Rube Goldberg

Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December

Rube Goldberg
7, 1970), known best as Rube Goldberg, was an American
cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.

Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting

complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect,
convoluted ways. The cartoons led to the expression "Rube
Goldberg machines" to describe similar gadgets and processes.
Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime, including a
Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 1948, the National
Cartoonists Society's Gold T-Square Award in 1955,[1] and the
Banshees' Silver Lady Award in 1959.[1][2] He was a founding
member and first president of the National Cartoonists
Society,[3] which hosts the annual Reuben Award, honoring the
top cartoonist of the year and named after Goldberg, who won
the award in 1967.[4] He is the inspiration for international
competitions known as Rube Goldberg Machine Contests,
which challenge participants to create a complicated machine to
c. 1916
perform a simple task.
Born Reuben Garrett Lucius
Goldberg
July 4, 1883
Contents
San Francisco,
Personal life California, U.S.
Career Died December 7, 1970
Cultural legacy (aged 87)
Film and television New York City, U.S.
Games Resting Mount Pleasant
See also place Cemetery in
Hawthorne, New York
References
Alma mater UC Berkeley
External links
Occupation Engineer, sculptor,
news reporter,
Personal life cartoonist
Known for Rube Goldberg
Goldberg was born in San Francisco, California, to Jewish machines
parents Max and Hannah (Cohn) Goldberg.[5] He was the third
Spouse(s) Irma Seeman (m. 1916)
of seven children, three of whom died as children; older brother
Garrett, younger brother Walter, and younger sister Lillian also Children 2, including George W.
survived.[6] Goldberg began tracing illustrations when he was George
four years old, and took his only drawing lessons with a local Website rubegoldberg.com (htt
sign painter.[6] p://rubegoldberg.com)
Goldberg married Irma Seeman on 17 October 1916.[5] They
lived at 98 Central Park West in New York City and had sons
Thomas and George. During World War II, as each of his sons
were heading off to college, Goldberg insisted that they change
their surname because of anti-semitic sentiment towards him
stemming from the political nature of his cartoons.[7] Thomas
chose the surname of George, and his brother, also named
George, followed suit. In adopting the same surname, George
wanted to keep a sense of family cohesiveness.

Career PLAY Something for Nothing (1940);

runtime 00:08:45.

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 degree in Engineering[2]
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.[2] The following year, he took a job with the San Francisco
Bulletin, where he remained until he moved to New York City in 1907,
finding employment as a sports cartoonist with the New York Evening
Mail.[6]

Rube Goldberg with family,

Goldberg's first public hit was a comic strip called Foolish Questions,[8]
1929 beginning in 1908. The invention cartoons began in 1912.[9] The New
York Evening Mail was syndicated to the first newspaper syndicate, the
McClure Newspaper Syndicate, giving Goldberg's cartoons a wider
distribution, and by 1915 he was earning $25,000 per year and being billed by the paper as America's most
popular cartoonist.[6] Arthur Brisbane had offered Goldberg $2,600 per year in 1911 in an unsuccessful
attempt to get him to move to William Randolph Hearst's newspaper chain, and in 1915 raised the offer to
$50,000 per year. Rather than lose Goldberg to Hearst, the New York Evening Mail matched the salary
offer and formed the Evening Mail Syndicate to syndicate Goldberg's cartoons nationally.[6]

In 1916, Goldberg created a series of seven short animated films which focus on humorous aspects of
everyday situations[10] in the form of an animated newsreel.[11] The seven films were released on these
dates in 1916: May 8, The Boob Weekly; May 22, Leap Year; June 5, The Fatal Pie; Jun 19, From Kitchen
Mechanic to Movie Star; July 3, Nutty News; July 17, Home Sweet Home; July 31, Losing Weight.[12]

Goldberg was syndicated by the McNaught Syndicate from 1922 until 1934.

