Date: Thu, 01 Feb 1996 05:28:51 -0800 From: "Wm. R. Golden" Organization: Wm. R. Golden, CPA To: abbot@pobox.com Subject: [Fwd: 4-Track; 8-Track; Muntz; Drop Loop Length] Content-Disposition: inline To Whomever, Not that it makes any difference, but as a young man, I worked with George Eash at Muntz (Stereo-Pak) in Van Nuys, CA during the sixties. George was a great "tinkerer" and held hundred of patents. I, along with Duane McQueen and Dick Ericson formulated the so-called "tape drop loop length" test to analyze the life span of a 4-track and 8-track tape cartridge. We invented the mini-pak, 4 and 8 track mini-tapes that contained a single song per (stereo) track. Shortly before the fire that destroyed the Muntz factory, Muntz was plagued by intermittent "beeps" on tapes made during the duplicating process. The cause was eventually found to be a top-secret microwave testing project at Lockheed some five miles away. In addition, had Muntz survived, they were working on two revoluntary ideas. First, they had prototyped a unit where the entire pre-amp consisted of an integrated circuit contained in the playback head. Second, already producing a unit that would play both 4-track and 8-track tapes, we were exploring a design that would play both Fidelipac and Phillips Cassette tapes. Notable stockholders of Muntz Stereo were Bill Cosby, Jerry Collona, Sammy Davis, Jr., Robert Culp, Joey Bishop, Frank Sinatra and Rudy Vallee to name a few. Earl Muntz's daughter Tina was a promising singer who's career (to the best of my knowledge) never developed. Muntz was best known for his propensity for the color white. His home in the hills of West Hollywood was all white, carpet, walls, etc. The most impressive sight was a full-size white cloth pool table setting in the middle of the living room. Muntz, whose background was selling cars in Chicago in the 40's (he got the name of Earl "Madman" Muntz by running ads saying his wife said he was crazy for selling cars at some discounted price) was also famous for the Muntz TV. Appearing in the 50's, the black and white table model sold for $99.95 (then a remarkable price) was known in the industry as the "gutless wonder" since the unit actually worked with only two IF stages when three or four were routinely required on the tuners in all other sets of that era. Muntz was a comical character who during the sixties was enjoying his sixth or seventh marriage. This is probably useless information, but being a Master of Minutia I thought you might want to know. By the way, Muntz was able to license so many duplication deals from record companies during the early sixties at unbelievable prices because they (the record companies) said that consumer tapes were a passing fancy and that NOTHING would ever replace vinyl records. So much for corporate forecasters. Anyone with any questions? Bill Golden; CServe 70363,114. Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 07:53:08 -0800 From: "Wm. R. Golden" Organization: Wm. R. Golden, CPA To: Lavine/Konzelmann Subject: Re: [Fwd: 4-Track; 8-Track; Muntz; Drop Loop Length] References: <199602032100.QAA04892@nico.bway.net> X-Status: Early Muntz 8-track tapes suffered from a relatively short "play life." This was due to the fact the Muntz's tape supplier Greentree Tape had continual problems with the graphite backing on the tape. (The graphite backing was instrumental in allowing the tape to "pull" from the inside of the loop.) Despite repeated warnings, Earl Muntz would not switch to BASF tape. (BASF tape had proved phenominal it both "play life" and "drop loop length" tests which historically had gone "hand-in-hand.") Muntz remained loyal to Greentree since the early 4-track days when Greentree sold Muntz millions of feet of 1/4" tape on credit and delayed billing. Some would say that Muntz would have never survived early on had Greentree not been so lenient in their credit terms with Muntz. Will call some of the old Muntz people later this month and see if I can jog memories regarding historic events. Bill Golden