Reuben Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cartoonistA cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. Traditionally much of this work was, and still is, humorous, and is intended primarily for entertainment purposes...
, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor. Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways – now known as
Rube Goldberg machinesA Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately overengineered apparatus that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression has been dated as originating in the United States around 1930 to describe Rube Goldberg's illustrations of...
. Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime including a
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning has been awarded since 1922 for a distinguished cartoon or portfolio of cartoons published during the year, characterized by originality, editorial effectiveness, quality of drawing, and pictorial effect...
for his political cartooning in 1948 and the Banshees' Silver Lady Award 1959.
Goldberg was a founding member and the first president of the
National Cartoonists SocietyThe National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional cartoonists. It presents the Reuben Awards.The NCS was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
, and is the namesake of the Reuben Award which the organization awards to "Cartoonist of the Year". He is the inspiration for various international competitions, known as Rube Goldberg contests, which challenge participants to make a complex machine to perform a simple task.
Family
Goldberg was married to Irma Seeman in 1916 and remained so for the duration of his life. They had two sons together named Thomas and
GeorgeGeorge W. George was an American theater, Broadway and film producer. His credits included the 1981 film My Dinner With Andre and several hit Broadway productions.-Early life:...
. Goldberg did not share a surname with his children for the reason that during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he received a large amount of hate mail because of the political nature of his cartoons. As a result he ordered his sons to change their names away from Goldberg for safety reasons. Both of his sons chose the last name of George, wanting to keep a sense of family cohesiveness. Reuben died in 1970 at the age of 87, while his widow, Irma, died 20 years later at the age of 95.
Career
Rube Goldberg graduated from the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
in 1904 with a College of Mining degree and was hired by the city of
San FranciscoSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
as an engineer for the Water and Sewers Department. After six months he resigned his position with the city to join the
San Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireSan Francisco Chronicle is Northern California's largest newspaper, and one of the largest in the United States, serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area, but distributed throughout...
where he became a sports cartoonist. 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 Evening JournalThe New York Journal American was a newspaper published from 1937 to 1966. The Journal American was the product of a merger between two New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst: The New York American , a morning paper, and the New York Evening Journal, an afternoon paper...
and the
New York Evening MailThe New York Evening Mail was an American daily newspaper published in New York City.The paper was made up of the New York Evening Express, which dated from 1836, and the Daily Advertiser. It was eventually merged with the Evening Telegram, which became the New York World-Telegram in 1927....
. His work entered
syndicationPrint syndication is a form of syndication in which news articles, columns, or comic strips are made available to newspapers, magazines, and websites....
in 1915, beginning his nationwide popularity. He was syndicated by the
McNaught SyndicateThe McNaught Syndicate was an American newspaper syndicate founded in 1922. It was established by Virgil Venice McNitt and Charles McAdam. Its best known contents were the columns by Will Rogers and O. O. McIntyre, the Dear Abby letters section and comic strips, including Joe Palooka and Heathcliff...
from 1922 until 1934.
A prolific
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
, Goldberg produced several cartoon series simultaneously, including
Mike and Ike (They Look Alike)Mike and Ike was a comic strip by Rube Goldberg, who introduced the identical twin characters in the San Francisco Bulletin on September 29, 1907.Don Markstein traced the history of the characters in his Toonopedia:...
,
Boob McNuttBoob McNutt was a comic strip by Rube Goldberg which ran from 1915 to September 1934. It was syndicated by the McNaught Syndicate from 1922 until the end of its run....
,
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 "
inventionAn invention is a new configuration, device, or process. Some inventions are based on pre-existing models or ideas and others are radical breakthroughs...
s" which would later bear his name.
Cultural legacy
In 1931 the Merriam–Webster dictionary adopted the word "Rube Goldberg" as an adjective defined as accomplishing something simple through complex means.
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 ClassicsThe Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps was issued by the US Postal Service in 1995 to honor the centennial of the newspaper comic strip.The series featured drawings of comic strip characters with their logos...
series of U.S.
postage stampA postage stamp is adhesive paper evidence of a fee paid for postal services. Usually a small rectangle attached to an envelope, the stamp signifies the person sending it has fully or partly paid for delivery...
s..
Film and TV
Goldberg wrote a feature film featuring his machines and sculptures called
Soup to NutsSoup to Nuts is a feature film written by Rube Goldberg and directed by Benjamin Stoloff, which marks the film debut of the comic trio who would go on to become known as the Three Stooges...
which was released in 1930 and starred
Ted HealyTed Healy was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. He is chiefly remembered today as the original employer of the Three Stooges, but had a successful stage and film career of his own....
and The Three Stooges.
On the 2005
Holiday Special episode of the Discovery Channel series,
MythBustersMythBusters is a popular science television program produced by Australian company Beyond Television Productions originally for the Discovery Channel in the United States. The series has since been distributed by a number of international broadcasters, including SBS in Australia and BBC2 in the UK...
, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman build a Rube Goldberg machine using a bowling ball, a battery operated robot, a pair of wind-up toy monkeys, a Mentos/Diet-Coke eruption and their crash test dummy mascot, Buster.
