Editing Rube Goldberg (section)

==Career==
[[File:Goldberg Himself.jpg|thumb|175px|left|Goldberg in an issue of ''[[The Moving Picture World]]'', 1916]]
Goldberg's father was a San Francisco [[police]] and fire commissioner,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kHREAAAAMAAJ&q=%22rube+goldberg%22+francisco |title=Contemporary Authors: First revision |date=1969 |publisher=Gale Research Company |language=en}}</ref> who encouraged the young Reuben to pursue a career in [[engineering]]. Rube graduated from the [[University of California, Berkeley]], in 1904 with a degree in Engineering<ref name="ab" /> and was hired by the [[San Francisco|city of San Francisco]] as an engineer for the Water and Sewers Department.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kHREAAAAMAAJ&q=%22rube+goldberg%22+francisco |title=Contemporary Authors: First revision |date=1969 |publisher=Gale Research Company |language=en}}</ref> After six months he resigned his position with the city to join the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' where he became a sports [[cartoonist]].<ref name="ab"/> The following year, he took a job with the ''San Francisco Bulletin'', where he remained until he moved to [[New York City]] in 1907, finding employment as a sports cartoonist with the ''[[New York Evening Mail]]''.<ref name= marzio />

Goldberg's first public hit was a [[comic|comic strip]] called ''Foolish Questions'',<ref name="toonopediafoolishquestions" /> beginning in 1908. The invention cartoons began in 1912.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sheets |first1=Hilarie M. |title=A Rube Goldberg Hand-Washing Contraption? The Race Is On |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/arts/design/rube-goldberg-bar-of-soap-challenge.html |access-date=1 January 2021 |agency=The New York Times |date=8 April 2020}}</ref> The ''New York Evening Mail'' was syndicated to the first newspaper [[syndicate]], the [[McClure Newspaper Syndicate]], giving Goldberg's cartoons a wider distribution, and by 1915 he was earning $25,000 per year and being billed by the paper as America's most popular cartoonist.<ref name= marzio /> [[Arthur Brisbane]] had offered Goldberg $2,600 <!-- $2,600 is not a typo. The Hearst chain offer was a highly prestigious position but at a low salary, and it was later raised to $50,000 --> per year in 1911 in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to move to [[William Randolph Hearst]]'s newspaper chain, and in 1915 raised the offer to $50,000 per year. Rather than lose Goldberg to Hearst, the ''New York Evening Mail'' matched the salary offer and formed the Evening Mail Syndicate to syndicate Goldberg's cartoons nationally.<ref name= marzio />

In 1916, Goldberg created a series of seven short [[animated films]] which focus on humorous aspects of everyday situations<ref>{{cite news | date=July 24, 2016 | title=Goldberg is Again Star of the Film: Artist-Humorist of The Times Seen in New Set of Animated Cartoons | work=The Washington Times | page=12 | url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1916-07-24/ed-1/seq-12/ | access-date=May 21, 2018}}</ref> in the form of an animated [[newsreel]].<ref>{{cite news | last=Photoplay Editor | date=May 5, 1916 | title=Pathé Boob Weekly News from Nowhere: Goldberg Does Some Clever Satiric Cartoons on News Pictures | page=10 | work=[[Philadelphia Evening Ledger]] | url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1916-05-05/ed-1/seq-10/ | access-date=May 21, 2018}}</ref> The seven films were released on these dates in 1916: May 8, ''The Boob Weekly''; May 22, ''Leap Year''; June 5, ''The Fatal Pie''; Jun 19, ''From Kitchen Mechanic to Movie Star''; July 3, ''Nutty News''; July 17, ''Home Sweet Home''; July 31, ''Losing Weight''.<ref>{{cite book | last=George | first=Jennifer | title=The Art of Rube Goldberg: (A) Inventive (B) Cartoon (C) Genius | date=November 12, 2013 | location=New York | publisher=[[Harry N. Abrams]] | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JpcxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA60 | access-date=May 21, 2018 | isbn=978-1-419-70852-7}}</ref>

Goldberg was syndicated by the [[McNaught Syndicate]] from 1922 until 1934.

