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Madman Muntz

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Earl William Muntz
"Madman" Muntz in one of his many TV advertisement performances
Born(1914-01-03)3 January 1914
Elgin, Illinois,
USA
Died21 June 1987(1987-06-21) (aged 73)
Rancho Mirage, California,
USA
Occupation(s)Electrical Engineer
Businessman
Entrepreneur
Television Commercial Actor
ChildrenJames Muntz
Tee Vee "Teena" Muntz

Earl William "Madman" Muntz (January 3, 1914 – June 21, 1987)[1] was a merchandiser of cars and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1987. He was a pioneer in television (TV) commercials with his oddball "Madman" persona in which he dressed in unusual costumes, engaged in stunts, and made outrageous claims to generate publicity. He also pioneered car stereos[1] with the development of the Muntz Stereo-Pak (better known as the 4-track cartridge, a predecessor to the 8-track cartridge developed by Lear Industries),[2] invented the practice of Muntzing, produced and marketed the first black-and-white television receivers to sell for less than $100, and created one of the earliest functional widescreen projection TVs.[3] He also coined the term "TV".[4] Although he dropped out of high school,[4] Muntz made fortunes in automobiles, TV receivers, and car stereos and tapes.[5] A 1968 Los Angeles Times article noted that one year he sold $72 million worth of cars, five years later he sold $55 million worth of TV receivers, and in 1967 he sold $30 million worth of car stereos and tapes.[1]

After his success as a used car salesman and then with Kaiser-Frazer dealerships in Los Angeles and New York City,[1] Muntz founded the Muntz Car Company, which made the "Muntz Jet", a sports car with jet-like contours. The car was manufactured between 1951 and 1953, although fewer than 400 cars were produced. Muntz married seven times and divorced six.[6] Among his wives were actress Joan Barton (who appeared in Angel and the Badman with John Wayne), and Patricia Stevens[7] of the Patricia Stevens Finishing Schools. Phyllis Diller was among his many girlfriends. He was friends with singer Rudy Vallee, comedian Jerry Colonna, actor Bert Lahr,[5] television presenter Dick Clark and actor Gene Autry.[6]

1914–1950s: Early years

Muntz was fascinated by electronics from an early age. He built his first radio at age eight[4] and had built one for his parents' car by the age of fourteen.[4] During the Great Depression, he dropped out of Elgin High School[4] at age 15 to work in his parents' hardware store in Elgin, Illinois.

Car sales

Muntz opened his first used car lot in Elgin at age 20 with a $500 line of credit.[5] Because of his youth, which prevented him from legally closing his own deals, his mother signed the car-sale papers.[4] During a vacation in California, Muntz discovered that used cars sold for much more there than in Elgin. At age 26, he decided to exploit this opportunity and moved to open a used car lot in Glendale, California.[5] On a hunch, he purchased, with the intent to re-sell, 13 brand new right-hand-drive vehicles that had been built for customers in Asia but could not be delivered because of World War II. One vehicle was a custom-made Lincoln built for Chiang Kai-shek.[8] Local newspapers ran stories about the unusual cars, and, as a result, Muntz sold all of them in two weeks in their original shipping crates.[8] Muntz soon opened a second lot in Los Angeles and closed his lot in Elgin.

Common opinion at the time was that used car salesmen should project a staid image. However, Muntz completely rejected this belief.[1] He realized the possibilities of generating publicity with odd stunts and developed his "Madman" persona as a result.[8] His flamboyant billboards and oddball television and radio commercials for his various businesses soon made him famous. In his used auto commercials, he marketed one model as the "daily special". Muntz claimed that if the car did not sell that day, he would smash it to pieces on camera with a sledgehammer.[9] Another infamous Muntz used-car TV pitch was "I buy 'em retail and sell 'em wholesale... it's more fun that way!"[10] His commercials generated so much publicity that comedians such as Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Steve Allen would continually try to outdo each other during television appearances by telling "Madman" Muntz jokes.[1] University of Southern California fans would often spell out Muntz' name during halftime as a prank.[8]

As a result of the publicity he generated, his car lots eventually became tourist attractions. A 1946 survey by Panner Motor Tours revealed that Muntz ranked seventh among things in Southern California that attracted tourists.[1] Muntz was willing to take large risks in his attempts to generate publicity. During the era of McCarthyism, he asked one of his advisers, "Do you think I'd make the front pages if I joined the Communist Party?"[10][11]

Muntz Jet

Main article: Muntz Car Company
A mint-condition 1953 Muntz Jet at a Monterey, California, classic car auction

