Quick Facts

Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen, often known as Mike Todd, was an American theater and cinema producer. His 1956 film Around the World in “80 Days,” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, earned him widespread acclaim. Before the Great Depression, he amassed a fortune in the construction industry and lost everything in the crash, all before turning 21. Todd was moved to create his first play after seeing “The Swing Mikado” with an all-black cast.

He has held a number of occupations in the past, such as shoe salesperson and store window decorator, but one of his earliest positions was as a soda jerk. In the 1950s, he was a key figure in the technical advancement of the motion picture industry. He also founded the Cinerama Company with Lowell Thomas and Fred Waller to commercialize Waller’s widescreen Cinerama filming technique. Later, Mike departed Cinerama Company and worked with American Optical Company to create the Todd-AO widescreen 70 mm film format. Sadly, we lost such a great man on March 22, 1958, when he was 48 years old.

How much was the Net worth of Mike Todd?

Mike Todd was a multi-talented man with a $5 million net worth at the time of his passing; however, his exact salary was not yet known. Mike’s primary source of income came from his work as a theater and film producer; therefore, he had amassed a sizeable fortune through his industry.

How did Mike Todd die?

On March 22, 1958, Mike Todd’s private aircraft, the Liz, crashed close to Grants, New Mexico. The Lockheed Lodestar, a twin-engine aircraft, lost both of its engines while being overloaded and being flown in icing conditions at an altitude that was too high for just one engine to function with the heavy load. All four people on board died when the plane crashed after losing control. To advertise a showing of “Michael Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days,” Todd took this aircraft five days before to the incident to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is located 78 miles (126 km) to the east of the crash site. Mike was traveling to New York to win the “Showman of the Year” award from the New York Friars Club.

In addition to Todd, Art Cohn, a screenwriter and author who was working on Todd’s biography “The Nine Lives of Michael Todd,” also perished in the collision. Todd phoned friends just hours before the tragedy and said the jet was okay. After being recognized by dental records and being transported to Albuquerque, New Mexico, his son, Mike Jr., requested that his father’s body be cremated; however, Taylor refused, stating that he would not desire cremation. Todd’s remains were vandalized by graverobbers in June 1977. In search of a $100,000 diamond ring that Taylor allegedly put on her husband’s finger before his burial, the robbers forced their way into his casket.

Early Years and Bio

Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen, Mike Todd’s real name, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 22, 1909. He was of mixed ancestry and American nationality. His race was white, and he practiced Christianity. In 1958, Mike finally turned 48, and according to his birthdate, he was born under the sign of Cancer. He was the child of Polish Jewish immigrants Sophia Hellerman and Chaim Goldbogen, the latter of whom was an Orthodox rabbi. He was the youngest boy in a large family of nine, and because of his trouble pronouncing the word “coat,” his siblings dubbed him “Tod” (German: Toat). This is where the origin of his name lies.

What was the Professional Career of Mike Todd?

Mike Todd began his career as a contractor for Hollywood studios, where he amassed a fortune before going bankrupt. This was in contrast to his earlier forays into the film industry.
He created the “Flame Dance” show for the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition in 1933–1934. Through this engagement, he experienced Broadway for the first time, and he was eager to find a way to work there. The Hot Mikado, which premiered on Broadway on March 23, 1939, was the result of his decision to create his own rendition. Throughout his career, he also produced 17 Broadway productions, including the hugely popular burlesque revue “Star and Garter,” which starred comic Bobby Clark, “The Naked Genius,” which was written by and starred stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, and a 1945 “Hamlet” staging with actor Maurice Evans.

He proposed staging the 1945 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in freshly freed Berlin and produced the opera “A Night in Venice” by Johann Strauss II in 1952. The first Cinerama picture, “This is Cinerama,” was released in September 1952, but Todd founded Cinerama in 1950 with the broadcaster Lowell Thomas and the inventor Fred Waller. Later, he left the Cinerama Company to create a widescreen method that would do away with some of the shortcomings of Cinerama. Soon after, on October 17, 1956, “Michael Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days,” the movie for which he is best known, was released in theaters. In addition, Todd’s life and profession were thought to be largely based on “My Name Is Morgan,” a William Woolfolk novel published in the early 1960s.

Selected Broadway Productions

• Call Me Ziggy (Play, Farce, 1937)
• The Hot Mikado (Musical, Operetta, 1939)
• Something for the Boys (Musical, Comedy, 1943)
• Mexican Hayride (Musical, Comedy,1944)
• Up in Central Park (Musical, Comedy, 1945)
• As the Girls Go (Musical, Comedy, 1948)

Who was the wife of Mike Todd?

Mike Todd was already taken. On Valentine’s Day 1927, he wed Bertha Freshman at Crown Point, Indiana, at the age of 17. A son named Mike Todd, Jr., who was born in 1929, was a blessing for the couple. On August 12, 1946, in Santa Monica, California, while receiving treatment at St. John’s Hospital for a torn finger tendon, his wife Bertha passed away from a pneumothorax (collapsed lung). At the time of her passing, Todd and his wife were divorced; less than a week before, Freshman had passed away.

Then, on July 5, 1947, Mike wed the actress Joan Blondell; however, after Blondell filed for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty, the couple divorced on June 8, 1950. He had a turbulent relationship with the actress Elizabeth Taylor, to whom he was married three times. The ceremony, officiated by the mayor of Acapulco, took place on February 2nd, 1957, in Mexico. The 24-year-old bride and her 47-year-old groom were both in their third marriage. Elizabeth Frances (Liza) Todd, a daughter of Todd and Taylor, was born on August 6, 1957. Todd was straight in terms of his sexuality.

Body Measurement: Height and Weight

Mike Todd had an average body type and stood 5 feet 5 inches tall. He had dark brown eyes and black hair.

Trivia