ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Whiteout invented by Monkee Michael Nesmith's mother -
Yep, that is one of my favorite little factoids (Liquid Paper actually). The most amazing thing to me, is that unlike so many small inventors, she actually made a ton of money from it - good for her!
Bette Nesmith Graham - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Graham secretly used her white correction paint for five years, making some improvements with help from her son's high school Chemistry teacher. Some bosses admonished her against using it, but coworkers frequently sought her paint out. She eventually began marketing her typewriter correction fluid as "Mistake Out" in 1956. The name was later changed to Liquid Paper, when she began her own company.
In 1979 she sold Liquid Paper to the Gillette Corporation for USD $47.5 million. At the time, her company employed 200 people and made 25 million bottles of Liquid Paper per year. [2]
Bette Nesmith's son Michael inherited half her $50+ million estate upon her death in 1980, at age 56. The remainder financed the Council on Ideas, a think tank devoted to exploring world problems.
I love the irony - her 'bosses admonished her for using it' - and she end up with a $50,000,000 estate! I wonder how her bosses made out?
And Hoyt Axton's mother co-wrote 'Heartbreak Hotel'.
Hoyt Axton is known (by some) for writing these (among many others):
- "Greenback Dollar" covered by The Kingston Trio
- "The Pusher," covered by Steppenwolf on their debut album in 1968
- "No-No Song," which became a #3 hit for Ringo Starr in March 1975
- "Never Been To Spain", covered by Three Dog Night and Elvis Presley
- "Joy to the World", the Three Dog Night hit from April 1971 which held US #1 for six weeks
-ERD50