Earl W. Muntz*
Class of 1949
- President Muntz T.V., Inc.
Your living room is our show room.
Earl Muntz was born in 1914 in Elgin, Illinois. At age 15, he dropped out of high school to work in his parents' hardware store. At 20, Muntz opened a used car lot. Because he was too young to sign contracts, his mother had to sign all of the sales paperwork. At 26, he moved to California and opened the largest Kaiser-Frasier car dealership.
In the early 1950s, Muntz designed a simplified, and therefore less expensive, television model than others sold at the time. He is credited with coming up with the term "TV" for television, and he even named his daughter Tee Vee. He later invented the Muntz Stereo-Pak 4-track tape cartridge, a predecessor of the 8-track cartridge.
Muntz's flamboyant billboards and television commercials for his various businesses made him famous, and his stunts in commercials earned him the nickname "Madman Muntz."