Todd and his brother, Frank, next opened their own construction company. The school was forced to close when the Bricklayers' Union did not view the college as an accepted place of study. He opened the College of Bricklaying of America, buying the materials to teach bricklaying on credit. Todd began his career in the construction business, where he made, and subsequently lost, a fortune. When the drugstore went out of business, Todd had acquired enough medical knowledge from his work there to be hired at Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital as a type of 'security guard' to stop visitors from bringing in food that was not on the patient's diet. One of his first jobs was as a soda jerk. He eventually dropped out of high school, and worked at a variety of jobs, including shoe salesman and store window decorator. (As Mike Todd, he would produce a jazz version of the musical on Broadway in 1939. In high school, he produced the school play, The Mikado, which was considered a hit. Todd was expelled in the sixth grade for running a game of craps inside the school. The family later moved to Chicago, arriving on the day World War I ended. He was one of nine children in a poor family, the youngest son, and his siblings nicknamed him 'Tod' (pronounced 'Toat' in German) to mimic his difficulty pronouncing the word 'coat.' It was from this that his name was derived. Todd was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Chaim Goldbogen (an Orthodox rabbi), and Sophia Hellerman, both of whom were Polish Jewish immigrants. He was the driving force behind the development of the eponymous Todd-AO widescreen film format.

Todd was the third of Taylor's seven husbands, and the only one whom Taylor did not divorce - Todd died in a private plane accident a year after their marriage. Actress Elizabeth Taylor was his third wife. Michael Todd (born Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen June 22, 1909 – March 22, 1958) was an American theater and film producer, celebrated for his 1956 Around the World in 80 Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Pastor mike todd biography