In 1948, race car designer Frank Kurtis (founder of Kurtis-Kraft), attempted to market a new sports car under his own marque. This car was named the Kurtis Kraft Sport, a 2-seater that only sold 36 units by 1950.[12] In 1951, for just $200,000[13] Kurtis sold the license to manufacture the cars to Muntz, who quickly rebadged them as the "Muntz Jet".[14] Initial production of the Jet took place in Glendale, where Muntz extended the 2-seater Kurtis Kraft Sport's body by 13 inches (33 cm), making it a 4-seater, and exchanged the Ford V8 engine for a larger Cadillac V8.[13] Later, after making just 28 Jets in California, Muntz moved production to a new factory in Evanston, Illinois, extended the body a further 3 inches (8 cm), and replaced the Cadillac V8 with a less expensive Lincoln sidevalve V8.

The Jet was featured on the cover of the September 1951 issue of Popular Science (along with a Jaguar and an MG).[15] It featured its own design, with aluminum body panels and a removable fiberglass top.[14] Paint schemes were flashy and bright, with names like "Mars Red", "Stratosphere Blue", and "Lime Mist", and interior options included alligator or Spanish leatherette. The backseat armrests contained a full cocktail bar.[16]

The Jet was capable of a top speed of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) and acceleration of 0 to 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) in just 6 seconds,[16] a significant achievement for a road car at the time. The fastest production car in 1953 was the Pegaso Z-102 Supercharged sportscar at 155 miles per hour (249 km/h).[17] Famous Jet owners included then CBS chief operating officer Frank Stanton[18] and actor Lash La Rue.[16]

However, the labor and materials demands required to produce the Jet resulted in a higher price for the end product, and in 1954, after selling about 400 cars and losing about $1,000 on each, Muntz closed the company.[14] Today, Muntz Jets are highly-prized collector cars and are recognized as predecessors to the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Thunderbird.[16]

Muntz TV, Inc.

Although Muntz pretended to be a madman in his unorthodox television commercials, he was a shrewd businessman and a self-taught electrical engineer. Through a trial-and-error process in which he took apart and studied Philco, RCA, and DuMont televisions,[19] he reduced the devices' electrical components to the minimum functional number. This practice became known as "Muntzing".[9]

In the early 1950s, most brands of television receivers were complex pieces of equipment. TVs commonly contained about 30 vacuum tubes as well as large rheostats, transformers, and other heavy electronics. As a result they were usually very expensive; for example, the cheapest U.S.-manufactured receiver made before World War II had a 3-inch (8 cm) screen and cost $125, the equivalent of $1,863 in 2007. The cheapest model with a 12-inch (30 cm) screen cost $445, equal to $6,633 in 2007.[20] By 1954, although television had existed in various forms for more than 40 years, only 55 percent of US households owned a receiver.[21] By contrast, just 8 years later, 90 percent of US households owned a receiver.[21]

Muntz developed a television chassis that produced an acceptable monochrome picture with just 17 tubes. He often carried a pair of wire clippers, and when he thought that one of his employees was "over-engineering" a circuit, he would begin snipping components out until the picture or sound stopped working. At that point, he would tell the engineer "Well, I guess you have to put that last part back in" and walk away.[9]

Marketed under the name "Muntz" by his company "Muntz TV, Inc.",[8] the simplified units were the first black-and-white TV receivers to retail in the US for less than $100,[4] and Muntz was also the first retailer to measure his screens from corner to corner rather than by width.[19] The receivers sold well and were reliable partly because the reduced number of tubes created much less heat. They worked well in metropolitan areas that were close to television transmission towers, where signals were strong. Because of the reduced component count, his receivers worked poorly with weaker signals, as most of the components left out of his designs were intended to boost performance in fringe areas. This was a calculated decision: Muntz preferred to leave the low-volume, high-performance television receiver market to firms such as RCA and Zenith Electronics, as his intended customers were primarily urban dwellers with limited funds.[9] Additionally, many urban apartment buildings had rules prohibiting external television aerials, and installation of an aerial, even if allowed, cost as much as $150. Muntz solved this problem by adding a built-in aerial to his receivers.[22] In 1952, Muntz TV Inc. grossed $49.9 million.[8]

