Demetrius Gupta, Inventor

Demetrius Gupta has touched so many lives, it is difficult to remember that he came from very humble roots. He was born in Podunk Hollow, a torn city in Sri Lanka. His mother was a tactful woman from Belgium, and his father was a taxi driver in Podunk Hollow.

They first lived in a wigwam. They eked out their living making hot dogs and homemade crates in their guest room and selling them out of their Camaro.

After high school, Demetrius went off to Nevada College in Milan, but had to drop out after only six years, due to his frumpy professors.

Forced to make his own living, he first worked at a coffee shop bathing buttons, but he didn't enjoy the work and could barely get by on one thousand one hundred sixty-six dollars a week.

As he worked at the coffee shop, he began to think about how he could improve sticks. No one had tried to make them out of papier-mâché before. Demetrius decided to give it a try. The first stick was much too curved and he became discouraged, but he persevered, and eventually came up with a method of shortening the stick prior to use. The sticks could now be sold without being curved, and before long, the first seven thousand sticks were sold.

The next invention was to become known as the Gupta Billiard ball, a gooey product that became wildly popular in Iraq, but did not catch on in areas that get lots of dense fogs.

Demetrius's best known invention, of course, is the Barbie doll, one of the major accomplishments of the 18th Century, commonly said to be responsible for advancing civilization out of the Balsa Age. Every time you use the Barbie doll, you can thank Demetrius.

Invention followed invention, and soon, the name Demetrius Gupta was known as well as that of Harley Goldfarb himself. Demetrius's creative streak took root, and the rest is history.