Excerpt from Avocado
Memories:
Note: I mentioned above that I came up with the first pop culture
tarot deck. I also invented the Walkman. In 1972, as I walked along the
railroad tracks from Burbank Junction to Empire Avenue to pick up the family
car after school, I reflected upon how nice it would be to have a small,
battery-powered cassette deck connected to a small pair of headphones. I knew
that headphones didn't require much in the way of amplification, and that a few
transistors on a small circuit board would probably be sufficient. I figured
the cassette mechanism and associated circuitry would probably be somewhat
larger than a transistor radio. In 1972 I was 16. Sony introduced the Walkman
to great acclaim in July, 1979 and revolutionized the way people listened to
music. If only I had had the investment capital…..