Muntz continued using his "Madman" persona in his various advertisements. In one TV commercial that normally aired just after the Ed Sullivan Show,[9] Muntz, dressed in red long johns and a Napoleon hat, promoted his new TV receivers with 14-inch (36 cm) screens by saying, "I wanna give 'em away, but Mrs. Muntz won't let me. She's crazy!"[9] His radio commercials, which Muntz ran up to 170 times a day, initially followed a classical music theme built around the spelling of Muntz' name.[1] However, he soon convinced radio stations to run ads more in keeping with his persona; one featured Muntz screaming "Stop staring at your radio!"[23] He followed up his radio ads with a direct mail campaign, collecting thousands of TV knobs and mailing them to prospective customers with a note saying, "Call us and we'll show up with the rest of the set!"[23] Muntz also used skywriting as a marketing tactic. However, after watching one of his ads being created, he noted that the letters often began to blur and dissipate before the pilot could finish spelling out "Muntz Televisions". As a result, Muntz came up with the abbreviation "TV".[4] He even named his daughter "Tee Vee", although she was normally referred to as "Teena".[6]

1960–79: Audio and video

By the mid 1950s, the advent of color television had caused the market for black-and-white receivers to shrink. In 1954, Muntz' creditors blacked him out and as a result threw Muntz TV into bankruptcy.[24] Muntz admitted that his business had lost $1,457,000 from April to August 1953,[24] and although he had hoped to reorganize and stay in business, Muntz TV Inc. only held on for a few more years, finally going out of business in 1959.[25] However, Muntz continued his success in car and general consumer electronics sales.

4-track cartridge

Main article: Stereo-Pak

In his attempts to combine two of his main product lines, cars and stereos, Muntz invented the Muntz Stereo-Pak 4-track tape cartridge, a direct predecessor of the Stereo 8 cartridge (aka the "8-Track Tape") developed by Bill Lear.[1] (The Stereo-Pak cartridge was based on the endless-loop Fidelipac cartridge designed by George Eash and already in use by radio stations.) As stereo recordings were widely available (although still a relatively new technology) Muntz chose to use this as a standard feature.[25]

He also had an automotive stereo tape player of his own design, called the Autostereo, manufactured inexpensively in Japan.[25] The Autostereo was designed to play a complete album without changing tracks or turning the tape over, and even incorporated safety features: the number of knobs and controls on the units were minimized to allow the driver to concentrate on the road.[25] The tape player allowed customers greater control over their listening experience, as the tapes never ran advertisements or public service announcements, unlike radio broadcasts.[25]Muntz sold the players and cartridges from his own stores as well as adding franchised dealers in Florida and Texas.[25]

By 1962, the business was so profitable that Muntz canceled agreements he had made with tape duplicating companies and instead founded his own company to manufacture prerecorded Stereo-Pak cartridges.[2][25] Most record labels did not manufacture Stereo-Pak cartridges themselves, however, the Muntz Electronics Corporation licensed music from all the major record labels and issued hundreds of different tapes in the mid to late 1960s. Muntz exhibited his Autostereo players and Stereo-Pak cartridges (under the trade name Stereo-Pak) at the 1967 Consumer Electronics Show.[26]

Muntz Stereo-Pak ads tended to feature attractive young models and suggestive tag lines.

The Autostereo player, which retailed for $129 and up in 1963, was a popular aftermarket addition to cars among the Beverly Hills rich and famous.[27] Frank Sinatra had one installed in his Buick Riviera, Dean Martin had one in his Corvette, and Peter Lawford had one in his Ghia. James Garner, Red Skelton, and Lawrence Welk all had them installed in their cars as well. Barry Goldwater bought one for his son, and Jerry Lewis had his scripts recorded onto Stereo-Pak cartridges so he could learn his lines while driving.[27]

Muntz attempted to establish a modern and sexy image around his players and cartridges. His print ads tended to show the player installed in a flashy sports car and usually incorporated a young, attractive model and a suggestive tagline. Most of the employees in his California shops were attractive young women dressed in gaudy clothing.[28]

In 1963, Lear became a distributor of the Stereo-Pak, intending to install the units in his Learjet aircraft. However, he soon instead decided to reengineer and customize the units to suit his own wishes, the result of which became the Stereo 8 system.[25] The market for Muntz' 4-track system had faded by 1970 because of competition from Stereo 8, which saved money by using less magnetic tape and used a less-complex cartridge mechanism. Although the 4-track system had higher fidelity, since the tape speed was double the speed of the Stereo 8 system, and the 4-track had wider heads for better bandwidth, the Stereo 8 quickly became the dominant format for car stereo systems during the late 1960s. The Ford Motor Company began featuring Stereo 8 players in their 1965 automobiles, and it became a standard option by 1966.[29]

In a 1979 interview in The Videophile newsletter, Muntz revealed that the biggest problem for the Stereo-Pak business was returned merchandise.[30] He explained that when licensing major artists like The Beatles, the Stereo-Pak plant had to churn out hundreds of thousands of cartridges. But once the album left the charts and sales dropped, retailers would return the unsold cartridges, expecting credit towards new titles. Muntz was unprepared for the returns and said the huge cost of unsold merchandise eventually made his Stereo-Pak business unprofitable.[30]

