Forget His Brain … What’s the Deal with Einstein’s Tongue?
By | May 31, 2022
Portrait of physicist Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out - 1951 (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Of course, we all know who Albert Einstein was. His name is literally synonymous with ‘genius’ these days. We know he used his brilliant brain to think up brilliant notions like the theory of relativity and theoretical physics and the photoelectric effect and such. We also know that, according to a creepy urban legend, Einstein’s brain was stored in a jar after his death so that scientists could probe its wonders. But this story is not about Einstein’s brain or even his great academic accomplishments. Nope. This story is about Einstein’s tongue.
A Scientific Celebrity
Albert Einstein’s work gained widespread attention beginning in the 1920s. Although not many people truly understood his theories on space, mass, energy, and time, he earned a degree of celebrity status from his Nobel Prize win as much as for his caricature-like appearance. With his wild, white hair, German accent, and quirky personality, Einstein looked like he came straight out of central casting and was on his way to the set to play an absent-minded professor.
Folks were surprised to learn, too, that Einstein was not a socially awkward, bookish guy. He was actually a bit of a womanizer and fathered a child during a casual fling. People loved to read about him in the newspapers therefore he was often hounded by the press.
German-born physicist Albert Einstein in 1931 standing beside a blackboard with chalk-marked mathematical calculations written across it. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
A Great Sense of Humor
Despite being seriously brilliant, Einstein wasn’t always so serious. He often displayed a quick wit and great sense of humor that caught people off guard. In one instance, he was trying to explain his theory of relativity to a group of people who were struggling to grasp the concept. In frustration, Einstein decided to put it into layman’s terms. He explained, “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it is only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.”
A serious-looking Einstein. (princeton.edu)
Einstein’s Tongue
March 14, 1951 was Albert Einstein’s 72nd birthday. Princeton University hosted a lavish birthday party for the famous scientist. The party was crawling with newspaper reporters and photographers so Einstein spent the better part of the evening posing and smiling for the camera. He was exhausted.
Einstein left the party and hopped into the backseat of a car with his pal, Dr. Frank Aydelotte, of Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Studies, and Aydolotte’s wife, Marie. The reporters swarmed the car, attempting to take more photos. Einstein was tired. He reportedly shouted at the paparazzi, “That’s enough!”, but they ignored him. Thoroughly vexed, Einstein stuck his tongue out at the photographers. It was only for a second and then he turned away from the window, but it was long enough for one photographer to snap a goofy-looking pic of the smartest man in the world sticking out his tongue like a spiteful child. That reporter was Arthur Sasse who worked for UPI.
A Good Sport
Sasse published the hilarious photo of Albert Einstein and, to his surprise, the famous physicist loved the shot. Einstein contacted UPI and ordered nine prints of the photograph for his own personal use. As for the photograph, it was widely circulated at the time and is still popular today. The depiction of Einstein with his tongue sticking out has graced t-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, screensavers, and more.
Albert Einstein even signed one of the original prints of Sasse’s photo. A few years ago, that print went up for auction and was sold for $125,000. Harvard University holds the license for the image and uses the licensing revenue to fund the Einstein Papers Project with the Princeton University Press.