A prolific artist, it has been estimated that Goldberg created 50,000 cartoons during his lifetime.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Wilson |first=Emily |date=May 1, 2018 |title=The Story Behind Rube Goldberg's Complicated Contraptions |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-behind-rube-goldbergs-complicated-contraptions-180968928/ |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Joseph J. Bonsignore |access-date=January 10, 2021}}</ref> Some of these cartoons include ''[[Mike and Ike (They Look Alike)]]'', ''[[Boob McNutt]]'', ''Foolish Questions'',<ref name="toonopediafoolishquestions">[http://toonopedia.com/foolishq.htm] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20240527220706/https://www.webcitation.org/6jOdtzEQN?url=http://toonopedia.com/foolishq.htm Archived] from the original on July 30, 2016.</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Foolish Questions hi|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1910-06-02/ed-1/seq-13 |newspaper=[[The San Francisco Call]] |date=December 2, 1910 |page=13}}</ref> ''What Are You Kicking About'',<ref>{{cite news |title=What Are You Kicking About |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1910-06-01/ed-1/seq-13 |newspaper=[[The San Francisco Call]] |date=June 1, 1910 |page=13}}</ref> ''Telephonies'',<ref>{{cite news |title=Telephonies |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1911-07-12/ed-1/seq-10 |newspaper=[[The San Francisco Call]] |date=July 12, 1911 |page=10}}</ref> ''Lala Palooza'', ''The Weekly Meeting of the Tuesday Women's Club'', and the uncharacteristically serious [[soap-opera]] strip, ''Doc Wright'', which ran for 10 months beginning January 29, 1933.<ref>[http://toonopedia.com/docwri.htm ''Doc Wright''] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]].  {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20240527194002/https://www.webcitation.org/6gWihdn6h?url=http://toonopedia.com/docwri.htm |date=May 27, 2024 }} from the original on April 4, 2016.</ref>

The cartoon series that brought him lasting fame was ''The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, A.K.'', which ran in ''[[Collier's Weekly]]'' from January 26, 1929, to December 26, 1931. In that series, Goldberg drew labeled schematics in the form of patent applications of the comically intricate "inventions" that would later bear his name.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tumey |first1=Paul C. |title=Screwball!: The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny |date=2019 |publisher=The Library of American Comics |isbn=978-1684051878 |page=135}}</ref> The character of Professor Butts was based on Rube's professor Frederick Slate at the College of Mining and Engineering at the [[University of California]], where Rube attended from 1901 to 1903.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.brainstuffshow.com/podcasts/the-man-behind-rube-goldberg-machines.htm|title=The Man Behind Rube Goldberg Machines|date=2018-06-13|work=BrainStuff|access-date=2018-06-13|language=en}}</ref> Frederick Slate gave his engineering students the task of building a scale that could weigh the Earth. The scale was called the “Barodik". To Goldberg, this exemplified a comical combination of seriousness and ridiculousness that would come to serve as an inspiration in his work.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Beschloss |first=Steven |title=19 July, 2013 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/object-of-interest-rube-goldberg-machines |magazine=The New Yorker |location=New York, NY  |access-date=January 18, 2021}}</ref>

From 1938 to 1941, Goldberg drew two weekly strips for the [[Register and Tribune Syndicate]]: ''Brad and Dad'' (1939–1941) and ''Side Show'' (1938–1941), a continuation of the invention drawings.<ref>[http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=GOLDBERG%2c+RUBE Goldberg profile], ''Who's Who of American Comic Book Artists, 1928–1999''. Accessed Jan. 5, 2018.</ref>

Starting in 1938, Goldberg worked as the editorial cartoonist for the ''[[The Sun (New York City)|New York Sun]]''.<ref name=sayej>{{cite news|title=Rube Goldberg: celebrating a remarkable life of cartoons and creations|work=The Guardian|author=Nadja Sayej|date=October 9, 2019|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/09/rube-goldberg-cartoons-pulitzer-queens-museum-new-york|access-date=2020-02-23}}</ref> He won the 1948 [[Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning]] for a cartoon entitled "[[:File:Peace Today.jpg|Peace Today]]".<ref name=sayej /> He moved to the ''[[New York Journal-American]]'' in 1949 and worked there until his retirement in 1963.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Alphabet of Satire|work=City Journal|author=Stefan Kanfer|date=Winter 2015|url=https://www.city-journal.org/html/alphabet-satire-13707.html|access-date=2020-02-23}}</ref> In the 1960s, Goldberg began a [[sculpture]] career, primarily creating [[Bust (sculpture)|busts]].<ref>Rube Goldberg and Emily S. Nathan. Transcript of interview with Rube Goldberg, 1970. Emily Nathan papers, circa 1943-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.</ref>