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Speaker 1: Welcome to tex Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios,

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and I Heart Radio and a lot

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Speaker 1: of all things tech, and today I'm going to be

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Speaker 1: bringing you a classic episode of tech Stuff. Yes, I

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Speaker 1: know it is not a Friday when we normally run

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Speaker 1: classic episodes. But behind the curtain, guys, I'm currently getting

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Speaker 1: ready to go on a vacation to Disney World, which

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Speaker 1: is awesome. I'm gonna be there with my family. I'm

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Speaker 1: really looking forward to it. But it meant that I

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Speaker 1: had a limited amount of time and not enough time

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Speaker 1: to create a whole new episode. But I didn't want

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Speaker 1: to leave you guys without any episode, so instead I'm

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Speaker 1: bringing you one from the fairly recent past that I

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Speaker 1: think thematically ties into my vacation. This episode is titled

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Speaker 1: The Wonderful World of Audio Animatronics and originally aired on

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Speaker 1: June twenty three, two thousand seventeen. And audio Animatronics is

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Speaker 1: you know. It's the technology that Disney has used to

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Speaker 1: bring to life lots of different characters on its various

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Speaker 1: rides and attractions, So this definitely ties in to what

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Speaker 1: I am about to embark upon, and I am very

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Speaker 1: hopeful that my little five year old niece ends up

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Speaker 1: being just as captivated with audio animatronics as I was

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Speaker 1: when I was her age. So sit back, relax, and

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Speaker 1: enjoy this classic episode. I am an enormous Disney fanatic.

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Speaker 1: I consider myself a Disney fan of film, of television,

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Speaker 1: of their theme parks, probably not necessarily in that order,

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Speaker 1: maybe film first, then theme parks, then television, but I'm

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Speaker 1: a huge fan of Disney stuff. And recently, when I

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Speaker 1: was on a trip to Los Angeles to attend E three,

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Speaker 1: I found myself with a day with nothing to do.

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Speaker 1: I had hoped to book some meetings that did not happen,

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Speaker 1: So instead of just sitting around my hotel room feeling

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Speaker 1: sorry for myself in a city where I really didn't

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Speaker 1: know anybody, I decided to hop on down to Orange County, California,

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Speaker 1: that is the home of Disneyland, and to go to

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Speaker 1: the happiest place on Earth. It was not my first

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Speaker 1: time at Disneyland, but this was the first time I'd

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Speaker 1: ever gone to Disneyland completely on my own, and I

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Speaker 1: was a little worried about that, like, how am I

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Speaker 1: going to have fun just by myself. Turns out Disneyland

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Speaker 1: did most of the work for me. I didn't have

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Speaker 1: to worry so much and had a great time. But

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Speaker 1: it also reminded me of how much I love the

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Speaker 1: technology and innovation that goes behind Disneyland. And honestly, I

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Speaker 1: could do maybe a dozen episodes about different technologies that

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Speaker 1: were pioneered or perfected at the Disney theme parks, because

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Speaker 1: there are a ton of them that Disney either directly

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Speaker 1: had a hand in developing or tweaked it in a

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Speaker 1: way to elevate it beyond what it used to be.

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Speaker 1: There are plenty of examples of that. Today, we're specifically

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Speaker 1: going to focus on audio animatronics, And for those who

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Speaker 1: have not heard what this term is or have any

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Speaker 1: idea what it means, this was a system that Walt

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Speaker 1: Disney's company pioneered to create animated physical, three dimensional figures.

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Speaker 1: So in a way, it's kind of similar to puppetry,

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Speaker 1: right with a puppet, typically you're manipulating some sort of

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Speaker 1: three dimensional figure beyond shadow puppets and that sort of puppetry,

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Speaker 1: which is amazing all on its own. I'm talking about

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Speaker 1: your traditional hand puppets, rod puppets, and marionettes. That involves

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Speaker 1: manipulating an inanimate object in a way to make it

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Speaker 1: seem like it has life, that has anima, and that

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Speaker 1: you are using some sort of system, whether it's rods

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Speaker 1: or you know, the puppet is essentially a glove puppet,

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Speaker 1: or you're using strings with a marionette to create this

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Speaker 1: illusion of movement. Well, Disney wanted to create something similar,

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Speaker 1: only these would run on a mechanical system that would

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Speaker 1: be painstakingly programmed rather than being under the direct control

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Speaker 1: of a human being. Those figures, when they're working properly,

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Speaker 1: would replicate those same motions and have the same performance

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Speaker 1: every single time. So the time the character is doing

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Speaker 1: a show, it's exactly the way it was the first time.

