WEBVTT - The Epic Origins of Teddy Ruxpin 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.920 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:18.400 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:19.360 And how the tech are you? 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.600 So later this month, I'm going to be celebrating a birthday. 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:27.680 Well I say I'm celebrating, but really I'll just be 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:29.560 taking a few days off to go to a quiet 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:33.720 cabin in the North Georgia Mountains and not do anything. Anyway, 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:36.559 it got me to thinking about stuff I used to 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.839 want back when I was a kid, you know, the 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.120 kind of things that I was hoping for for birthdays 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:45.239 and holidays. And back in those days, well, a lot 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:47.600 of the stuff the kids wanted didn't exactly fall into 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.479 the category of tech. I mean, you had your Cabbage 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.040 Patch kids, they were created not too far from where 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.240 I grew up. Actually, you had your Gi Joe figures. 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.240 Barbie was of course a big deal. And later on 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.520 we get to slightly more techy stuff like the Transformers. 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:06.920 By the way, I always felt that those toys were 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.840 incredibly creative. You know, you had designers who had to 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.840 start with a mundane form factor like a truck, and 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.600 then figure out how would they design joints and hinges 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.319 and stuff so that a kid could turn that truck 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.800 into a robot. Also quick rant before I finally get 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:24.959 to the point of this episode. I don't care for 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.319 the Michael Bay Transformer films at all for lots of reasons, 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:30.760 but one of the big ones is that during the 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:35.880 transformation scenes, nothing makes visual sense on screen. It all 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.360 just becomes like CGI angles flashing in front of your 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.800 face until a car is suddenly a robot or vice versa. 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.679 But you know, the toys had to move in specific 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.520 ways for the transformations to work. It had to make 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.840 sense because the designers were working in the real world, 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:53.920 and I thought there was kind of a cop out 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:56.760 to just have this flashy CGI come up on screen 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.760 with no apparent logic showing how a robot went from 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.080 one form to another. I know those toy designers were 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:08.120 really creative, all right. Ran over anyway. When I was 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.880 ten years old the holiday season when I was ten, 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:14.200 a toy came out that if I had been just 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.079 a couple of years younger, I probably really would. 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:17.760 Have wanted one. 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.480 I thought it was cool, but I was a bit 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.799 too old for the toy, and it was a toy 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.200 that harkened back the animatronics at Disney theme parks, and 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.840 that was already a big Disney World fanatic at this point. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:31.519 And it looked like a Teddy Bear. 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.280 But this one could talk, and it could sing, and 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.839 the mouth would move when it talked and sung, and 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:42.000 it could also blink at Its name was Teddy Ruxbin. 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.720 Now I would later learn that one this was not 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.200 actually a Teddy Bear. I mean, it was, let's all 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:53.040 be real. But in the lore of Teddy Ruxban, Teddy 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.480 is not a bear at all. He's an illyop. And 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.480 you might say, well, what's an illiop? Well, apparently it's 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:01.720 a critter that looks a lot like Teddy Bear. Didn't 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:03.880 start off that way, but that's what they are now, 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.080 and it sounds a bit silly to me. But then 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.560 the creator of Teddy Ruxman built a sort of mythology 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.560 around the character and the world that this character, you know, 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.679 lived in, and I think it's pretty admirable. Actually, it's 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.680 really impressive how extensive that mythology goes. 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:22.600 Two. 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.480 I learned that this creator, a guy named Ken Force, 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:30.040 had previously worked as an imagineer at Disneyland. He in fact, 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.400 worked on one of my favorite rides of all time, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:37.600 Disney's Haunted Mansion. To immortalize him. There's a word scramble 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.280 of his name that appears on a tombstone in the 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:44.240 cemetery scene in the Disneyland Haunted Mansion ride. So if 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.160 you have eagle eyes and you spotted tombstone that reads 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.480 NA key sorf any k e E s O r F, 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.120 that's actually supposed to be an anagram of Ken Force, 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:57.960 even though the word scramble gave him one too many 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.720 ease and left out one of the s's. So today 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.880 I thought I would talk about Force, his work as 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.320 an imagineer and beyond and the creation of Teddy Ruxbin, 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:13.760 which really was an iconic toy in the mid nineteen eighties. 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:20.800 This is a crazy story like it spans multiple decades, 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.280 all the pieces that would ultimately come together in the 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.000 form of Teddy Ruxsman. But before I dive into it, 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.640 I need to call out an incredibly thorough docu series 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.599 that is available on YouTube, and by thorough, that's putting 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:40.080 it mildly. It's by Billy Tuma and it's a nine 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.640 part video series on the life and work of kin 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.360 FORC and the shortest episode in this nine part series 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.480 is forty five minutes long. The longest one is an 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.880 hour and twenty two minutes long. So I think you 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.720 could call this work an exhaustive treatment of Force's life 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.800 and work. The docu series is called Ken Forc. That's 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.440 f O r s SE Come dream with me tonight. 