The Story Behind the Story with Mike Rowe

As a child Eugene mastered magic. As a teenager Eugene mastered four languages, music and art. Each time Eugene succeeded his mother asked him "What's next Eugene?" This story has two stories and Eugene's mother has her own "What's next?" story that drives her to keep asking Eugene "What's next?" after each new accomplishment. Including when Eugene presented her with a $10,000,000 check from the success of his makeup sales, or when he became a best-selling author, or a reality TV star, or a successful real estate investor, or a social and political lightning rod, or when he became a musician who acquired more gold records than anyone in history, or a sex-symbol who married a Playboy bunny, or have his tongue insured for $1,000,000. Even now this little Jewish boy worth $300,000,000 is wondering "What's next?".

This story is about Tommy the tuba player. Not just any tuba player, but considered the best tuba player of the time. Tommy was a nice man. He won the lifetime PTA award and was the teacher every parent wanted their teenage to get. He played those eight notes for Bart Simpson and the four notes known as the Price Is Right Loser's theme. But, in 1975 he became the "bad guy" where he was expected to play "out on the thin branches" to scare us with only two notes with his tuba, repeated over and over. Tommy succeeded.

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We meet Percy, a Raytheon supervisor in an engineering laboratory, trying to decide what type of snack to purchase on his way to work. Eventually deciding he wrapped the morsel in a paper napkin and put it in his pocket. Later that afternoon he reached into his pocket for his tasty pick-me-up only to find melted chocolatey goo. Percy was determined to resolve this issue and set off inventing an enormous 750 pound piece of equipment, which cost $52,000 and made popcorn. But, within a year Percy had the weight and size, but more importantly, the cost way down. And his invention would sell 30,000,000 units a year and generate over $100,000,000,000 in sales. We owe Percy a vote of gratitude for changing the way we cook. Or maybe just reheat.

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