Earl Muntz

The huckster, TV commercial pioneer, automaker and electronics manufacturer--and, as some have called him, marketing genius--Earl Muntz was born on Jan. 3, 1904, in Elgin, IL. He showed an early interest in electronics, and at age 8 had already built his first radio (a few years later he built a radio for his parents' car). He dropped out of high school and went to work in his parents' hardware store in Elgin. At age 20 he opened up a used-car lot in town and actually made a go of it. A few years later, however, on a trip to California, he noticed that used cars were selling for far higher prices than they were in Elgin, so he opened up a lot in Glendale, CA. In the late '30s he had an opportunity to pick up a dozen right-hand-drive cars for next to nothing--they had been made for customers in Asia, but were unable to be shipped there due to the Japanese takeover of most of Asia just prior to WW 2 (one was a custom-made Lincoln built for Chinese dictator Kai-Shek Chiang). Muntz... [Details Intro]