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Speaker 1: So once you perfect a show and you program that

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Speaker 1: into these these figures, you then have the perfect show

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Speaker 1: every single time you run it, assuming everything is working properly. Now,

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Speaker 1: anyone who has been to Disney enough times knows that's

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Speaker 1: a big assumption to make. Sometimes things just don't do

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Speaker 1: not work really well. I'll tell you about one of

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Speaker 1: those times that I experienced firsthand later on in this show.

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Speaker 1: But the technology itself is phenomenal, and even when it

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Speaker 1: isn't working properly, that does not take away from how

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Speaker 1: amazing this tech really is, especially when you consider what

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Speaker 1: people had to work with back in the fifties and

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Speaker 1: early sixties when they were first developing these systems. It

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Speaker 1: is pretty amazing stuff. Now. The reason why Disney wanted

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Speaker 1: this in the first place is he really loved the

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Speaker 1: idea of creating a real, three dimensional experience similar to

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Speaker 1: what you would get with an animated film. Animated films

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Speaker 1: can be perfected right. You can sit there and sketch

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Speaker 1: it out and get it just right before you release

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Speaker 1: it as a movie. He wanted to have that same

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Speaker 1: sort of experience, but in the real physical world. He

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Speaker 1: was a stickler for perfection, had very, very very high standards,

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Speaker 1: and and the people who worked for him they also

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Speaker 1: would end up having very high standards. Everyone wanted to

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Speaker 1: make sure that they met Disney's expectations. Now you can

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Speaker 1: find animatronic figures in lots of Disney attractions, including The

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Speaker 1: Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion,

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Speaker 1: Great Moments with Mr Lincoln, The Hall of presidents which

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Speaker 1: would be over at the Magic Kingdom and Disney World

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Speaker 1: and tons more. There are lots of examples. There are

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Speaker 1: also some attractions that had moving figures that didn't use

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Speaker 1: the audio animatronics system. So, for example, the Jungle Cruise

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Speaker 1: ride has animated animal figures. As you ride through, you

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Speaker 1: see hippopotamuses and crocodiles and elephants, but these were running

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Speaker 1: on a very simple mechanical loop system. They were not

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Speaker 1: specifically audio animatronic. They they worked on something that was

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Speaker 1: a little less sophisticated than what would follow. So you

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Speaker 1: have both at Disney Parks. And I'm also sad that

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Speaker 1: I can't have Holly on this up. So Holly, who's

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Speaker 1: one of the co hosts of Stuff you Missed in

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Speaker 1: History Class. Apart from being a brilliant podcaster and an

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Speaker 1: avid historian, she is an enormous fan of all things

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Speaker 1: Disney and uh and she doesn't just give me a

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Speaker 1: run for my money, she leaves me in the dust.

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Speaker 1: I love Disney, I have been to the Disney Parks

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Speaker 1: dozens of times, but Holly is a step beyond even

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Speaker 1: my own obsession. So I am sad that I can't

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Speaker 1: have her here because I am absolutely certain that she

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Speaker 1: would be here dropping nuggets of knowledge and trivia about

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Speaker 1: these various Disney attractions that I have yet to uncover.

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Speaker 1: So maybe someday I will be able to have Holly

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Speaker 1: on this show and we'll do a Disney oriented episode

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Speaker 1: about some other type of tech. In the meantime, there

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Speaker 1: are some other podcasts we've done that relate to Disney.

