Julius Sumner Miller

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Professor Julius Sumner Miller (May 17, 1909 – April 14, 1987), was an American science populariser. He is best known for his work on children's television programs.

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[edit] Personal life

Born in Billerica, Massachusetts, Sumner Miller's Lithuanian mother spoke 12 languages.[citation needed] He married Alice in 1935, they had no children but he was to go on to reach millions of children through his popular science programs.

Although he graduated during the Depression, he submitted 700 letters applying for teaching jobs before acceptance by a private school in Connecticut.[citation needed] A student of Albert Einstein and lifelong friend,[citation needed] he was instantly recognizable by his casual hair and horn-rimmed spectacles.

Throughout the 1960s and '70s, Dr. Miller taught physics at El Camino Jr. College in Torrance, California, to maximum student enrollments due to his great popularity.

[edit] Television

From 1962 to 1964, he was Disney's "Professor Wonderful" on new introductions, filmed at Disneyland, to the syndicated reruns of The Mickey Mouse Club. During the same period, Dr. Miller appeared on a semi-regular basis, performing physics experiments, on Steve Allen's late night TV show in Hollywood, syndicated by Westinghouse. He is best known in Canada for his "mad professor" work on the 1971 TV series The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. In Australia he had the hit show, Why Is It So? (his eventual stock phrase), which was broadcast from 1963 to 1986, and the 1960s program Demonstrations in Physics (also called Science Demonstrations when it was aired on American Public television). He introduced each episode of Demonstrations in Physics with the line: "How do you do, ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls, and teachers? My name is Julius Sumner Miller, and physics is my business."

An Australian newspaper also took questions from his show and made "Millergrams" with them for The Australian newspaper in the 1960s.

Miller was also an occasional guest in the 1970s on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the U.S.

[edit] Commercials

During the 1980s Miller appeared in a famous series of Australian television commercials for Cadbury chocolate, using his stock phrase "Why is it so?", demonstrating a simple scientific principle, and describing how each block of chocolate "embraces substantial nourishment and enjoyment", and contained "a glass and a half of full-cream dairy milk". The latter phrase became so well known that it led to the slang "Cadbury", used to refer to a person who gets drunk easily (i.e. after drinking "a glass and a half" of beer). The ads were sufficiently popular to be played for some years after his death, and since he was demonstrating real principles of physics (albeit briefly) they never damaged his credibility.

[edit] Foundations

Miller died on 14 April, 1987, of leukemia in San Jose, California. Professor Sumner Miller's wife, Alice Brown Miller, wanted to perpetuate the memory and achievements of her husband, and so conceived the idea of the Julius Sumner Miller Foundation, which was established in 1998. Sumner Miller willed his body to the University of Southern California's School of Dentistry.[citation needed]

Through an offer by Cadbury-Schweppes Pty Ltd, the Cadbury-Julius Sumner Miller Scholarship for Academic Excellence was set up to provide undergraduate scholarships in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney.

In 1993 the Australian Science Foundation for Physics established the Julius Sumner Miller Fellowship in his memory. The fellowship is currently held by Karl Kruszelnicki ("Doctor Karl").

[edit] Bibliography

  • Millergrams, A Brainteaser Book, Ure Smith, 1966
  • Quiz Questions in Physics, Horwitz-Martin, Australia 1967
  • Why It Is So, ABC books, 1971 ISBN 0642972966
  • Why It Is So: Heat and Temperature, ABC books, 1973 ISBN 0642974969
  • Why It Is So: Sound and Electricity & Magnetism, ABC books, 1973 ISBN 0642975841
  • Why It Is So: Mechanics, Heat & Temperature, Sound and Electricity, ABC books, 1978 ISBN 064297523X
  • Enchanting Questions for Enquiring Minds, Currey/O'Neil, 1982 ISBN 0-85902-280-3
  • Why is it so?: the very best Millergrams of Professor Julius Sumner Miller, Australian Red Cross Society, Ringwood, Vic; Penguin Books, 1988
  • The Days of My Life: an autobiography, Macmillan, 1989. ISBN 0-333-50337-6

[edit] References

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[edit] External links