Rube Goldberg

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For the namesake contraption, see Rube Goldberg machine.
Rube Goldberg
Rube Goldberg 1928.png
Born Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg
(1883-07-04)July 4, 1883
San Francisco, California, United States
Died December 7, 1970(1970-12-07) (aged 87)
New York City, New York, United States
Resting place Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York
Occupation Engineer, Sculptor, News Reporter, Cartoonist
Known for Rube Goldberg machines

Reuben Garrett Lucius "Rube" Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970) was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor.

Similar to Heath Robinson devices in the UK, he is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime, including a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning in 1948 and the Banshees' Silver Lady Award 1959.[1]

Goldberg was a founding member and the first president of the National Cartoonists Society,[2] and he is the namesake of the Reuben Award, which the organization awards to the Cartoonist of the Year. He is the inspiration for various international competitions, known as Rube Goldberg Machine Contests, which challenge participants to make a complex machine to perform a simple task.

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Personal life [edit]

Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was born July 4, 1883 in San Francisco California to Jewish parents Max and Hannah Goldberg. He was the second of four children (older brother Garrett, younger brother Walter, and younger sister Lillian).[citation needed] He started drawing when he was four years old.[citation needed]

Rube married Irma Seeman in 1916. They lived at 98 Central Park West in New York City and had two sons named Thomas and George.

Goldberg did not share a surname with his children because of the amount of hatred towards him during World War II stemming from the political nature of his cartoons. He ordered his sons to change their names from Goldberg for safety reasons. Both of his sons chose the last name of George, wanting to keep a sense of family cohesiveness. Thomas and George's children now run a company called RGI (Rube Goldberg Incorporated) to maintain the Goldberg name. John George (Thomas's son) is assisted by his cousin Jennifer George[3] (George's daughter) and John's son Joshua George to keep the family name alive.[4]

Goldberg died in 1970 at the age of 87, while his widow, Irma, died 20 years later on April 26, 1990 at the age of 95.[5]

Career [edit]

Rube Goldberg with family, 1929

Goldberg's father was a San Francisco police and fire commissioner, who encouraged the young Reuben to pursue a career in engineering. Rube graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1904 with a College of Mining degree[1] and was hired by the city of San Francisco as an engineer for the Water and Sewers Department. After six months he resigned his position with the city to join the San Francisco Chronicle where he became a sports cartoonist.[1] The following year, he took a job with the San Francisco Bulletin, where he remained until he moved to New York City in 1907.

Goldberg drew cartoons for five newspapers, including the New York Journal American|New York Evening Journal and the New York Evening Mail. His work entered syndication in 1915, beginning his nationwide popularity. He was syndicated by the McNaught Syndicate from 1922 until 1934.

A prolific artist, Goldberg produced several cartoon series simultaneously, including Mike and Ike (They Look Alike), Boob McNutt, Foolish Questions, "Lala Palooza" and The Weekly Meeting of the Tuesday Women's Club. The cartoons that brought him lasting fame involved a character named Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts. In that series, Goldberg drew labeled schematics of the comical "inventions" that would later bear his name.

Cultural legacy [edit]

The postcard book, Rube Goldberg's Inventions!, was compiled by Maynard Frank Wolfe from the Rube Goldberg Archives. The cover illustration shows Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin. The "Self-Operating Napkin" is activated when the soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, pulling string (B) and thereby jerking ladle (C), which throws cracker (D) past parrot (E). Parrot jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and lights automatic lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K), which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M) and allow the pendulum with the attached napkin to swing back and forth, thereby wiping chin.

In 1931 the Merriam-Webster dictionary adopted the word "Rube Goldberg" as an adjective defined as accomplishing something simple through complex means.[6]

Predating Goldberg, the corresponding term in the UK was, and still is, "Heath Robinson", after the English illustrator with an equal devotion to odd machinery, also portraying sequential or chain reaction elements.[7]

Goldberg's work was commemorated posthumously in 1995 with the inclusion of Rube Goldberg's Inventions, depicting Professor Butts' "Self-Operating Napkin" in the Comic Strip Classics series of U.S. postage stamps.[8]

Film and television [edit]

Rube Goldberg wrote a feature film featuring his machines and sculptures called Soup to Nuts, which was released in 1930 and starred Ted Healy and The Three Stooges.