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Speaker 1: I did one about the peppers Ghost effect, which is

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Speaker 1: used extensively in the Haunted Mansion Ride. Pepper's Ghost involves

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Speaker 1: reflective surfaces and using lighting in a way so that

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Speaker 1: you can create the illusion of a ghostly figure appearing

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Speaker 1: before you, but what you're actually looking at is a

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Speaker 1: reflection of a physical figure that's just lit in a

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Speaker 1: very bright space, whereas you're in a very dark space. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The famous ballroom sequence in the Haunted Mansion Ride is

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Speaker 1: a big example of Pepper's Ghost. So you can go

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Speaker 1: and check out those episodes of tech stuff. If this

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Speaker 1: is not enough Disney for you, all right, let's talk

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Speaker 1: specifically about what I wanted to concentrate on today. To

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Speaker 1: do that, we have to mention Walt Disney because he's

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Speaker 1: central to our story. He's kind of our main character

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Speaker 1: if this were a narrative. His full name was Walter

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Speaker 1: Elias Disney. He was born in nineteen o one in Illinois.

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Speaker 1: He grew up in Missouri and attended high school in Chicago.

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Speaker 1: He was studying art primarily. When he was sixteen, he

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Speaker 1: dropped out to join the army, but they rejected him

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Speaker 1: because he was too young. He then joined the Red

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Speaker 1: Cross and was shipped over to Europe and drove ambulances

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Speaker 1: during World War One in France. Once he is his

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Speaker 1: work with the Red Cross was done over there, he

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Speaker 1: moved back to the United States and he began to

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Speaker 1: work for an ad company. He was making film and animations.

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Speaker 1: Uh then he would go on to create his own studio,

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Speaker 1: which saw some modest success, but then it ran into

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Speaker 1: some hard times and eventually he had to declare bankruptcy

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Speaker 1: under his first studio. But despite that, he didn't give up.

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Speaker 1: He decided to make a go at it again, and

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Speaker 1: he and his brother Roy were able to co found

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Speaker 1: the Walt Disney Company, and from that moment forward, his

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Speaker 1: influence on tech is been considerable, from actual innovations and

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Speaker 1: technology to how creators can protect their intellectual property. Now,

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Speaker 1: not all of those influences have been met with enthusiasm.

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Speaker 1: Disney is one of the reasons why the United States

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Speaker 1: has such incredibly extensive intellectual property protection laws, stuff like

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Speaker 1: copyright and trademark laws that protect well beyond the lifetime

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Speaker 1: of the creator. UH. A lot of that has to

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Speaker 1: do with Disney, as a corporate entity, lobbying to extend

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Speaker 1: those parameters. So Disney's impact on technology has been enormous

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Speaker 1: in both very specific ways that relate to particular technologies

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Speaker 1: to the way that those technologies are protected under intellectual

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Speaker 1: property law. So Disney's use of sound with animation was

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Speaker 1: a huge leap forward in the nineteen twenties, Steamboat Willie

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Speaker 1: being the first cartoun was sound, and Disney himself voiced

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Speaker 1: the iconic character of Mickey Mouse, who struck a chord

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Speaker 1: with viewers and propelled Disney into enormous success. Over the

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Speaker 1: following decades, he would see a lot more success, including

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Speaker 1: going into feature length animation, which had not been done before,

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Speaker 1: and he was able to UH succeed with Snow White

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Speaker 1: and the Seven Dwarves. And he also continued to see

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Speaker 1: success with short form stuff. Now, depending upon the account

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Speaker 1: you read because there are a couple of different versions

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Speaker 1: of the story. We actually begin either in France or

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Speaker 1: the French Quarter in New Orleans. The story goes that

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Speaker 1: Disney was on vacation with his family, and as he

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Speaker 1: was on vacation, he decided to look into some uh,

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Speaker 1: some antique shops, and he came across some various clockwork toys,

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Speaker 1: like wind up birds and that sort of thing. One

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Speaker 1: specific toy he came across in an antique shop was

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Speaker 1: a bird cage that had a mechanical bird inside of

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Speaker 1: it that would chirp and sing, and it would make

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Speaker 1: little motions that you could describe as being somewhat robotic.

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Speaker 1: They were pretty primitive motions, but you know, close enough

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Speaker 1: to being an actual bird that you knew what it was.