A prolific artist, it has been estimated that Goldberg created 50,000 cartoons during his lifetime.[13] Some
of these cartoons include Mike and Ike (They Look Alike), Boob McNutt, Foolish Questions,[8][14] What
Are You Kicking About,[15] Telephonies,[16] Lala Palooza, The Weekly Meeting of the Tuesday Women's
Club, and the uncharacteristically serious soap-opera strip, Doc Wright, which ran for 10 months beginning
January 29, 1933.[17]

The cartoon series that brought him lasting fame was The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts,
A.K., which ran in Collier's Weekly from 26 January 1929 to 26 December 1931. In that series, Goldberg
drew labeled schematics in the form of patent applications of the comically intricate "inventions" that would
later bear his name.[18] The character of Professor Butts was based on Rube's professor Frederick Slate at
the College of Mining and Engineering at the University of California, where Rube attended from 1901 to
1903.[19] Frederick Slate gave his engineering students the task of building a scale that could weigh the
earth. The scale was called the “Barodik". To Goldberg, this exemplified a comical combination of
seriousness and ridiculousness that would come to serve as an inspiration in his work.[20]

From 1938 to 1941, Goldberg drew two weekly strips for the Register and Tribune Syndicate: Brad and
Dad (1939–1941) and Side Show (1938–1941), a continuation of the invention drawings.[21]

Starting in 1938, Goldberg worked as the editorial cartoonist for the New York Sun.[22] He won the 1948
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for a cartoon entitled "Peace Today".[22] He moved to the New York
Journal-American in 1949 and worked there until his retirement in 1963.[23] In the 1960s, Goldberg began
a sculpture career, primarily creating busts.[24]

Cultural legacy
The popularity of Goldberg's cartoons was such that the term "Goldbergian" was in use in print by
1915,[25] and "Rube Goldberg" by 1928.[26] "Rube Goldberg" appeared in the Random House Dictionary
of the English Language in 1966 meaning "having a fantastically complicated improvised appearance", or
"deviously complex and impractical."[6]: 1 18  The 1915 usage of "Goldbergian" was in reference to
Goldberg's early comic strip Foolish Questions, which he drew from 1909 to 1934, while later use of the
terms "Goldbergian", "Rube Goldberg" and "Rube Goldberg machine" refer to the crazy inventions for
which he is now best known from his strip The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, drawn
from 1914 to 1964.[6]: 3 05 

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. The Danish
equivalent was the painter, author and cartoonist Robert Storm Petersen, better known under his pen name
Storm P. To this day, an overly complicated and/or useless object is known as a Storm P.-machine in
Denmark.

Goldberg's work was

commemorated posthumously in
1995 with the inclusion of Rube
Goldberg's Inventions, depicting
his 1931 "Self-Operating Napkin"
in the Comic Strip Classics series
of U.S. postage stamps.[27]

The Rube Goldberg Machine

Contest originated in 1949 as a
competition at Purdue University
between two fraternities. It ran
until 1956, and was revived in
1983 as a university-wide
competition. In 1989 it became a
national competition, with a high
school division added in 1996.
Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin (1931)
Devices must complete a simple
task in a minimum of twenty steps
and a maximum of seventy-five in the style of Goldberg. The contest is hosted nationwide by Rube
Goldberg Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3), founded by Rube's son George W. George, and currently
managed by Rube's granddaughter, Jennifer George.[28]

In 1998, Justice Scalia remarked in a dissent in a habeas case that "Rube Goldberg would envy the scheme
the Court has created."[29]

Film and television

Rube Goldberg wrote the first feature film for the pre-Curly
Howard version of The Three Stooges called Soup to Nuts, which
was released in 1930 and starred Ted Healy. The film featured his
machines and included cameos of Rube himself.

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.[30][31]

Various other films and cartoons have included highly complicated

machines that perform simple tasks. Among these are Flåklypa Advertisement (1916)
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, Hotel for Dogs, the Home
Alone film series, Family Guy, American Dad!, Casper, and
Waiting...

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.
Advertisement (1916)
In 2005, the American alternative rock/indie 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.[32]

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

The 2012 Discovery Channel show Unchained Reaction pitted two teams against each other to create an
elaborate Rube Goldberg machine. It was judged and executive-produced by Adam Savage and Jamie
Hyneman, known for hosting the science entertainment series MythBusters.

The 2014 web series Deadbeat on Hulu features an episode titled "The Ghost in the Machine," which
features the protagonist Kevin helping the ghost of Rube Goldberg complete a contraption. It will bring his
grandchildren together after they make a collection of random items into a machine that ends up
systematically injuring two of his grandchildren so they end up in the same hospital and finally meet.

Games

Both board games and video games have been inspired by Goldberg's creations, such as the '60s board
game Mouse Trap,[33] the 1990s series of The Incredible Machine games,[34] and Crazy Machines.[35] The
Humongous Entertainment game Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse involves searching
for the missing pieces to a Rube Goldberg machine to complete the game.

