About Ernst
Michael Ernst is a patented toy inventor and a children’s book author.
Born in Levittown, PA, he was raised with a loving mother and father, two sisters and one brother. Growing up in PA until ninth grade, his parents decided to move to Orlando, FL, and he graduated from high school there.
His odd jobs over the years included pet sitter, paper boy, valet parker, warehouse worker, welder assistant, and a few others.
When his father retired, he asked Michael if they could start a business together. It took them a while before they could agree on the same thing, and their new business was a billiard hall.
At this time of his life, he found my true calling of becoming an “inventor”. During their time running a billiard hall, Michael came up with a new idea for a billiard table, and a billiard style board game, both of which are patented.
The next year, he went to the New York Toy Fair to get feedback on his idea and met with Marx Toy Company. They loved the idea of the billiard table and board game, and signed a contract.
On the second day, while walking around looking at displays, a small lady came up from behind him and pulled his shirt. Upon turning around, she asked him if he would like to meet the Lollipop Kid from The Wizard of Oz. She introduced herself as Elizabeth Maren, and walked him over to meet her husband, Jerry Maren. They both instantly hit it off and spent the next few hours discussing his days as a munchkin and mine as a toy inventor.
Michael asked him one question. “Why was there never a Munchkin movie?” He looked up at him and smiled. He said, no one has ever come up with an idea like that before. This bothered Michael and he thought about it for a minute. At this point, Michael mentioned to Jerry if he would design a munchkin board game, would he support the idea. Again, he smiled and said, absolutely. They both agreed to meet the following year at the same place, and Michael would show him my design.
A year later, they both met again in NY. Michael showed him the board game design, but he also showed him a story that he wrote while developing the board game. This is how Michael became the author of two books. The Untold Story from Lollipop Kid to Munchkin King, and The Munchkin Tale of the Lollipop Club. They are the only books approved and authorized by an original cast member about the Munchkins.
