King C. Gillette

About

Inventor of the first safety razor who gave the world an easy way to shave.

Before Fame

He discovered that cheap, disposable items sold best while working as a traveling salesman, and he decided to use that process to make a thin, disposable shaving blade.

Trivia

He was usually credited with inventing the concept of giving away razors to increase purchase of the blades, but that was a practice instituted by his company after his death.

Family Life

He was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and grew up in Chicago.

Associated With

He was a Utopian socialist, imagining a perfect metropolis on the banks of the Niagara River and recruiting - unsuccessfully - the industrialist Henry Ford to run it.