman (nickname); Stereo-Pak, Muntz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur, founder, advertising actor and engineer
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Elgin , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1987
Place of death Rancho Mirage , California