Inventor: Marlon Brando
Patent number: 6410833
Filing date: Jun 8, 2001
Issue date: Jun 25, 2002

Marlon Brando was an avid bongo player ever since he received a set from his old man for his fifteenth birthday. Brando even appeared on The Edward R. Murrow Show in 1953 three days after he won his first Oscar for On The Waterfront playing the Congas with Jack Costanzo. (That’s Conga, not to be confused with the Congo, where Colonel Kurtz would lose his mind). Bongo Drums were very popular and cool in the 1950’s, embraced by Jazz musicians and beatniks, they were a symbol of rebellion, freedom and exotic adventure. In his last years Brando had several patents issued in his name from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, all of which involve a method of tensing drum heads.