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Speaker 1: It was. It wasn't like it looked like a a

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Speaker 1: monstrosity or anything like that. He thought it was absolutely charming,

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Speaker 1: and he felt that there was a lot of potential

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Speaker 1: there that he could use to create three dimensional physical

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Speaker 1: animated figurines potentially and a theme park. That was one

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Speaker 1: of the things he had been considering around this time,

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Speaker 1: although Disneyland had not yet become a reality. So he

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Speaker 1: brought the antique bird cage with the mechanical bird inside

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Speaker 1: of it back to his company, and he went to

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Speaker 1: some of his uh top thinkers over at the Walt

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Speaker 1: Disney Company and said, figure out how this thing works.

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Speaker 1: So they took it apart and they took a look

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Speaker 1: at it, and they began to formulate ideas of how

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Speaker 1: they could create their own technology that would also allow

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Speaker 1: for animation of this type sort of this automated puppetry

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Speaker 1: that I was talking about. Now. Disney was really excited

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Speaker 1: about this prospect of having fully realized, three dimensional characters

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Speaker 1: capable of delivering a performance consistently. And Jack Gladish, who

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Speaker 1: was one of the engineers who would work on developing

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Speaker 1: audio animatronic technology, one of many, as it turns out,

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Speaker 1: would say that Disney wants joked to him, I'm tired

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Speaker 1: of finicky actors. I want to develop a fully animated,

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Speaker 1: articulated human being to use in place of motion picture

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Speaker 1: actors and actresses. So this was Disney having a bit

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Speaker 1: of fun saying that, Hey, the real reason why I

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Speaker 1: want to develop this technology is because then I can

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Speaker 1: get rid of all these pesky humans that keep on

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Speaker 1: asking questions or having issue whereas the animatronic ones will

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Speaker 1: just do what we tell them to do. And it's

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Speaker 1: kind of funny because there's another famous director who said

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Speaker 1: something very similar about Disney's cast. That famous director was

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Speaker 1: Alfred Hitchcock, who of course made incredible films of thriller

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Speaker 1: and psychological horror genres, things like The Birds and Psycho,

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Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. Alfred Hitchcock reportedly once said Disney

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Speaker 1: has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor,

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Speaker 1: he just tears him up. So Hitchcock's joke and Disney's

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Speaker 1: joke were very similar in that respect, this idea of

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Speaker 1: the frustrated director who has to contend with the delicate

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Speaker 1: sensibilities of actors and actresses. But in truth, Disney just

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Speaker 1: thought this was a really cool technology and he saw

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Speaker 1: a lot of potential in it, and he was always

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Speaker 1: looking at new ways to make use of the immense

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Speaker 1: talent he had attracted to the A. Walt Disney Company.

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Speaker 1: Whereas a lot of these people started off in the

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Speaker 1: animation department where they were working on various films and

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Speaker 1: shorts for Disney, they would eventually move into very different

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Speaker 1: departments and develop stuff like the actual Disneyland theme Park

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Speaker 1: disney World later on, as well as visual effects and

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Speaker 1: props and sets and things of that nature for the

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Speaker 1: various live action films that Disney was getting into as well.

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Speaker 1: So you had people who started off as animators kind

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Speaker 1: of specializing in different areas. This was the dawn of

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Speaker 1: the imagineering age. There was no such thing as an

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Speaker 1: imagineer yet, no one had called it that, but eventually

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Speaker 1: Disney would end up referring to people who worked in

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Speaker 1: this sort of field as imagineers. They were thinking outside

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Speaker 1: the box, using engineering and creativity married together to create

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Speaker 1: really interesting experience is that you could not find anywhere else.

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Speaker 1: That was the value that Disney wanted to create to

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Speaker 1: justify charging people admission to come and check it out.

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Speaker 1: So he was really excited about this potential opportunity, and

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Speaker 1: he had a lot of potential ways of using this

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Speaker 1: technology already at this time. He was he was thinking ahead.

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Speaker 1: One of those was the fact that he wanted to

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Speaker 1: open up an amusement park that would eventually become Disneyland.

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Speaker 1: He thought, well, I need to have attractions for people

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Speaker 1: to come and experience at this park, and he thought

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Speaker 1: this technology could potentially provide some of those experiences. He

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Speaker 1: also had an ability to contribute to a massive event

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Speaker 1: that would happen in the mid nineteen sixties, that is,

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Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty four World's Fair in New York that

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Speaker 1: was going to end up requiring a lot of work

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Speaker 1: on Disney's part. Years in advance, he knew that he

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Speaker 1: was going to be providing four attractions for this World's Fair,

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Speaker 1: and he knew that the entire attention of the world

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Speaker 1: was going to be on New York for this event.

