Louis Marx

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Louis Marx (August 11, 1896 - February 5, 1982) was an American toy maker and businessman whose company, Louis Marx and Company was the largest toy company in the world in the 1950s. Marx was described as an intense, hard-driving, and energetic man, who "[T]alks, walks, and gestures tirelessly, like one of his own wound-up toys."

Marx was known by numerous nicknames, including "Toycoon," "the Henry Ford of the toy industry," "the hawk of the toy industry," and "the toy king of America."

Born in Brooklyn, New York to German Jewish parents, Marx graduated high school at age 15 and started his career working for Ferdinand Strauss, a manufacturer of mechanical toys. By 1916, Marx was managing Strauss' East Rutherford, New Jersey plant. But within a year, Marx was fired by Strauss' board of directors over a disagreement about sales practices.

Marx then entered the United States Army as a private and attained the rank of sergeant before returning to civilian life in 1918. Marx's passion for the Army was reflected throughout his life; most of Marx's military toys represented Army equipment, and Marx would make a practice of befriending generals and naming his sons after them.

Following military service, Marx then went to work for a manufacturer of wood toys, redesigned the product line, and increased the company's sales tenfold.

In 1919 Marx and his brother David incorporated, founding the company that bore his name. Initially working as a middle man, Marx was soon able to purchase tooling to manufacture toys himself. When Strauss fell on hard financial times, Marx was able to buy the dies for two Strauss toys and turn them into best-sellers. By age 26, three years after founding his company, Marx was a millionaire.

By utilizing techniques of mass production and reusing old designs as much as possible--Marx utilized some of his toy train tooling developed in the early 1930s until 1972--Marx was able to sell a broad line of inexpensive toys.

By 1951, Marx's company had 12 factories worldwide and for much of the 1950s it was the largest toy manufacturer in the world adding most of the success to Sears, Roebuck catalog sales and the many themed playsets available. As World War II drew to a close, Marx had toured Europe and acted as a consultant on how toy manufacturing could aid reconstruction efforts. Marx used the contacts he made in this manner to forge partnerships and open factories in Europe and Japan. Marx was featured on the cover of the December 12, 1955 issue of Time Magazine, his likeness surrounded by examples of his toys.

Marx's first wife, Renee, died of breast cancer at age 33. His second wife, a secretary at his company, was 28 years his junior.

Marx's daughter, Patricia, was born in 1938. She went on to become an author and activist and married Daniel Ellsberg, of Pentagon Papers fame. Marx, who had been a strident anti-Communist and was an admirer of Richard Nixon, regarded Ellsberg as a traitor.

Marx's son, Louis Marx Junior, is a successful venture capitalist who has parlayed a small fortune into a huge one. In addition to brilliant business acumen, he is a generous philanthropist who has contributed significantly to the arts, education and medicine.

Marx retired in 1972, selling his company to Quaker Oats for $54 million. Marx was 76 years old and his company had been declining. The decline has variously been blamed on the company's slowness to develop electronic toys and on Marx's unwillingness to employ salesmen for fear of someone else repeating his early experience with Strauss.

Louis Marx died in a hospital in White Plains, New York at age 85.

[edit] References

• Matzke, Eric (1985). Matzke, Eric. Greenberg's Guide to Marx Trains, 2nd Edition. Greenberg Publishing Company, 1985. ISBN 89778-026-4.
• Wells, Tom (2001). Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg. Palgrave, June 9, 2001. ISBN 0-312-17719-4.