Is it true that the person who patented the little piece of plastic that prevents the lid of the pizza box from sticking to the cheese made 1 million dollars?

Answer 1

Well, I just spent a good amount of time researching something incredibly trivial, but I'm now ready to confirm my gut feeling: No, the inventor never made a million dollars.

The device in question is called a "Pizza saver", and it is indeed patented.

The device was patented by one Carmela Vitale of Dix Hills, NY, who filed for US patent #4,498,586 on February 10, 1983, issued on February 12, 1985.

Here's schematics of the patent:

http://inventors.about.com/od/weirdmuseums/ig/Pizza-Photo-Gallery/Pizza-Package-Saver-.htm

Now, in all my research, I didn't find any reference to Carmela or anyone else getting rich off of this invention. There's really not much money to be made, since it's the sort of invention that's so easily slightly-modified and reproduced by pizza chains that there's no way Carmela has been getting piles of royalties since the 80s.

I can see why a myth like that would stick, though - it provides an example of a product that everyone knows (but not necessarily by its correct name) and has an attached message that even a nobody with a silly little idea can make millions. Unfortunately, I'm almost confident it's just a myth.