In 1909 Goldberg invented the "Foolish Questions" game based on his successful cartoon by the same
name. The game was published in many versions from 1909 to 1934.[36]

Rube Works: The Official Rube Goldberg Invention Game, the first game authorized by The Heirs of Rube
Goldberg, was published by Unity Games (the publishing arm of Unity Technologies) in November
2013.[37]

See also
Chindōgu
Deathtrap (plot device)
Domino effect
Domino show
Frederick Rowland Emett
Jean Tinguely, Swiss artist who created Rube Goldberg–like sculptures
Mickey One
PythagoraSwitch

References
1. "Rube Goldberg Awards Achieved, The Group, History and Significance of the awards" (htt
p://www.rube-goldberg.com/wiki/t-square-award.html). www.rube-goldberg.com. Retrieved
August 6, 2020.
 2. Goldberg, Reuben. "Members / In Memoriam / Rube Goldberg" (http://reuben.org/ncs/memb
ers/memorium/goldberg.jpg) (JPEG). reuben.org. National Cartoonists Society. Retrieved
August 5, 2009.
3. "The History of the NCS" (http://www.reuben.org/history.html) Archived (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20111223081551/http://www.reuben.org/history.html) December 23, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine. reuben.org. National Cartoonists Society.
4. "NCS AWARDS The Reuben Award" (https://www.nationalcartoonists.com/awards/).
National Cartoonists Society. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
5. Contemporary Authors: First revision, Volumes 5–8 (https://books.google.com/books?id=kH
REAAAAMAAJ&q=%22rube+goldberg%22+jewish+max+hannah). Gale Research
Company. 1969. p. 448.
6. Marzio, Peter C. (1973). Rube Goldberg: His Life and Work. Harper and Row. ISBN 978-
0060128302.
7. Peterson, Alison J. (November 20, 2007). "George W. George, at 87; writer, producer of films
and Broadway plays" (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2007/11/20/ge
orge_w_george_at_87_writer_producer_of_films_and_broadway_plays). New York Times
News Service. Boston Globe. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
8. [1] (http://toonopedia.com/foolishq.htm) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived (https://ww
w.webcitation.org/6jOdtzEQN?url=http://toonopedia.com/foolishq.htm) from the original on
July 30, 2016.
9. Sheets, Hilarie M. (April 8, 2020). "A Rube Goldberg Hand-Washing Contraption? The Race
Is On" (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/arts/design/rube-goldberg-bar-of-soap-challeng
e.html). The New York Times. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
10. "Goldberg is Again Star of the Film: Artist-Humorist of The Times Seen in New Set of
Animated Cartoons" (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1916-07-24/ed-1/s
eq-12/). The Washington Times. July 24, 2016. p. 12. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
11. Photoplay Editor (May 5, 1916). "Pathé Boob Weekly News from Nowhere: Goldberg Does
Some Clever Satiric Cartoons on News Pictures" (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn
83045211/1916-05-05/ed-1/seq-10/). Philadelphia Evening Ledger. p. 10. Retrieved May 21,
2018. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
12. George, Jennifer (November 12, 2013). The Art of Rube Goldberg: (A) Inventive (B) Cartoon
(C) Genius (https://books.google.com/books?id=JpcxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA60). New York:
Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1-419-70852-7. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
13. Wilson, Emily (May 1, 2018). "The Story Behind Rube Goldberg's Complicated
Contraptions" (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-behind-rube-goldbergs-compli
cated-contraptions-180968928/). Smithsonian Magazine. Joseph J. Bonsignore. Retrieved
January 10, 2021.
14. "Foolish Questions hi" (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1910-06-02/ed-1/
seq-13). The San Francisco Call. December 2, 1910. p. 13.
15. "What Are You Kicking About" (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1910-06-
01/ed-1/seq-13). The San Francisco Call. June 1, 1910. p. 13.
16. "Telephonies" (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1911-07-12/ed-1/seq-10).
The San Francisco Call. July 12, 1911. p. 10.
17. Doc Wright (http://toonopedia.com/docwri.htm) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived (htt
ps://www.webcitation.org/6gWihdn6h?url=http://toonopedia.com/docwri.htm) April 4, 2016, at
WebCite from the original on April 4, 2016.
18. Tumey, Paul C. (2019). Screwball!: The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny. The
Library of American Comics. p. 135. ISBN 978-1684051878.
19. "The Man Behind Rube Goldberg Machines" (https://www.brainstuffshow.com/podcasts/the-
man-behind-rube-goldberg-machines.htm). BrainStuff. June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 13,
2018.
20. Beschloss, Steven. "19 July, 2013" (https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/o