Various other films and cartoons have included highly complex machines that perform simple tasks. Among these are
Looney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros...
,
Wallace and GromitWallace and Gromit are the main characters in a series consisting of four British animated short films and a feature-length film by Nick Park of Aardman Animations...
,
Pee-wee's Big AdventurePee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his full-length film debut. Paul Reubens, Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol wrote the script, starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton and Diane Salinger...
,
The Way Things GoThe Way Things Go is a 1987 art film by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It documents a long causal chain assembled of everyday objects, resembling a Rube Goldberg machine....
,
Edward ScissorhandsEdward Scissorhands is a 1990 comedy-drama fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film tells the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage...
,
Back to the FutureBack to the Future is a 1985 science fiction adventure film directed by Robert Zemeckis, co-written by Bob Gale and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, as well as Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson and Thomas F. Wilson...
,
Honey, I Shrunk the KidsHoney, I Shrunk the Kids is a 1989 comedy film. The directorial debut of Joe Johnston and released through Walt Disney Pictures and Silver Screen Partners III, the film tells the story of a professor who accidentally shrinks his kids and his neighbor's kids to 1/4 their size with his...
,
The GooniesThe Goonies is a 1985 American adventure-comedy film directed by Richard Donner. The screenplay was written by Chris Columbus from a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg...
,
GremlinsGremlins is an American comedy horror film directed by Joe Dante and released in 1984 by Warner Bros. It is about a young man who receives a strange creature named Gizmo as a pet, which then spawns other creatures who transform into small, destructive, evil monsters. This story was continued with...
,
Chitty Chitty Bang BangChitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car is a children's book written by Ian Fleming for his son Caspar, with illustrations by John Burningham...
,
The Cat From Outer SpaceThe Cat from Outer Space is a 1978 Buena Vista Distribution film, starring Ken Berry and Sandy Duncan.-Synopsis:An unidentified flying object makes an emergency landing on Earth and is taken into custody by the United States government...
,
MalcolmMalcolm is a 1986 Australian cult film, written by David Parker and directed by Nadia Tass. The film stars Colin Friels as the titular tram enthusiast who becomes involved with petty crime. The film won the 1986 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film.At the start of the film Malcolm is...
, and
Waiting...Waiting... is an American independent film starring Ryan Reynolds, Justin Long and Anna Faris. It was written and directed by Rob McKittrick. McKittrick wrote the screenplay while working as a waiter. Friend and producer Dean Shull, who met McKittrick while he was dining at an Orlando, Florida,...
Games
The popular 1963 board game
Mouse TrapMouse Trap is a board game first published by Ideal in 1963 for two or more players.- Gameplay :The basic premise of the game has been consistent throughout the game's history...
, as well as its sequels
Crazy Clock (1964), and
Fish Bait (1965) are based on Rube Goldberg machines. Some examples of Goldberg-inspired videogames are
IncredibotsIncrediBots is a physics simulation game produced by Grubby Games. It uses the Box2D Physics Engine, which allows objects created in a simple click and drag fashion to interact realistically. Users can create basic geometric shapes such as triangles, rectangles, and circles, and then connect them...
,
LittleBigPlanetLittleBigPlanet, commonly abbreviated LBP and developed under the title The Next Big Thing, is a puzzle platformer video game for the PlayStation 3 first announced on 7 March 2007, by Phil Harrison at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California...
, the 1990s-era series of
The Incredible MachineThe Incredible Machine is a series of computer games that were originally designed and coded by Kevin Ryan and produced by Jeff Tunnell, the now-defunct Jeff Tunnell Productions, and published by Dynamix; the 1993 through 1995 versions had the same development team, but the later 2000–2001 titles...
games, and
Crazy MachinesCrazy Machines is a puzzle computer game created by a German company, FAKT Software. Crazy Machines based many of its ideas on The Incredible Machine series of games...
.
See also
- Chain reaction
A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events...
- Deathtrap
A deathtrap is a literary and dramatic plot device in which a villain, who has captured the hero or another sympathetic character, attempts to use an elaborate and usually sadistic method of murdering him/her....
- Domino effect
The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence. The term is best known as a mechanical effect, and is used as an analogy to a falling row of dominoes...
- Heath Robinson, British cartoonist with similar cartoon inventions
- Jean Tinguely
Jean Tinguely was a Swiss painter and sculptor. He is best known for his sculptural machines or kinetic art, in the Dada tradition; known officially as metamechanics...
, Swiss artist who created Rube Goldberg-like sculptures
- Mickey One
Mickey One is a surrealistic dramatic film starring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn from a script by Alan Surgal. Its kaleidoscopic camerawork, film noir atmosphere, lighting and design aspects, Kafkaesque paranoia, philosophical themes and Warren Beatty's performance in the title role...
- PythagoraSwitch
- Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is a contest that seeks to be "a way of helping students transcend traditional ways of looking at problems", by using a challenge that "must be completed in as creative a way as possible"...
- Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either...
- Storm P., Danish contemporary artist who drew "inventions" similar to Rube Goldberg's
- Roland Emett
External links