36 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 SEPTEMBER 2017 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 37
When it came to TV,
Marvin Middlemark
Old Westbury tinkerer
Marvin Middlemark invented
the “rabbit ears” TV
antenna in 1953, helping
millions of Americans get
the fuzz, or some of it, out
of their pre-cable television
reception. Though not completely
original – the design
was based on the dipole
antenna invented by Heinrich
Hertz in 1886 – the
update made Middlemark a
wealthy man.
Middlemark was awarded
62 patents in his lifetime,
but his other inventions,
including a water-powered
potato peeler and a
technique for resuscitating
gone-soft tennis balls,
didn’t muster the same
commercial appeal. He sold
his antenna company, All
Channel Products Corp.,
in the mid-1960s, parked
the proceeds in municipal
bonds, and retired to his
wooded 12-acre estate, where
he kept miniature horses,
collected stained glass
windows and housed a
pet chimpanzee named
Josie who liked to finish
unwary guests’ drinks.
Middlemark died in
1989, leaving behind a
$5 million fortune and,
inexplicably, 1,000 pairs
of woolen gloves. His
son, second wife and
her son from another
marriage fought over the
will for years. Highlights:
Planted drugs and
weapons, death threats
and at least one choking
attempt. And all that
was by the widow. The
stepson, a prominent
North Hempstead political
operative, pleaded
guilty to perjury and was
sentenced to two years
in jail.
“Every lawyer has read
‘Bleak House,’ ” Neal
Johnston, an attorney for
Middlemark’s son said at
the time. “This is as close
as I’ve come to living it.”
Fittingly, perhaps, Middlemark’s
set-top antenna
ultimately lost its market
to the advances of
another prominent
Long Islander – cable
pioneer Charles
Dolan.
was all ears
WHOLLY MOLI