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Speaker 1: So he wanted to make absolutely certain that the attractions

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Speaker 1: that his company designed were phenomenal and unlike anything anyone

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Speaker 1: had ever experienced, and for that he needed to pioneer

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Speaker 1: a new technology. So all he had to do from

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Speaker 1: that point forward it was just invented, No big shakes, right,

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Speaker 1: So to start. One of the earliest experiments with this

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Speaker 1: idea of animating a three dimensional figure was what would

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Speaker 1: eventually be called the Dancing Man or the Little Man project.

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Speaker 1: This would be of a figure that measured about nine

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Speaker 1: inches tall and was meant to dance based upon this

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Speaker 1: automated system or mechanical system, at least if not fully automated.

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Speaker 1: The story goes that Walt Disney approached the artist Ken Anderson,

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Speaker 1: who was working for Disney. Anderson would become instrumental for

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Speaker 1: the design and implementation of various elements in Disneyland, and

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Speaker 1: he said, you know, you know what, You're working on

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Speaker 1: a lot of stuff, but I wanna I want to

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Speaker 1: pay you out of my own pocket for a project

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Speaker 1: that I really believe in that's not really a company

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Speaker 1: project yet. I want to create scenes that evoke the

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Speaker 1: American way of life. And Disney had a very idyllic

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Speaker 1: sense of what that meant. That small town feel that

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Speaker 1: you get when you walk down Main Street, USA, if

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Speaker 1: you're ever at Disneyland or disney World and you're walking

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Speaker 1: down Main Street, especially if you're doing it at a

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Speaker 1: time when there's not a huge crowd there, it evokes

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Speaker 1: the sense of a small town maybe early nineteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: around the time when Walt Disney himself would have been

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Speaker 1: growing up, where things appeared to be simple and elegant.

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Speaker 1: That's what Disney wanted to create, and so he talked

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Speaker 1: to Anderson, said, I want to have this idea of

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Speaker 1: building this kind of experience in miniature where people can

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Speaker 1: look at the different miniatures we design and different elements

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Speaker 1: of it actually come to life, so at first he

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Speaker 1: wanted to get some paintings, some sketches of this. So

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Speaker 1: Anderson got to work and one of the first things

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Speaker 1: he created was a Norman Rockwell esque scene of a

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Speaker 1: soft shoe dancer performing on a stage, a small stage,

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Speaker 1: so something that you might see in an old Vaudevillian theater.

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Speaker 1: And Disney immediately connected to it. He thought, that's exactly

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Speaker 1: what I wanted to see. And he felt that this

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Speaker 1: was a figure that if they could create a three

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Speaker 1: dimensional version of it and build it in a miniature

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Speaker 1: set and it could move of around do its little

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Speaker 1: dance routine for people, that would be phenomenal. So he

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Speaker 1: took Anderson's design and he then decided to UH to

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Speaker 1: work with a couple of other folks over at Disney.

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Speaker 1: He UH went to a sculptor who was working for

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Speaker 1: the company at the time. As the sculptor's name was

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Speaker 1: Charles Clarence Christodoro, and Christodorro's dad was a famous agricultural

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Speaker 1: scientist and farmer who had written extensively about agriculture. Christodorro

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Speaker 1: himself had become a notable sculptor, working both in the

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Speaker 1: public spaces, designing statues that were shown in San Diego

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Speaker 1: and other areas of California, and also working in the

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Speaker 1: movie industry. He had worked for Disney once during the

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, left the company, and then came back in

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Speaker 1: the early nineteen fifties. He was given the sketch and

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Speaker 1: told to make a physical model of the dancer, which

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Speaker 1: he did. He sculpted a physical model based upon the

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Speaker 1: the Ken Anderson painting and gave that to Disney. Disney

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Speaker 1: then took the model over to the machine shop, and

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Speaker 1: he also brought in the animation department. Now, right now

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Speaker 1: seems like it would be a good time to summarize

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Speaker 1: all the areas that came together to make audio animatronics

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Speaker 1: even possible. And I realized I haven't even gotten to

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Speaker 1: what audio animatronics can do and how they do it.