Home video

After his Stereo-Pak audio business closed its doors in late 1970 after a fire severely damaged the building it was in, Muntz quickly involved himself in the growing home video market. During the mid-1970s, Muntz thought of taking a 15-inch Sony color cathode ray tube (CRT) television receiver, fitting it with a special lens and reflecting mirror, then projecting the magnified image onto a larger screen. He housed these primitive units in a large wooden console, making it one of the first successful widescreen projection TV receivers marketed for home use.[3][31]

The receivers were built in Muntz' headquarters in Van Nuys, California. Sony's U.S. sales division was unaware that Muntz was dealing directly with Sony's Tokyo original equipment manufacturer (OEM) department, which shipped the TV chassis directly to his Van Nuys factory.[3] Because of Muntz' talent for mass-market advertising and self-promotion, the projection receivers became a multi-million-dollar business by 1977.[3] Muntz was quick to feature Sony's Betamax as well as JVC's and RCA's Video Home System (VHS) recorders in his store, setting up a showroom to demonstrate the potential for creating a "theater experience in the home".[3]

In 1979, Muntz decided to sell blank tapes and VCRs at cost to bring customers into his showroom, where he could try to sell them his projection TV systems. His success continued through the early 1980s[3] until he invested heavily in the Technicolor Compact Video Cassette (CVC), a 1/4" system designed to compete with Betamax, VHS, and the 8mm video system introduced in 1985. The CVC format failed in the marketplace; sales quickly eroded, and Muntz' store closed soon after.[3]

1980s: Later years

Shortly before his death from lung cancer in 1987, Muntz began to focus his retail business on cellular phones, satellite dishes, a motorhome rental company dubbed Muntz Motor Mansions,[32] and prefabricated aluminum houses.[6] At the time of his death, he was the leading retailer of cellular phones in Los Angeles[6] and had made headlines in February 1985 as the first retailer to offer a cellular phone (a Hitachi model) for under $1,000. Just two years before, in 1983, most cellular phone models had cost around $3,000.[33] During his last years, Muntz drove a customized Lincoln Continental with a television installed in the dashboard: Muntz claimed it helped him "drive better".[5]

After he died, his children, James and Tee Vee, continued to operate two Muntz stores in Van Nuys and Newhall; the remainder were franchised businesses. James employed his father's advertising techniques to create splashy ads featuring prices that annoyed his competitors so much that they referred to them as "cutthroat".[34]

Legacy

The "Madman" method pioneered by Muntz would later be copied by other retailers, including New York area electronics chain Crazy Eddie.[35] In TV commercials for Crazy Eddie (named for owner Eddie Antar), radio personality Jerry Carroll would leap at the camera and jump around while jabbering at high speed, and always end his spiel with the line "Crazy Eddie: Our prices are insaaaaaane!"[36] As a result of his Crazy Eddie commercials, Carroll became a significant 80s icon, even appearing in a commercial in the film Splash.[36]

Muntz' name was mentioned in novels, including children's book The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization by Daniel Manus Pinkwater,[37] The Lost Get-Back Boogie by James Lee Burke,[38] and Four Roses in Three Acts by Franklin Mason.[39]