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.960 So if you want to learn more about Forc after 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:13.520 this episode, I highly recommend you check out this docu series. 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:18.039 Like I said, it is thorough. Also, it is very 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:23.000 clearly made by people who deeply, deeply love the lore 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:28.159 of Teddy Ruxsbin, as in like the fictional story that 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:30.640 Teddy ruxspin inhabits. 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:32.799 Tuma clearly put. 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.880 A ton of work into the series. He deserves more views. 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.240 I mean a lot of these episodes have right around 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.440 one thousand views, and y'all, I mean this is like 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.200 professional grade level work. It deserves to be seen by 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:50.000 a wider audience. I get that, like the Teddy Ruxsbin 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:57.720 community is relatively niche, but it's a fascinating work on 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.920 its own, just detailing how this per person became who 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.880 he was. Because unfortunately, Ken Forcy passed away back in 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.640 twenty fourteen, But how he became the man he was, 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.400 and how he ended up bringing Teddy Ruxman to life. 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.560 So Ken Forcy was a creative kid. He grew up 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.760 in California. He wanted to pursue a career in art. 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:24.400 He graduated high school and rather than going on to college, 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:28.440 he sought employment. He was a very practical kid. He 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.200 landed a gig working in the mail room for this 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.800 little company called Walt Disney Animation Studios. The company was 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.400 already incredibly famous at this point. It had already put 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.160 out numerous feature length animated films by the time that 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:43.960 Ken joined, and of course he was in the mail room, 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.560 so not really on the animation side of things. However, 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.080 in a stroke of fortune for Ken, at least, the 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.240 animation studios were in a bit of a jam. Production 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.120 was running over schedule on the film Sleeping Beauty, and 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.680 the company needed to bring on more artists to help 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.680 speed things up. So Force interviewed and he took an 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.680 animation test to prove that he had the artistic chops 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:12.239 to work for the most famous animation studio in the world, 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.520 and he passed, so he was hired on That's pretty 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.160 darn impressive because you know, Force was not a professional artist. 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.280 He was fresh out of high school. He's just a 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.920 very gifted student and a gifted artist, and so he 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.360 was put to work and his job was to serve 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.760 as an in between her. So these are animators who 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.520 are in charge of drawing the frames of animation that 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:39.080 fall between the start and the end of like a 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.400 short animated sequence. So you'll have a primary artist who's 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.080 really designed, you know, in charge of the look and 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.960 the feel of a specific character often and they will 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:54.280 draw the character in two different poses or situations, one 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:56.000 being at the start of the sequence, of one being 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.880 at the end. So let's say that you want to 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.520 animate a sequence in which a character sees that a 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:03.920 glass is about to fall off a table, and so 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.760 they dive to catch the glass before it can hit 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.520 the ground, and they safely catch it in their hands 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:13.120 and they land flat on the floor, and that's your sequence. Well, 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.760 the animator who's in charge of the character will probably 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.600 just draw one frame of the character seeing that the 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:21.960 glass is about to fall, and then draw the final 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:26.440 frame of the character on the ground safely holding the glass, 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.160 and it's down to the end between ers to draw 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.480 all the frames that come in between those two so 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.280 that you have an actual animated sequence. And that's what 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.079 Force worked as he worked as an in between her 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.840 on Sleeping Beauty. Most in between ers produced between thirty 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.840 to fifty drawings per day. Thirty was kind of what 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.600 you're shooting for. Now, keep in mind that film plays 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:52.120 back at twenty four frames per second, so if you're 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.880 doing one animated frame at a time and you're doing 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.480 the twenty four frames per second, then you're really talking 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.920 about per using maybe one to two seconds of animation 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.839 each day. So it was a very huge amount of work. 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.160 And remember that's for one character in a sequence. That's 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:11.200 not for everything else there, And it was just one 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.840 step that was needed in the process of creating an 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:19.880 animated film. But Ken reportedly really enjoyed working for Disney. 