bject-of-interest-rube-goldberg-machines). The New Yorker. New York, NY: Condé Nast.
Retrieved January 18, 2021.
21. Goldberg profile (http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=GOLDBERG%2c+RUBE),
Who's Who of American Comic Book Artists, 1928–1999. Accessed Jan. 5, 2018.
22. Nadja Sayej (October 9, 2019). "Rube Goldberg: celebrating a remarkable life of cartoons
and creations" (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/09/rube-goldberg-carto
ons-pulitzer-queens-museum-new-york). The Guardian. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
23. Stefan Kanfer (Winter 2015). "The Alphabet of Satire" (https://www.city-journal.org/html/alph
abet-satire-13707.html). City Journal. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
24. Rube Goldberg and Emily S. Nathan. Transcript of interview with Rube Goldberg, 1970.
Emily Nathan papers, circa 1943-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
25. Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press. "1915 Vanity Fair The
Goldbergian answer would be ‘No, I paint my nose and eyes red every day to frighten the
gypsy-moths away.'"
26. Atkinson, J. Brooks (February 10, 1928). "THE PLAY; "Rain or Shine," Joe Cook". New York
Times. p. 26. "He then introduces the Fuller Construction Orchestra, which is one of those
Rube Goldberg crazy mechanical elaborations for passing a modest musical impulse from a
buzz."
27. "American Topics: 20 Classic Comic Strips Get (Postage) Stamp of Approval" (https://www.n
ytimes.com/1995/05/08/news/08iht-amtopics_14.html). The New York Times. May 8, 1995.
Retrieved August 5, 2009.
28. O'Connor, Brendan (April 22, 2015). "A Simple Task: Inside the whimsical but surprisingly
dark world of Rube Goldberg machines" (https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/22/8381963/rube
-goldberg-machine-contest-history-ideas). The Verge. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
29. Bousley v. United States, 523 U.S. 614, 635 (1998).
30. "Sesame Street: What Happens Next Machine" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cog2a3
YeDMM). Youtube.com. August 6, 2010. Archived (https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/
20211118/cog2a3YeDMM) from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved December 8,
2013.
31. "Rube Goldberg alphabet contraption, Sesame Street" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B
17OvPYM040). Youtube.com. Archived (https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/2021111
8/B17OvPYM040) from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
32. "OK Go – This Too Shall Pass – Rube Goldberg Machine version" (https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w). YouTube. March 1, 2010. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
33. Kiniry, Laura (November 13, 2013). "7 Unbelievable Rube Goldberg Machines We Love" (htt
ps://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/g1348/7-unbelievable-rube-goldberg-machine
s-we-love/?slide=1). Popular Mechanics. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
34. Moore, Bo (May 13, 2013). "The Incredible Machine is Back, Spiritually" (https://www.wired.c
om/2013/05/contraption-maker/). Wired. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
35. Colayco, Bob (January 20, 2006). "Crazy Machines: The Wacky Contraptions Game
Review" (https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/crazy-machines-the-wacky-contraptions-game
-review/1900-6142774/). GameSpot. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
36. Wolfe, Maynard Frank (2000). Rube Goldberg Inventions. Simon & Schuster. p. 25.
ISBN 978-0-684-86724-3.
37. "Rube-Goldberg Puzzler "Rube Works" Now Available for iPad and iPhone" (http://www.ga
masutra.com/view/pressreleases/204689/RubeGoldberg_Puzzler_ldquoRube_Works_Now
_Available_foriPad_and_iPhone.php). Gamasutra. November 13, 2013. Retrieved
December 27, 2013.

Wolfe, Maynard Frank (2000). Rube Goldberg: Inventions. New York: Simon & Schuster.
ISBN 978-0684867243.

External links
Official Rube Goldberg website (http://RubeGoldberg.com)
Toonopedia entry (https://archive.today/20130204113116/http://www.toonopedia.com/article
s/goldberg.htm)
Smithsonian's Archives of American Art: Oral History Interview with Rube Goldberg, 1970 (ht
tp://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/rube-goldberg-interview-11521)
NCS Awards (https://web.archive.org/web/20110209151158/http://www.reuben.org/awards.
html)
Rube Goldberg (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0325298/) at IMDb
Guide to the Rube Goldberg Papers (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf7b69n96
m/) at The Bancroft Library
Rube Goldberg interviewed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQs4ZD3HjwQ) by Edward
Murrow, 1959
Rube Works: The Official Rube Goldberg Invention Game (http://RubeWorks.com)

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