A production called Madman Muntz: American Maverick about Muntz was screened at various film festivals and other locations through 2007.[6] It was directed by Dan Bunker and Judy ver Mehr, and the executive producer was Jim Castoro, who owned an original Muntz Jet. The film was an official 2005 selection at the San Fernando Valley Film Festival and the Ole Muddy Film Festival.[6] The film documents Muntz' life, paying particular attention to his colorful career and includes interviews with people who knew him and home movie footage contributed by James and Tee Vee.[6] In 2001, Madman Muntz was posthumously inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame.[40]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Associated Press (1987-06-21). ""Earl Muntz Is Dead; As Radio 'Madman,' He Sold Used Cars"". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  2. ^ a b Thompson, Dave (2008-04-11). "Whatever happened to 8-track's 'four'runner?". Goldmine.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Robert C. Post (2005). "Henry Kaiser, Troy Ruttman, and Madman Muntz: Three Originals". Technology and Culture. 46 (4). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISSN 0040-165X. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |quotes= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Zaloudek, Mark (2005-03-13). "Madcap millionaire Muntz". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
  5. ^ a b c d e Walker, Janelle (2005-02-07). "First 'Crazy' Car Dealer Focus of Movie". Courier News. Sun-Times News Group.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Turnquist, Jerry (2005-07-17). "A one-in-a-million 'Madman' Movie spotlights Elgin's Earl Muntz, quintessential entrepreneur". Daily Herald.
  7. ^ "Mad Man Muntz Weds Model Agency Director". Los Angeles Times. January 29 1956. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ a b c d e f "Dig That Crazy Man". Time. July 13 1953. Retrieved 2008-04-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ a b c d e f Pease, Robert (1992-07-23). "What's All This Muntzing Stuff, Anyhow?". Electronic Design.
  10. ^ a b Erskine, Chris (2006-06-21). "And the pitch is ... wild". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
  11. ^ Rosenblatt, Robert (1976-01-04). "'Madman' Muntz, the Master of Hard Sell, Is Still At It". Washington Post. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  12. ^ Hitze, Ed (1993). The Kurtis-Kraft Story. Interstate Printers. ISBN B0015MFQZG. {{cite book}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  13. ^ a b Stone, Matt (2006). 365 Cars You Must Drive. Motorbooks. ISBN 978-0760324141. {{cite book}}: |format= requires |url= (help)
  14. ^ a b c David Lillywhite, ed. (2003). The Encyclopedia of Classic Cars (Hardcover ed.). Thunder Bay Press. ISBN 978-1571459909.
  15. ^ "Cover". Popular Science. September, 1951. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ a b c d Scanlan, Dan (2005-12-02). "Purple Passion: '52 Muntz Jet a simply cool classic". Florida Times-Union. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
  17. ^ Vance, Bill (2006-06-30). "Motoring Memories: Pegaso, 1951 - 1958". Canadian Driver. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
  18. ^ Susan Buzenberg, Bill Buzenberg, ed. (1999). Salant, CBS, And The Battle For The Soul Of Broadcast Journalism: The Memoirs Of Richard S. Salant (Paperback ed.). Basic Books. ISBN 978-0813337036.
  19. ^ a b Sickels, Robert (2004). The 1940s (American Popular Culture Through History). Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313312991.
  20. ^ Abramson, Albert (1987). The History of Television, 1880 to 1941. McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-89950-284-9.
  21. ^ a b Abramson, Albert (2003). The History of Television, 1942 to 2000. McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-78641-220-8.
  22. ^ "On The Beam". Time. August 1 1949. Retrieved 2008-05-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ a b O'Shaughnessy, Lynn (1987-06-21). "Earl Muntz, `Madman' of Zany Ads, Dies". Los Angeles Times.
  24. ^ a b "Time Clock". Time. March 15 1954. Retrieved 2008-05-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h David Morton (2004). Sound Recording: The Life Story of a Technology. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313330902. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  26. ^ Consumer Electronics Association (2007). "40 Years of CES" (PDF). Consumer Electronics Show 2007 Brochure. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
  27. ^ a b "A Tape for the Road". Time. August 9 1963. Retrieved 2008-05-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ Sanjek, Russell (1988). American Popular Music and Its Business: The First Four Hundred Years Volume III: From 1900 to 1984. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195043112.
  29. ^ Eric D. Daniel, C. Denis Mee, and Mark H. Clark, ed. (1998). Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years. Wiley-IEEE Press. ISBN 978-0780347090. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  30. ^ a b "Earl Muntz Interview". The Videophile. 1979.
  31. ^ Rosenblatt, Robert (1975-10-26). "'Madman' Muntz Rides Again". Los Angeles Times.
  32. ^ Dan, Fisher (1971-07-18). "Recycled Madman Muntz Rides Again". Los Angeles Times.
  33. ^ Murray, James (2002). Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0738206882.
  34. ^ Bates, James (1988-09-13). "Philosophy's Same, but Pitch for Car Phones in Some Ways 'More Sedate' Madman Muntz' Heirs Keep the Volume Up". Los Angeles Times.
  35. ^ Elliott, Stuart (2006-01-08). "Fake Products and the Movies That Loved Them". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  36. ^ a b Ramirez, Anthony (1995-08-18). "The Media Business: Advertising; The man folks thought was Crazy Eddie is back. He seems saner". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
  37. ^ Pinkwater, Daniel (2007). The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0618594443.
  38. ^ Burke, James (2006). The Lost Get-Back Boogie. Pocket Star. ISBN 978-1416517061.
  39. ^ Mason, Franklin (1981). Four Roses in Three Acts. Fiction Collective 2. ISBN 978-0914590651.
  40. ^ Rasmussen, Cecillia (2007-12-16). "An L.A. legend you've never seen or heard". Los Angeles Times.

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