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Speaker 1: But it's important to understand the different departments to kind

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Speaker 1: of get a grip on why it was so complicated

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Speaker 1: and why it called for a multidisciplinary approach, because that's

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Speaker 1: exactly what audio animatronics were. It required people of vastly

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Speaker 1: different disciplines and knowledge base in order to make this happen.

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Speaker 1: So in no particular order. Here are some of the

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Speaker 1: departments at Disney that worked on pioneering audio animatronics. First,

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Speaker 1: there was the Sound Department. Now it might seem weird

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Speaker 1: that I'm starting with the sound owned department instead of

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Speaker 1: the mechanical shop or animation, but the reason for that

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Speaker 1: is the Sound department was in charge of the audio

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Speaker 1: animatronic projects because those depended so heavily on that audio component.

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Speaker 1: I'll explain more about how in a little bit. The

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Speaker 1: Sound department was ultimately the one that was holding onto

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Speaker 1: the project, the project leader that was the head of development.

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Speaker 1: This would end up actually causing some issues later on.

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Speaker 1: There would be some disagreements between the Sound department and

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Speaker 1: some other departments, and they were run by different unions,

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Speaker 1: which also meant that they would run into these weird problems.

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Speaker 1: There was a story in one of the articles I

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Speaker 1: read about how the mechanical department, the Mechanical Shop, they

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Speaker 1: might be working on an audio animatronic figure and they

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Speaker 1: would need to disconnect it so that they can an

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Speaker 1: adjustment before reconnecting it, but they weren't allowed to actually

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Speaker 1: disconnect the figure because that was a union job. That

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Speaker 1: one of the Sound department guys would have to do.

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Speaker 1: So they'd have to go and get someone from the

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Speaker 1: sound department to come over to the machine shop, disconnect

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Speaker 1: a tube, wait until the mechanical shop people had made

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Speaker 1: their adjustments, reconnect the tube, and then they could proceed.

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Speaker 1: By union rules, the machine shop folks were not allowed

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Speaker 1: to do that on their own, so it got very

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Speaker 1: frustrating at times. Then you've got the animation department, Disney,

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Speaker 1: of course famous for animation. This was the group of

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Speaker 1: artists who had studied movement extensively. If you're going to

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Speaker 1: animate movement, you have to understand how movement works, or

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Speaker 1: else you can't replicate it properly and it's not going

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Speaker 1: to look right when you watch an animated film. And

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Speaker 1: more importantly, they had been studying animated movement in film itself.

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Speaker 1: As it turns out, film or at least magnetic tape,

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Speaker 1: would be come incredibly important with audio animatronics. They leverage

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Speaker 1: their expertise to help design not just the physical objects

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Speaker 1: that would be animated and the actual motions those objects

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Speaker 1: would make, but also the very technique for programming the objects.

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Speaker 1: And I'll explain more about that in a little bit.

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Speaker 1: Then you had the Modeling department. These were the people

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Speaker 1: who would make three dimensional models and sculptures of the

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Speaker 1: various components that you wanted so that other departments could

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Speaker 1: use that as a reference. And then you had the

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Speaker 1: machine shop. The machine department had to fabricate all the

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Speaker 1: physical pieces that would be used in these various figures,

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Speaker 1: and then you also had props and costumes that would

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Speaker 1: end up outfitting these different figures. So there are a

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Speaker 1: lot of different moving parts, both metaphorically and literally, as

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Speaker 1: it turns out when you get to audio animatronics in

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Speaker 1: order to make it possible, and all of those groups

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Speaker 1: had their own leaders and their own priorities, but the

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Speaker 1: fact that they were able to collaborate and create a

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Speaker 1: system as intricate as audio animatronics is pretty amazing all

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Speaker 1: on its own. And we haven't even gotten to the

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Speaker 1: technology yet. So I want to get to that technology,

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Speaker 1: and I will in just a moment, but first let's

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Speaker 1: take a quick break and thank our sponsor. All right,

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Speaker 1: So you got the Machine Shop and they were creating

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Speaker 1: the Dancing Man or the Little Man, and Disney decided

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Speaker 1: that he needed to have someone in charge of figuring

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Speaker 1: out the animation for this, like figuring out what moves

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Speaker 1: would need to be animated, so he tapped a guy

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Speaker 1: named Waffle Rogers to work on the animation for it Now.

