Herb was the youngest, and his older siblings had all gone into the business and done pretty well for themselves, so you can imagine the pressure that came down on poor Herb.
But like the dutiful son he was, he got into the business, and he did all right. In fact, he made a lot of money. Amounts of money that made him very wealthy by the standards of his day. He was well known and for the most part he was respected by other people in the business. But the truth is that Herb never really cared much for the family business—he had other interests. And after a few years, he finally had enough. So one day, he just walked away from it all.
He walked away from the money and on the recognition and notoriety he’d received. He wanted to finally pursue his own interests—and let me tell you, there were a lot of them! Trouble was, none of them seemed to work out very well. He tried breeding racehorses for a while, but didn’t get very far with it. Next he tried raising grapefruit. That didn’t work either. But you’ve probably already guessed that failure never stopped Herb.
He had so many things he wanted to try, and fortunately for him, he had a lot of money left over from the family business, so he went full speed ahead. For a while he was even a commercial fisherman! Didn’t make much money at it either, but he did enjoy it. And it was the experience that mattered, just knowing he’d made the effort. Herb had a friend who suffered from cardiac disease and was always worried about the signs of a heart attack.
Herb put his mind to it and came up with a device to help him. He called it “Lifeguard,” and it was a wristwatch which compared the patient’s pulse rate with a normal rate, setting off an alarm if there were any irregularities. Herb even received a patent for it, and wouldn’t you know it....sold thousands of them. And Herb wasn’t done. No!
He saw a need for a kind of clamping device which would hold down cargo as it was being transported, whether by air, rail, or truck.It was a versatile invention, so versatile that it caught the attention of the U.S. military. World War II was going on at the time, and they needed good strong clamps to use on board the bombers. In fact, the clamps worked so well that they were used on one of the most crucial missions of the war.
Yes, it was Herb’s invention which carried the atomic bombs to Japan. And you know what, you never heard Herb’s name mentioned in relation to either of those important inventions. But you certainly remember him from his family business.
It’s a little known fact that this man of many interests and many talents is still recognized today for his association with the “family business,” which was show business—this youngest brother of a famous Marx family,
Herbert “Zeppo” Marx.
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