This melds with another popular thread today...
34. The Sea Monkeys and the White Supremacist
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 1, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Apart from the fact that they can hatch within five minutes after contact with water, brine shrimp are unappealing creatures. They're ant-sized and translucent and bear a striking resemblance to sperm. Yet brine shrimp packaged as ''Sea Monkeys'' are currently sold as children's companions, and portrayed on their boxes as pink, pear-shaped simian creatures with spindly legs, paunches and coy smiles. They are one of the most impressive achievements in the annals of marketing.
Harold von Braunhut, a former manager of novelty acts, first packaged his patented hybrids in 1960, transforming the Sea Monkeys into American icons via millions of comic book ads.
In 1999, the Sea Monkeys were in line for an overhaul: The freeze-dried creatures were, and still are, licensed to Educational Insights Inc., a Carson-based company whose ExploraToy division handles production development and sales of the Sea Monkeys. According to then-art director Gregory Bevington, the classic '70s naked monkeys lounging on a seaweed bank in front of a castle are too ''lame'' for today's children.
Any decision regarding the appearance of the Sea Monkeys must be vetted by Harold von Braunhut. The 75-year-old inventor currently lives on a nature preserve in Bryans Road, Md., and drives a red Corvette. ''Harold,'' as he is known at Educational Insights, is notoriously protective of his patented Sea Monkeys. ExploraToy Vice President George C. Atamian says Von Braunhut once refused to do business with a company desiring to make Sea Monkey refrigerator magnets after he discovered risque magnets in its catalog.
I ask Atamian for Von Braunhut's unlisted number. Atamian says he would prefer that I not speak to Harold. Each time I ask, Atamian puts me off with a series of excuses, ranging from Von Braunhut's reclusiveness to his poor health--a few years ago Harold fell off a balcony, then his ''gallbladder exploded.'' Atamian also mentions that whenever Von Braunhut gives interviews, there's ''fallout.'' Curious as to what this ''fallout'' could be, I do a database search on Harold von Braunhut.
Among Von Braunhut's many inventions, which range from bulletproof garb to an insect observation kit, is a pen-sized weapon called the Kiyoga Agent M5, which telescopes into a metal whip at a flick of the wrist. The M5 caused an uproar in 1988 after it was revealed, in a fund-raising letter for the Aryan Nations, that a portion of the sales proceeds was going to Richard Butler, founder and leader of the organization. (This is the same Richard Butler who, along with the Aryan Nations, was recently found negligent and ordered to pay $5.1 million after two security guards assaulted a mother and son outside the Nations compound in Idaho in 1998.) Butler was on trial for sedition and needed help with his legal bills. Shortly after the M5 story broke, the Washington Post ran a lengthy article about Von Braunhut, revealing his involvement with ''some of the most extreme racist and anti-Semitic organizations in the country.'' The article quoted an official with the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith as saying: ''He has a reputation of being a generous contributor.'' Von Braunhut has vehemently denied the accusations in various news reports. Yet in a 1988 interview with the Seattle Times, he referred to the ''inscrutable, slanty Korean eyes'' of Korean shop owners and was quoted as saying, ''You know what side I'm on. I don't make any bones about it.''
At my request, the ADL, which has tracked Von Braunhut for years, sends me a rather hefty package. In it is a picture of the inventor, who resembles Lenny Bruce, posing in a priest's collar in front of a Nazi flag. News clippings track his frequent attendance at the Aryan Nations Congresses held every July in Hayden Lake, Idaho, where he appeared as recently as 1995--sometimes as a featured speaker, sometimes as the lighter of the burning cross. And there are newsletters from an organization called the National Anti-Zionist Institute, headed by ''Hendrik von Braun,'' whose return address, P.O. Box 809, Bryans Road, Md., is the same place one sends away for Sea Monkey paraphernalia such as baseball kits.
Floyd Cochran, spokesman for the Aryan Nations until 1992 and a reformed racist, recalls Von Braunhut as a slight, balding man with ''a rather large nose for a person of the Aryan Nations.'' He says Von Braunhut was something of a misfit. ''He'd give long speeches about numerology and he'd make references to the pyramids,'' Cochran says. ''It just didn't play very well.''
If Von Braunhut is underwhelming in public, the Anti-Zionist newsletters written by Hendrik von Braun are quite lively. ''In the world of jewels and precious metals, only that which is pure, rare and unalloyed is of the highest value,'' begins a newsletter dated 1993. For a full two pages, readers are urged to unite against ''wogs'' and ''mud people,'' even if it means giving up their own lives. ''No one (except for Jesus Christ Himself) has ever managed to live forever,'' Von Braun writes. ''Even if you could, what a bore it would be to hang around for a few hundred years, not doing much of anything except watching the ******s make basketballs and sneakers out of Jew skins.''
As it turns out, Von Braunhut is Jewish. According to the 1988 Washington Post article, he was born to Jeannette Cohen and Edward Braunhut in New York City on March 31, 1926, as Harold Nathan Braunhut. A cousin was quoted in the Post as saying he ''probably'' attended Von Braunhut's bar mitzvah. Gail Gans, director of the Civil Rights Information Center of the ADL, says Von Braunhut may have been allowed to remain in the Aryan Nations even after the startling revelation partly because he is wealthy. ''If he'd been a practicing Jew or they thought he was informing, then surely he'd have been kicked out,'' she says--and Cochran, who lectures for the ADL, concurs. He says rumors about Von Braunhut's ethnicity had been circulating for years and that members of the Aryan Nations were ''disappointed'' when the Post article appeared with its reference to a bar mitzvah, but that Richard Butler liked Von Braunhut's money. Cochran does not know the extent of Von Braunhut's contributions to the Aryan Nations, but says the organization called upon him often.
When I ask Harold about his past, he becomes furious. He tells me the news reports are lies. He doesn't take the opportunity to set the record straight, though. ''I don't have to defend myself to you or anyone else. I'm hanging up.''
A few days later, Atamian calls to say he has good news. He's faxed Von Braunhut a copy of the Anti-Zionist newsletter written by Hendrik von Braun, and Von Braunhut has faxed him a note categorically denying that he'd written it or that he is involved in any such groups. I ask Atamian if he believes Von Braunhut. ''All I know is I have to believe him,'' Atamian tells me. ''Or else how could I live with myself?'' He promises to fax me a copy of Von Braunhut's letter when he can. ''The fax machine's out of paper now,'' he says.
In December 1995, one month after signing on with Educational Insights, Von Braunhut officiated at the funeral of Betty Butler, Richard Butler's wife. Since then, Harold von Braunhut hasn't been seen by either the Anti-Defamation League or the Southern Poverty Law Center, both of which have tracked him for years.
Below is a link about them and how to purchase them. 
Somebody just said she had to let them go in the Bay because they got so big!?? Sounds like "Lake Placid"! are you aware of what you may have spawned?
