RUBE GOLDBERGIllustrator, Cartoonist, Author, Inventor, Sculptor

By Jasi Hofmaier

RUBE WAS CREATIVE AS A BOYReuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was born in San Francisco on July 4th 1883. He was known as Rube and displayed an amazing talent for art at the age of four. By the age of eight, he was constantly copying line drawings and images from books and magazines. Rube took professional drawing lessons when he was eleven years old. Rube was a shy but serious person.

Rube’s parents were Jewish and emigrated from Germany. Their names were Max and Hannah. They had four children. Three others had died. Rube was the second eldest child. Rube’s father Max was a police and fire commissioner. Rube’s mother died when he was a teenager. His father discouraged Rube’s love of drawing and art as a career. He didn’t want Rube to struggle financially by becoming an artist. He thought if he became an engineer, it would be a stable job and pay well. Rube followed his father’s wishes and completed a degree in Engineering. Rube then got a job at the Water and Sewer’s Department in San Francisco, designing sewer pipes.

Rube Goldberg drawing a cartoon

RUBE UNHAPPY…CHANGES JOBSRube was unhappy with his job and annoyed that he wasn’t able to pursue his dreams in art and drawing. Rube quit his sewerage job after six months, which was paying him $100 per month, to join the San Francisco Chronicle, working as an art assistant. This newspaper job paid him $8 a week. At least Rube was happier. Occasionally the paper would print one of his cartoons, but initially they weren’t impressed with them. After a while the newspaper realized that Rube’s cartoons increased the newspaper sales and they included his drawings of sports cartoons.In 1907 Rube moved to New York to work for the Evening Mail, another newspaper. It took two years, but eventually Rube drew his cartoons daily and became very popular. The New York Evening Mail was syndicated or linked to the McClure Newspaper which meant that Rube’s cartoons could reach more people. Rube created “Foolish questions” which was extremely funny and people loved. Rube created cartoons for many other newspapers in New York. His popularity continued to increase as he created cartoon strips such as “Boob McNutt”, “Mike and Ike: They Look Alike” and many more. Rube’s cartoons were funny and before long people looked forward to seeing his cartoons in each newspaper edition.

Rube’s Foolish Questions cartoons were simple but really funny like this one. Foolish Questions lasted for 26 years. It was incredibly popular.

PEOPLE GOING CRAZY FOR MACHINESIn the early 1900’s a lot of machines and inventions were becoming

popular such as the telephone, electricity, cars and many smaller inventions. People were either unsure about all of these new machines or becoming lazy by using them. Technology became a major influence and theme throughout Rube’s cartoons. Rube questioned peoples dependency and need for so many machines. In his own way Rube was making fun of machinery and people’s dependency on it. Rube’s cartoons showed a simple task done in a complicated way by using many items and gadgets. Rube used items such as wheels, gears, boots, cups, baths, animals, bird cages and many other things to create his cartoons. Rube’s inventions did the opposite of what machines do. Instead of making difficult things easy, he made easy things difficult. Rube must have been a humorous man because in 1911 he became a stand-up comedian and a fortune teller. In 1916 Rube made animated cartoons for silent movies. He drew thousands of images for each clip. He couldn’t do both cartoons and film so he left the cartoons for Walt Disney to do. Walt Disney became very famous as we all know. Rube also wrote poetry and loved to play golf.In 1916 Rube also got married. He married a girl named Irma Seeman. They had two boys named Thomas and George.This is a funny cartoon of Mike & Ike –

They Look Alike

RUBE CREATED MANY COMIC STRIPS

This Bobo Baxter cartoon shows an invention that can’t work. Even Bobo knows it won’t work but what is funny is that it does work in this cartoon.

In 1927 inventions became Rube’s main theme. He developed a comic strip “Bobo Baxter” who was a backyard inventor. Rube used his engineering knowledge and background to make his comic strips creative. Rube’s themes usually focused on technology. Rube created inventions that would help with the problems of everyday life like putting a stamp on an envelope or removing a gravy stain.

This is Rube’s wife and two sons

INVENTIONS BECAME RUBE’S THEME

Rube Goldberg said about his Professor Butts cartoon, that “the things may look impossibly foolish, but at the same time they are quite logical”. Reuben Goldberg was an amazing man. He became known throughout the world for his cartoons which were incredibly creative and imaginative. In both the cartoons above they are creative and funny because of the complicated way that Professor Butts is going to wake up.

