Madman Muntz and the Car Stereo

Who knew if you put a stereo in a car people would line up around the block to get one installed? A flamboyant used car salesman from Southern California did.

In the mid-1960s, Earl Muntz introduced the world's first car stereo by rigging a 110-volt home system to his car's battery. He commercialized the product

and sold it out of a manufacturing facility in Van Nuys, Calif. Muntz's 4-track car stereo system caught the eye of Bill Lear, who had invented the world's first practical car radio and later built his self-named jet.

Lear installed the Muntz system in one of his jets and improved on the design by adding an 8-track player. The innovation ended Muntz's audio future. A high school dropout and lifelong entrepreneur, Muntz popularized the "crazy guy" persona of used auto sales. In advertisements he declared, "I wanna give 'em away, but Mrs. Muntz won't let me—she's crazy!." Another stated, "I buy 'em retail, sell 'em wholesale—it's more fun that way!"

Muntz bombarded Southern California radio listeners with hundreds of "madman" commercials.

The campaigns worked—he reportedly sold $76 million worth of automobiles in 1947 alone.

In 1950s, Muntz ventured into the television industry. He aggressively pursued low-cost designs for black & white sets, and his penchant for snipping parts out of prototypes became known among company engineers as "Muntzting." Mutnz applied the same bravado in selling television sets he had successfully used for cars.

A national skywriting campaign soured when wind blew away the word "Muntz" before pilots could spell "Television." Muntz then directed his pilots to write "TV" and the acronym flew into American lexicon.

A few years later Muntz collaborated with an Indianapolis racecar designer to produce the Muntz Jet, a sports car equipped with liquor and ice cabinets.

The venture was cancelled after a few years and several hundred vehicles. Muntz was born 1914, married seven times and drove a custom Lincoln Continental with a TV set built into the dashboard. He died in 1987. Two California filmmakers have produced a documentary and are now seeking distribution for the film on the entrepreneur, called "Madman Muntz: American Maverick."

Sources: Consumer Electronics Association, www.Madmanmuntzmovie.com.

Photo courtesy www.Madmanmmuntzmovie.com

Article by Jay Alling, editor of Sensible Driver. Write to jay@sensibledriver.com.