Harold von Braunhut

Braunhut was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 31, 1926.[2] He grew up in New York City and resided there until the 1980s, when he moved to Maryland.[3] According to a report in The Washington Post, he was raised "as Harold Nathan Braunhut, a Jew"[4] — notable in light of his later association with white supremacist groups. He added "von" to his name some time in the 1950s for a more Germanic sound and so he could distance himself from his Jewish family.[5]

His first married Charlotte Braunhut. His second marriage was to actress Yolanda Signorelli, who took an active role in marketing Sea-Monkeys. He had a son, Jonathan, and a daughter, Jeanette LaMothe.

Harold von Braunhut died on November 28, 2003, at his home in Indian Head, Maryland, following an accidental fall.[2]

Braunhut used comic book advertisements to sell an assortment of products. He held 195 patents[1] for various products, many of which have become cultural icons, including:[5]

• X-ray specs, which advertisements claimed enabled the wearer to see through clothing and flesh. The product has appealed to generations of curious pre-adolescents.
• Amazing Sea-Monkeys, which were tiny brine shrimp eggs that "came to life" when water was added.[6] Sales took an upswing when comic book illustrator Joe Orlando drew comic book advertisements showing the humanized Sea-Monkeys enjoying life in their underwater fantasy world. Billions of the tiny creatures have been sold over the years and have generated fan websites, a television series, and a video game. Astronaut John Glenn took 400 million "Amazing Sea-Monkeys" into space with him in 1998.[1]
• Crazy Crabs, which were simply hermit crabs.
• Amazing Hair-Raising Monsters, a card with a printed monster that would grow "hair" (actually mineral crystals) when water was added.
• Invisible Goldfish, imaginary fish that were guaranteed to remain permanently invisible.

Braunhut also raced motorcycles under the name "The Green Hornet", and managed a showman (Henry Lamore or Henri LaMothe) whose act consisted of diving 40 feet (12 m) into a children's wading pool filled with only 1 foot (0.30 m) of water,[1] and the mentalist The great Dunninger.[7] Braunhut also set up a wildlife conservation area[8] in Maryland.

The Washington Post stated in a report that, despite his Jewish ethnicity, he had a close association with white supremacist groups, buying firearms for a Ku Klux Klan faction and regularly attending the Aryan Nations annual conference.[4] In a 1988 interview with The Seattle Times, he referred to the "inscrutable, slanty Korean eyes" of Korean shop owners and was quoted as saying, "You know what side I'm on. I don't make any bones about it."[9]