Celebrities and their world-changing inventions

Mark Twain invented the modern bra strap? A ventriloquist who was a huge star in kids’ television and in Vegas invented the first artificial heart? A rock star’s invention saved model train giant Lionel? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What a famous kid's TV show host was the guy
who invented the first artificial heart, Mark Twain invented brastraps,
I'm Patty Steele. Celebrities who are also inventors. Next on
the backstory, We're back with the backstory. Why do some

(00:21):
people achieve so much? Is it hard work, a curious mind,
superior intellect, or is it just playing luck? I mean,
there are the folks who become famous in one area
but wind up super accomplished in a whole other area too.
What's up with that? Back in the nineteen fifties, there
was a guy named Paul Winchell who overcame childhood polio

(00:43):
abuse at the hands of his mother, a severe stutter,
and depression. He wanted to become a doctor, but the
family had no money for that, so by the time
he was fourteen he was in show business as a ventriloquist,
and by twenty six, in the early days of telew
he was a major star along with his dummy Jerry Mahoney.

(01:04):
At thirty five, still wildly successful, he enrolled in college finally,
and eventually he had thirty patents to his name, including
a disposable raiser, a blood plasma defroster or whatever that is,
a flameless cigarette lighter, and most amazingly, the early version
of the very first artificial heart. Oh and by the way,

(01:26):
he was also the voice of Tigger on all the
early Winnie the pouflicks, and the voice of dozens of
characters on Disney films and TV shows. Now. Another superstar
with the patent was the gorgeous and brilliant movie actress
Hetty Lamar. At the outset of World War II, after
a nineteen forty attack by a German U boat killed

(01:48):
hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, Hetty was intrigued
with the idea of developing a remote controlled torpedo that
could attack a submarine, but she knew they'd also need
device that would keep the torpedoes control signal from being jammed.
Her patent led to what's now known as spread spectrum technology,

(02:09):
and today it's used in wireless technology like Wi Fi,
cellular networks, GPS, and Bluetooth. Okay, do you like to
nestle into a perfect bucket seat and lean into the speed?
You can thank superstar and super macho actor Steve McQueen
for that. He was in a lot of movies about racing,

(02:30):
and was renowned for his driving stunts in many films,
a lot that he performed himself. Now, the thing is,
he wanted pure comfort and safety at high speed, so
he invented a bucket seat with a wide back and
a lot of contouring panels to increase driver safety and comfort.
His name is Neil Young, part of Buffalo, Springfield and

(02:53):
Crosby Stills, Nash and Young. His music with those bands,
as well as from his solo career is iconic. But
did you know he is also a fanatic about model trains.
It's kind of a beautiful story. Neil is a part
owner of model train company Lionel, Plus he has a
massive collection of model trains in a three thousand square

(03:15):
foot barn, along with seven patents for model train gear.
One of the devices he designed was to help his
son Ben flip the switches on the trains. Since Ben's
cerebral palsy made it tough for him to do so,
Neil created the Big Red Button, a remote control device
that was much easier for Ben and a lot of

(03:37):
other folks to use. Oh and by the way, Neil's
investment in the company Lionel as well as his inventions
helped Lionel emerge from bankruptcy in two thousand and eight. Finally,
tell me this, when I say Mark Twain also known
as Samuel Clements, that's his real name. Do you think
of Huck Finn or maybe Tom Sawyer. You probably don't

(04:00):
think about scrap booking, and you definitely don't think about
bra straps. But it turns out that was exactly what
he invented. Yeah, he was into invention as well as writing.
He made a ton of money off the first self
pasting scrap book since he loved to save things in
scrap books and wanted to simplify the process. He also

(04:22):
loved history and so patented a history trivia game. But
most fascinating or amusing was his invention of the bra strap.
If you check out the drawings that went with his
patent application, you're going to see it looks pretty much
identical to today's bra straps and fasteners. Now did he
do it in order to make it easier to put

(04:43):
on a bra or easier to take off? Now? The
only problem with Twain's inventions, and it's true for other
inventors as well. He loved taking a shot at developing
a million different interesting ideas, but it didn't always work out.
Sometimes you take a gamble and sometimes you lose, and
that was Twain's achilles heel. He lost a fortune on

(05:05):
his inventions, so his writing was really his lasting legacy.
But every time a woman slips into or out of
a bra she has to give a little salute to
Mark Twain. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production

(05:28):
of iHeartMedia and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our executive producer is Steve Goldstein of Amplify Media. We're
out with new episodes twice a week. Thanks for listening
to the Backstory, the pieces of history you didn't know
you needed to know.