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Speaker 1: Rogers was born in Stratton, Colorado, in nineteen nineteen, and

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Speaker 1: he was a sculptor and engineer. He attended an art

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Speaker 1: institute in Los Angeles and was recruited directly out of

406
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Speaker 1: school to the Walt Disney Studios in nineteen thirty nine.

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Speaker 1: He worked as an animator on films like Pinocchio and Bambi.

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Speaker 1: During World War Two, he took leave of the Disney

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Speaker 1: Company and served in the United States Marine Corps as

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Speaker 1: a staff sergeant in the photographic section. And when he

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Speaker 1: wasn't animating, he was tinkering. He was creating toys and

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Speaker 1: model trains, and Walt Disney was also a model train fanatic.

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Speaker 1: He loved model trains, including trains large enough to ride on,

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Speaker 1: and he had a couple at his at his property,

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Speaker 1: like he had a private little railroad track because he

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Speaker 1: just loved trains and he loved that romantic image of

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Speaker 1: travel by train. Um a lot of the things that

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Speaker 1: Disney worked on he worked on while he was traveling

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Speaker 1: via train, So he and Rogers had a lot of

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Speaker 1: common ground there, and Disney thought that Rogers had a

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Speaker 1: lot of potential to work on actual physical implementations, not

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Speaker 1: just animation, So he began to rely on Rogers to

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Speaker 1: sculpt objects for live action pictures, and in nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: four he tapped Rogers to help design buildings for Disneyland.

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Speaker 1: So Rogers went from animator to kind of almost like

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Speaker 1: an architect. Rogers would also become a chief contributor to

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Speaker 1: this audio animatronics project. In fact, some would argue that

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Speaker 1: he was essentially, when you got down to it, the

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Speaker 1: lead audio animatronic engineer. He is also immortalized by the

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00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: way at Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction. You can find his

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00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 1: tombstone there. One of the tombstones has a name that

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Speaker 1: is a and homage to him. It was created while

433
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 1: he was still alive. Uh. The tombstone reads, here rests Wattle,

434
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 1: our Bender. He rode to Glory on a fender, peaceful rest.

435
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 1: So what his actual name was Rogers, not Bender. That's

436
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:02,119
Speaker 1: in honor of him now as a reference, Disney decided

437
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 1: to bring in an actor to actually perform a soft

438
00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:08,159
Speaker 1: shoe routine, and they were going to shoot this actor

439
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:12,160
Speaker 1: with film film cameras not actually shoot the actor, even

440
00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 1: Disney would not do something so brazen as that, but

441
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,199
Speaker 1: rather to film the actor as he was doing the

442
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 1: soft shoe routine against a background that was a grid,

443
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 1: so that the animators could review the footage, use the

444
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:29,720
Speaker 1: grid as reference points, watch every little motion, and try

445
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: and figure out how they were going to translate that

446
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 1: into animation when they built this system that they were

447
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: working on. The actor that they got, by the way,

448
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 1: was Buddy Epson, who was originally going to play the

449
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:45,760
Speaker 1: role of the Tin Man in the nineteen thirty nine

450
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,600
Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz masterpiece, but Ebson ended up having a

451
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 1: massive allergic reaction to the aluminum makeup that was used

452
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: for the Tin Woodsman, and so he would end up

453
00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:00,080
Speaker 1: being replaced by Jack Haley. However, you can actual we

454
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 1: still hear Ebsen's voice in the Wizard of Oz. Uh.