In 1928 Rube created another cartoon strip which became his most popular of all time called “The Inventions of Professor Lucifer G Butts”. In this cartoon strip Rube based Professor Butts on one or two of his engineering professors who asked the students ridiculous things like to create a machine that could weigh the world. He was making fun of them. Some people think it might also be based on himself.

RUBE’S PARENTS ARE PROUDEach cartoon Rube Goldberg drew took him between thirty and fifty hours to complete. Eventually Rube Goldberg was earning $100 000 per year. By today’s standards this would be about $2 million.

Rube’s father was proud of him and his mother would have been too but sadly she had passed away. He had proven them wrong about his dream of becoming an artist and being able to make enough money out of it. Rube’s father must have been happy that Rube ended up using his engineering degree in his art work. Rube’s father eventually became his agent and worked for him. He managed Rube’s working contracts and made sure that Rube got paid all that he should have and that no one stole his ideas or money from them.

In the 1920-1930’s Rube tried to become a professional writer. Humorous cartoons were becoming unfashionable. Rube wrote a few books, newspaper articles and some short stories. He then began to draw cartoons about politics and what was happening to the country around war time.

The cartoon above shows Rube’s creation of how to turn on a television. It is a really simple task but Rube makes it a really complicated task. His idea does work and it is funny to imagine turning a television on this way by using a teapot, a fishing line, a bird cage and many other everyday items.

RUBE WON MANY AWARDSRube Goldberg and some other cartoonists came together in 1946 to form a National Cartoonist Society. It was a group where everyone supported each other with their cartoon art work.

Rube Goldberg won many awards. He won a lot of awards from the Nationalist Cartoon Society, The Gold Square Award, the Reuben Award in 1967 and many more for his cartoons. In 1948 Rube won the Pulitzer Prize for this cartoon named “Peace Today”. It shows the country’s fear of the atom bomb and what war could result in. Because of this cartoon and others that a lot of people did not like, Rube insisted that his sons names were changed. The surname they used was George. Rube was making comments about what was happening in the world that some people didn’t like – political statements which they disagreed with. He didn’t want his sons to be disliked by their friends and other people because of his work.

This is the cartoon called “Peace Today” that won the Pulitzer Prize

RUBE HAS INSPIRED MANY PEOPLERube Goldberg was creative in so many ways.

In Rube’s later years, he became a sculptor and even did a sculpture of himself.When Rube was older, he made a film which showed some of his inventions and sculptures that he had made. Films and television shows like Sesame Street have used some of Rube’s ideas and devices. Many modern day films have also used his idea of using complex gadgets to solve a simple task. The Webster's New World Dictionary even included the words “Rube Goldberg” in it, meaning “doing something in a very complicated way that is not necessary”. That is amazing. Rube Goldberg has also inspired people to develop board games and video games. For instance the board game Mouse Trap was inspired by Rube.

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This is Rube’s sculpture of himself.

This is a photo of Rube making a sculpture of a Russian politician

RUBE DIED IN 1970In 1970 Rube Goldberg died in New York. He was aged 87. Just before Rube died there was an exhibition of his work in Washington. This was a great honor and showed just how popular he was. Rube Goldberg’s grandchildren run the company “RGI” which stands for Rube Goldberg Incorporated which helps to keep Rube Goldberg’s achievements alive and known to people. Every year there is a Rube Goldberg machine contests that people can enter. The contests are in honor of Rube. If he was alive, he would be amazed at what he has left behind for generations in the future to admire.In 1995, twenty five years after his death the United States Post put out a stamp celebrating Rube’s comic strip.Rube Goldberg’s work will continue to influence and inspire all different sorts of people for centuries to come. Rube Goldberg was an amazingly creative genius. The main thing for everyone to learn from Rube Goldberg is to always follow your dreams. You never know what may happen and where they may lead you.

This was the stamp put out in 1995 of Rube’s invention. It was called “Self Operating napkin”

This is a photo of Rube as an old man drawing his last cartoon

WEB SITES USED• www.rubegoldberg.com• www.wikipedia -rubegoldberg.com• www.biography.com• www.lambiekcomiclopedia.com • www.mousetrapcontraptions.com• www.wikipedia – mike and Ike they look alike• www.screwballcomics.com rube goldberg• www.boingboing.com• www.theverge.com• www.comicbulletin.com• www.merriamwebster.com dictionary• www.wikipedia – national cartoonist society• www.nndb.com people