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:22.920 I mean, you know, he was interested in art. He 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.680 was working for the most famous animation company in the world. 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.720 Clearly he was in the right spot at the right time. However, 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.800 once Sleeping Beauty was in the can, having gone well 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.959 over budget and over time, Disney no longer really needed 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.280 this inflated workforce of artists. They had more people than 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.320 were required to do the rest of the work they had, 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.880 so Ken and several other in betweeners found themselves out 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.760 of a job. He would then study under the mentorship 0:09:55.920 --> 0:10:00.480 of a special effects technician named Ellis Berman. So if 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.840 you're a fan of classic Universal monster movies, kind of 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:08.480 like the second wave of classic Universal Monster movies, you've 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:12.000 probably seen some stuff that Berman worked on. So he's 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:17.720 like a practical effects technician. So now Ken Forest was 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.840 moving from creating two dimensional drawings for animation to working 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:26.480 with three dimensional materials and to create things like costumes 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:30.080 and props, and Forest learned lots of different skills in 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:34.760 this process. He learned about sculpting, and he learned about carpentry, 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.840 and he learned about how to work with electrical circuits, 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:41.280 and he worked with a lot of materials he had 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.560 never worked with before, like plaster and rubber and fur 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:49.400 and even makeup. So his skill set expanded, but he 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.199 was having trouble finding like steady work. There were a 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.800 few promising projects, including a possible film adaptation of Lord 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.720 of the Rings, which involved Forrest j Ackerman. People who 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:04.120 are deep in the fandom culture know who Ackerman is 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:08.840 or was, but yeah, he was possibly going to work 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:10.640 on this Lord of the Rings project. In fact, he 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:15.480 had been tapped to sculpt some models that would be 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:20.160 part of the pitch to Tolkien. But while Tolkien was 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.520 impressed with the effects work the models and stuff, he 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:28.120 hated the story treatment that was generated for the Lord 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.480 of the Rings film, so he nixed it. It didn't 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.280 go anywhere. So in nineteen fifty nine, Ken enlisted in 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.640 the US Army, and he was in his early twenties 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.280 at this point, so still a very young man, and 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.680 he served until nineteen sixty two and then received an 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:45.719 honorable discharge. 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.000 Reportedly, he was. 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:51.800 Very much not in favor of guns. It's kind of 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.440 interesting that he went into the army voluntarily this way, 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:59.440 but yeah, he won an award for marksmanship, but he 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:04.280 did not like guns. He was mostly active in doing 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:09.560 things like working on entertainment and stuff for troops, so 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.679 he was still kind of pursuing his artistic interests wherever 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.640 he could within the army. After his service, Forcy would 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:21.800 join a company called Universal Products and lead a product 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:26.200 line called Artistry in Dimension and Forese was using his 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.560 expertise and creating three dimensional objects out of stuff like 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:34.959 fiberglass to make historic replicas, so you know, like stuff's 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.560 like suits of armor, that kind of thing. So let's 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:43.559 say that your new money and you want your stately 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.920 home to have some stuff that looks like antiques, but 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:48.240 you don't want to have to go through the trouble 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:51.080 of actually securing real antiques. You would go to a 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.640 company like Universal Products. I'm sure you've been to stores 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.240 where you've looked around you're like, oh, this looks like 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.600 an antique globe, or this looks like an antique shield 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:02.360 that you would hang on the wall, and in fact 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:04.920 it's made out of something else entirely. Well, that's the 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.280 kind of thing for C was making. So it would 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.040 be stuff for things like set dressing, but also you know, 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:15.880 just consumer products. However, Forc was restless and he wasn't 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:21.800 super happy with just working in the Universal Products company. 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.840 So when he saw a job opening that was again 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:27.959 at the Walt Disney Company, he jumped at it. Now 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:30.880 this time it would not be in the animation department. 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:36.320 Instead it was in WED Enterprises or WED Enterprises. In 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:40.520 this case, WED is not your typical acronym. It's actually 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:45.439 Walt Disney's initials Walt Elias Disney. And this would be 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.439 the imagineering department. This was the group of people who 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:54.120 would be in charge of creating the materials and the 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.520 props and the characters that would be seen in attractions 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:03.640 at Disneysney parks, because those were just really becoming a thing. 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.240 Like Disneyland had opened in nineteen fifty five, so it 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.680 had been open a few years earlier, but now Walt 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:14.400 Disney was really exploring the possibility of creating animated like 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.800 shows that would exist in the real world, this idea 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.760 of bringing the audience into animation and having animation all 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.000 around the audience. So Force landed a job there and 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.120 he got to work on attraction that would be a 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.080 real game changer for Disney, which we'll talk about as 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.280 we come back from this quick break. 