Rube Goldberg

On 17 October 1916, Rube Goldberg married Irma Seeman. The couple had two children named Thomas and George.

He died in 1970 at Hawthorne, New York. He was 87 years old at the time of his death.

His grandchildren manage an organization named after him in honour of the Goldberg heritage.

Rube Goldberg was born on 4 July 1883 at California, USA. His father, Max was a San Francisco police and fire commissioner and mother, Hannah, were German Jewish immigrants.

He had six siblings of whom three died at an early age. His older brother Garrett, younger brother Walter and younger sister Lillian were among the survivors.

He was interested in arts from a young age and that turned into a passion by the time he was eight. As a child he used to outline illustrations and began attending classes for drawing at 11.

He completed his schooling from Lowell High School in 1900. Later, he attended the School of Mining Engineering and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Engineering in 1904.

He was hired as an engineer for the Water and Sewers Department after his graduation. Here, he had to design sewer pipes. He left the job in six months and joined the newspaper San Francisco Chronicle as an art assistant.

The very next year he joined the San Francisco Bulletin as a sports cartoonist and continued the job until 1907. Here he had to make illustrations of sports persons and his work was well received. In 1907, he launched a comic series titled ‘Mike and Ike’ featuring identical twins. Though it did not get instant success, he remained persistent and it eventually became a huge hit among audience.

In 1907, he moved to New York and began freelancing for a few publications. Around this time he was hired as a cartoonist with the newspaper New York Evening Mail. Here he began a single panel comic titled ‘Foolish Questions’ that ran from 1908 to 1934, featuring sarcastic responses to obvious questions. In 1909, he authored and launched a book with the same title.

He used to appear in stage performances with fellow cartoonists and in 1911 started performing as a comedian in Vaudeville. By 1914, he became a playwright as well. The same year he started work on his next comic series project titled ‘Inventions!’ He started this at a time when America was witnessing the beginning of the Age of inventions.

He was fascinated by technology but observed that people often adopt complex means to achieve simple results. This was the source of inspiration for his primary work in the ‘Inventions!’, an illustration of an ‘Automatic Weight-Reducing Machine’. The iconic cartoon illustration went on to be known as the Rube Goldberg Machine.

He is best known for his editorial cartoons as well as other cartoons that portrayed complex machines performing simple functions. A few of his best known cartoon series are ‘Foolish Questions’, ‘Inventions!’ and ‘Mike and Ike’.