In the 1962 John Wayne movie Hatari!, an invention to catch monkeys by character Pockets, played by Red Buttons, is described as a "Rube Goldberg."

In the late 1960s and early 70s, educational shows like Sesame Street, Vision On and The Electric Company routinely showed bits that involved Rube Goldberg devices, including the Rube Goldberg Alphabet Contraption, and the What Happens Next Machine.[9][10]

Various other films and cartoons have included highly complex machines that perform simple tasks. Among these are Flåklypa Grand Prix, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Wallace and Gromit, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, The Way Things Go, Edward Scissorhands, Back to the Future, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Goonies, Gremlins, the Saw film series, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Cat from Outer Space, Malcolm, Family Guy, American Dad!, and Waiting...

Also in the Final Destination film series the characters often die in Rube Goldberg-esque ways. In the film The Great Mouse Detective, the villain Ratigan attempts to kill the film's heroes, Basil of Baker Street and David Q. Dawson, with a Rube Goldberg style device. The classic video in this genre was done by the artist duo Peter Fischli & David Weiss in 1987 with their 30 minute video "Der Lauf der Dinge" or "The Way Things Go".

Honda produced a video in 2003 called "The Cog" using many of the same principles that Fischli and Weiss had done in 1987.

In 2005, the American indie/alternative rock band The Bravery released a video for their debut single, "An Honest Mistake," which features the band performing the song in the middle of a Rube Goldberg machine.

In 1999, an episode of The X-Files was titled "The Goldberg Variation". The episode intertwined characters FBI agents Mulder and Scully, a simple apartment super, Henry Weems (Willie Garson) and an ailing young boy, Ritchie Lupone (Shia LaBeouf) in a real-life Goldberg device.

The 2010 music video "This Too Shall Pass - RGM Version" by the rock band OK Go features a machine that, after four minutes of kinetic activity, shoots the band members in the face with paint. "RGM" presumably stands for Rube Goldberg Machine.[11]

2012 The CBS show Elementary features a machine in its opening sequence.

Games [edit]

Both board games and video games have been inspired by Goldberg's creations, such as the 60's era board game Mouse Trap and video games Incredibots, Little Big Planet, Little Big Planet 2, the 1990s-era series of The Incredible Machine games, and Crazy Machines.[citation needed]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b c Goldberg, Reuben. "Rube Goldberg" (JPEG). Retrieved 2009-08-05. 
  2. ^ The History of the NCS
  3. ^ "Jennifer George NYC". Jennifer George NYC. Retrieved 2012-12-13. 
  4. ^ Peterson, Alison J. (2007-11-20). "George W. George, at 87; writer, producer of films and Broadway plays". New York Times News Service (The Boston Globe). Retrieved 2007-11-28. 
  5. ^ "Irma Seeman Goldberg; Hospital Volunteer, 95" (Webpage). The New York Times. 1990-04-27. Retrieved 2009-08-05. 
  6. ^ "Rube Goldberg". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-05. 
  7. ^ "Pleasingly Pointless |". Brimstonesandtreacle.wordpress.com. 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-12-13. 
  8. ^ "AMERICAN TOPICS : 20 Classic Comic Strips Get (Postage) Stamp of Approval". The New York Times. 1995-05-08. Retrieved 2009-08-05. 
  9. ^ What Happens Next Machine, Sesame Street
  10. ^ Rube Goldberg alphabet contraption, Sesame Street
  11. ^ "OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - RGM version" (Webpage). YouTube. 2010-03-01. Retrieved 2010-03-02. 

External links [edit]
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