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:43.280 Okay, we're back. 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:48.760 So Ken Force gets a job at WD Enterprises and 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:53.720 he's working as an imagineer, and his first gig is 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:58.640 to work on the Enchanted Peaky Room. If you've never 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:00.800 been to Disneyland or disney World or any place where 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.480 they have the Channan Tiki Rum, I don't know if 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:05.240 it's in the other parks, but I know it's in 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.480 those two. Well, that it's a sit down theatrical experience 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.920 where these various tropical birds sing songs and tell jokes 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:18.920 to you. And it's an audio animatronic show, and one 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.360 of the more famous ones because it was the first 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.560 big one, and I've done episodes on audio animatronics in 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:26.840 the past. So the story goes that Walt Disney was 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.560 on a holiday trip with his wife and they encountered 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.880 a shop that had a little clockwork bird in it, 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.080 and it sparked Disney's imagination and he wanted to create 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.880 an attraction. Originally, he wanted it to be a restaurant 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.400 that would have mechanical creatures in it, specifically mechanical tropical birds, 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:47.200 and they would follow a programmed routine and it would 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:52.400 bring together elements of puppetry, storytelling, animation, clockwork mechanisms, and 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.880 ultimately pneumatic systems. Over time, it would morph from a 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:02.320 restaurant concept to a sit down theatrical tra Now, the 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:07.160 early system for the Tiki Room was both ingenious and 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:10.640 by today's standards, very primitive. So to match the movement 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.040 of birds beaks with the soundtrack, like how do you 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.960 get it so that the birds appear to actually be 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.800 singing the words and They're not just opening and closing 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.080 their beaks randomly and you just hope that it lines 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.880 up with the music. Well, the imagineers created a system 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.040 in which audio they had the audio of the show 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:32.240 stored on magnetic tape, would then also cause these metal 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.400 reeds to vibrate, and these vibrating metal reads would close 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.320 a circuit that would control a pneumatic valve and that 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:44.480 would allow air to pass through tubes going to the 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:48.640 various birds in this attraction, and when they did, that 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:53.640 would power the mechanical system inside the bird, so that 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:58.000 would open its beak and when the valve would shut off, 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.920 the air would ventil the beak would close, it would 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.520 go back to its resting position, which was closed. So 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:06.919 by opening and closing this valve, you could cause the 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.159 bird to open and close its beak, and those opening 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:15.719 enclosings were in time with this metallic read vibrating, and 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:20.840 that again was driven by the audio on the magnetic tape. 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.200 As for what Foresty was doing, well that's not entirely clear. 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.600 He wasn't an engineer, He wasn't one of the ones 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:31.080 designing the actual engineering system. Most likely he was working 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.000 in the model shop. He was helping, you know, get 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.800 the birds show ready, you know, doing things like installing 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.320 feathers and that kind of stuff, painting that that sort 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.760 of thing. He wasn't a lead on the project, right, 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:47.560 He had just come in and started and was working 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:49.760 at a lower level, but he was part of a 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:51.120 larger team. 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:52.199 While Foresty was. 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:55.920 Working with Wed, he also had the opportunity to develop 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.840 a puppet show outside of Disney, and it was intended 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:04.560 to be a children's show, one that matched fantastical elements 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.600 with tales of empathy and compassion. 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.040 So he's thinking about this idea. This is independent. 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.239 This was not unusual at Disney at the time. There 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:16.760 were a lot of people who were considering themselves more 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:21.119 like independent contractors rather than Disney employees. It would be 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.960 a little bit before Disney would change into a company 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.879 where you know, you were a Disney employee and you 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.920 weren't just like work for hire who would then find 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.840 themselves out of work once the project was over. So 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.640 a lot of people at the time would pursue other 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.320 work in addition to the work they did for Disney, 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.480 and Force was no different. So he came up with 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:43.919 this idea and he started to create this kind of 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.840 fantasy world that he wanted to bring to life. And 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.199 you know, maybe he took some inspiration from works like 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:55.520 Tolkien's Middle Earth series, but he was really wanting to 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.119 gear this toward children and to give a message of 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:03.159 compassion and empathy for kids. So he really saw it 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:08.320 as a way of sending positive messages and