The Most Famous American Entrepreneur You've Never Heard Of

From time to time my father use the word "muntzing" in conversation but virtually no one remembers what this means, so I thought I'd share the background and introduce you to one of the forgotten and truly inspirational geniuses of American entrepreneurship.

'Muntzing' is the practice of stripping away all but the barest materials and components of an item and still have it sort-of kind-of mostly work...mostly. It's usually relates to electronics but can refer to any manufactured product.

The term's namesake is Earl "Madman" Muntz, American Entrepreneur and self-taught electrical engineer. Back in the 30s, he started very young selling used cars. He was so good at it that he soon had his own dealership at 16! His mother had to sign the sales contracts because he was not of legal age. Rather than the staid, proper conservative style expected from a used car salesman at the time, Muntz was wildly flamboyant. He soon had multiple dealerships for new and used cars, and began advertising on radio. "We buy 'em retail and sell 'em wholesale. It's more fun that way. We make it up on volume. My wife thinks this is a bad idea. She's CARRAAAZZZY!"

Muntz was one of these incredibly charismatic persons who could sell an icebox to an eskimo. When he ran his first radio ad campaign, he convinced the stations to "send the bill to my office." He didn't have a dime. He made the money to pay the bills from the advertised sale. In one instance, he sold a new car to a couple who was with another couple buying a car. They had absolutely no intention of buying a car or anything else. After driving down the road with it a few miles, they pulled into another dealership, which also happened to be owned by Muntz, and sold it back to him for less money than they paid. 

Muntz was married seven times, and kept good relations with all his exes and their new husbands, even playing golf with them. 

The car market became saturated post-WWII, and Muntz then turned his attention to televisions with the goal of selling an inexpensive set that the average person could afford. This is where the term "muntzing" derives. He used to approach his design engineers' benches and ask, "If you cut out that part, would the set still work?" The engineers kept removing components until the set stopped working, with Muntz then instructing, "Better put that one back." Most of the muntzed components were for boosting and improving signal quality at a distance. Muntz abandoned the suburban and rural customers to focus on the cities where reception was best and the sets worked well enough. He was able to deliver and install (another Muntz first--you brought home all other sets yourself and installed them) a television for under $100, virtually unheard of in the early 1950s. Some old timers may even remember the TV ad jingle that played on TV and radio through the mid 1960s: "There's something about a Muntz TV..." 

Speaking of TV, it was Muntz who popularized this term. It had been used before in station call letters, but it was Muntz who made it into a word. It's said he thought the word television would show too blurry with the skywriters he often employed for advertising, and so he abbreviated it to TV and started publicizing the term on his ads, which also distinguished his product from others. He actually named his daughter Tee Vee! 

Other Muntz firsts

He introduced the telescoping indoor antenna. Before this, all TV antennas were mounted on the roof!

He instituted the practice of measuring a TV screen diagonally. Before that, TV screen size was measured left to right. Today, every screen mfr in the world 'muntzes' their screen sizes. 

Also in the early 50s, a small private car mfr caught Muntz's interest, and he bought out the name and factory. After some modifications, he produced the Muntz Jet, the first true American sports car and predecessor to the Corvette and Thunderbird. With its huge Cadillac engine, the Jet was about the fastest car on the road. Other innovations were a TV built into the dashboard and a bar in the rear seat! Most buyers were the rich and famous, and he began to travel in those circles. Sadly in this case, the cars cost more to make than what he sold them for, harkening back to his early ad days where he 'bought retail and sold 'm wholesale. The Muntz Jet was produced for only three years, and is one of the most highly desirable collector cars of the 50s. 

In the late 50s, Muntz had another 'crazy' idea. He thought that people might want the listening please of a stereo system in their cars. He further imagined that they might want to have the ability to play pre-recorded music of just what they wanted to hear. So he invented the 4-track 'Stereo-Pak" system and installed them into cars. Yes, Muntz created the compact multi-channel, cassette-playing system. Business boomed until Lear Industries came out with the 8-track in the 60s, and Muntz went bust once again. 

He made his next fortune selling early cell phones and stereo systems at deep discounts. 

Before he died in 1987, a reporter asked Madman Muntz what it had been like to make and lose so many fortunes in his lifetime. Earl quipped, "It's more fun that way."

 So if you ever hear about something being muntzed, now you know.