sending messages 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.639 of things like friendship and support and love and that 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.400 sort of thing. And the main character in his mythology 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:20.120 was a little critter whose name was Simeon Greep, and 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.320 he would feature a lot of the personality that you 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.800 would later spot in Teddy Ruxsman. He was a very sweet, 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.800 compassionate character who saw the good in people, even if 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.919 they couldn't see it in themselves. There was another character, 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:41.919 a supporting character, a mushroom like figure nicknamed Fearful, but 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:48.200 his actual name was Dun Dun Dun Teddy Ruxsmin. See 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.679 Teddy Ruxsman wasn't originally a Teddy Bear at all. He 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.200 was a timid, little fantasy critter that kind of looked 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.440 like a mushroom. Totally makes sense, right, So anyway, the 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.280 Adventures of Simeon Greep was this ambitious, this idea that 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.000 Ken Forcy had, and it was one that was going 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.239 to require a lot of money to actually get it 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:11.040 to production. Like he wanted to make this fully realized 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:15.840 puppet show with really cool environments. He didn't want it 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.960 to look like a little puppet theater that a lot 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.360 of the other puppet shows at the time were using. 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:26.040 He wanted the world of the television program to be 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.399 the puppet theater. The TV itself would serve as the 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:34.000 borders of this mystical world. So Fores would take on 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.000 various projects in addition to his full time gig at 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:41.159 Web Enterprises, and continue to develop this idea, all with 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.960 the goal of eventually producing this puppet show. He was 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:48.760 doing some of the work a little bit reluctantly because 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:51.800 while he was creative and an inventor, he didn't consider 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:55.040 himself a writer. So originally he had these ideas, but 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:59.280 he wanted to hire someone else to actually write the stories. 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.640 Like he wanted to be able to kind of, you know, 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:07.240 work a story, but have a writer actually put that 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:11.080 into shape, you know, to frame it properly into actual words. 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.000 The problem was he couldn't find anyone to do that, 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.879 so it was down to him, so he kind of 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:22.879 became the chronicler of this world of his own creation. Meanwhile, 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.520 back at Disney, Force was put onto projects like the 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.280 It's a Small World ride, which was originally constructed for 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.840 the nineteen sixty four World's Fair, So he assisted in 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.760 painting and probably some sculpting some stuff like that, but 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.359 again he wasn't a lead designer. He was part of 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:41.560 the team. He also actually traveled with the ride to 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.560 New York in order to help the ride stay operating 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.080 because originally it was a little finicky, so he was 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:51.840 there to help fix when things broke down. He also 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:55.639 was in charge of cleaning and repainting figures at the 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.560 end of the day to make sure that it was 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:00.800 ready for the next day. He'd this for a while 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:03.800 until it was show ready, really and then left to 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:08.160 go back home. He also reportedly got very very sick 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:11.440 of the theme song It's a Small World after All, 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:15.919 which you know, same Force. He kept working on his 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.840 Simian Greek project, even built out a set piece in 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:23.280 order to show potential investors the work that he was envisioning. 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:28.320 He had this villain called Twig, and the villain lived 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:33.520 in a tower, so he ended up out of pocket, 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:38.320 essentially paying to create this really large puppet set. It 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:40.560 had to be big enough for puppeteers to move around 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:44.879 in freely while still controlling the puppet of the villain, 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.880 and the construction process did not go quite as planned. 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:51.800 For one thing, there was a bit of a fire 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:56.800 that caused some costly damages, and it meant that Force 0:22:57.400 --> 0:22:59.720 ultimately kind of ran out of money to work on 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:01.800 the like. He spent about as much as he was 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:06.439 willing to spend and hit his limit, and so the 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:10.719 whole project was figuratively put on the back burner after 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:16.800 having been literally burned earlier. Force took a larger part 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:21.080 in working on the Haunted Mansion attraction for Disneyland. That 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:24.280 attraction has its own fascinating history. We've talked a little 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:26.159 bit about it on this show in the past. I 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:29.640 talked about Pepper's Ghost, things like that. It's an attraction 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:33.160 that changed many times over the course of its development. 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:37.159 Originally was supposed to be a walkthrough attraction. Force worked 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:40.159 on sets and characters and designs and effects, so he 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:42.280 was more involved in this one than he had been 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:45.119 in the previous ones, and he earned a spot in 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:48.560 the cemetery scene, along with eight other designers who also 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:52.000 worked on the ride. So if you see those weird 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:57.520 tombstones with odd names, those are anagrams or references to 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:01.720