455
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: It's his voice in the song We're off to see

456
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 1: the Wizard that Dorothy Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman sing

457
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 1: after they've rescued the Tin Woodsman, so that that bit

458
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 1: where there skipping off into the distance. The voice you

459
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 1: hear is not Jack Hayley's it's Buddy Ebsen. UH. He also,

460
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 1: by the way, played Jed clamp It in The Beverly Hillbillies,

461
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:27,480
Speaker 1: so if you ever watched that television series, he was

462
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,680
Speaker 1: Jed clamp It. Ebsen was a song and dance man

463
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,400
Speaker 1: back in the day, so it was a natural choice

464
00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 1: for Disney to bring him on. He would end up

465
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 1: working on several Disney UH initiatives, including UH Davy Crockett,

466
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:45,320
Speaker 1: But for this he just got up. He did a

467
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: soft shoe routine. They took several takes of it, and

468
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:50,720
Speaker 1: they used that to be their reference that the animators

469
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: could use and that the machine shop could use to

470
00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:56,880
Speaker 1: make sure that the pieces they designed would be capable

471
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,160
Speaker 1: of replicating all the different motions that would be necessary. Now,

472
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 1: ideally you would be able to create pieces that did

473
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:07,600
Speaker 1: exactly what you needed and nothing else. Because if you

474
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 1: design a figure to do moves that it doesn't need

475
00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 1: to replicate, that's time you wasted on that effort because

476
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 1: no one's ever going to see it. So ideally, you

477
00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 1: figure out exactly what you need and you design for

478
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:26,840
Speaker 1: that specifically. Now, one of the mechanical engineers who was

479
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: working on this project was Roger Edward Braggy technically Rogert E. Braggy, Sr.

480
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 1: His son was also working for Disney and we become

481
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,520
Speaker 1: an imagineer. Braggy had moved to California from Chicago in

482
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: the late nineteen twenties with experience in machine shop training.

483
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:48,240
Speaker 1: He joined Disney in nineteen nine, so he was originally

484
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:50,760
Speaker 1: working on some of their live action films. He helped

485
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 1: design special effects for twenty thousand Leagues under the Sea.

486
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:56,680
Speaker 1: He also helped Walt Disney build some of those model

487
00:30:56,760 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 1: trains for his personal collection, and Braggy was one of

488
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 1: the engineers working on this Dancing Man project. He would

489
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 1: later say that was a huge challenge, in part because Ebsen,

490
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:12,000
Speaker 1: when he did his soft shoe routine for the cameras,

491
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:17,080
Speaker 1: never repeated movements in the routine, so all the movements

492
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:21,960
Speaker 1: he did were original and not patterned. They weren't repetition,

493
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:25,479
Speaker 1: and that's difficult. If you're an animator. You would like

494
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 1: to have that repetition because you can design it once

495
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,080
Speaker 1: and then essentially cut and paste it and use it again.

496
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:36,400
Speaker 1: But if everything is new, then you have to design

497
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 1: it from scratch all the way through. It made their

498
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:44,000
Speaker 1: job more difficult. Ultimately, they produced this nine inch tall

499
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,640
Speaker 1: figure and they used cables to attach to various points

500
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:51,240
Speaker 1: on the figure, and this was controlled by external machinery.

501
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 1: So you would have one amounts to a very complex

502
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 1: gearbox that used cams and cables in order to control

503
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 1: the figure. Year Now, a cam in case you don't

504
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: know what that term is, it's a rotating or sliding

505
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 1: piece of machinery, particularly used to transform rotary motion into

506
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 1: linear motion or vice versa. So in other words, you

507
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: can turn a rotational motion into a back and forth

508
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 1: or up and down motion a linear one using these,

509
00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:23,880
Speaker 1: or you can use a linear motion to create a

510
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 1: rotational motion. If you have heard the term camshaft in vehicles,

511
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 1: that's what a camshaft does. Uh. This was not yet

512
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 1: an example of audio animatronics. This figure, it didn't quite

513
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 1: work on a full audio animatronic system, but it did

514
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:43,200
Speaker 1: help plot the course for the next innovation. And Disney,

515
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: not satisfied with creating this nine inch tall figure, wanted

516
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:51,120
Speaker 1: to create something more complicated. His next thought was a

517
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 1: barbershop quartet, a little mechanical barbershop quartet that can move

518
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 1: and dance and sing. He wanted to sing sweet add

519
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 1: a line. But the system that the machine shop had

520
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: created wasn't really sufficient because the dancing figure couldn't make

521
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 1: very subtle movements. It was all because all or nothing. Really.

522
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:15,120
Speaker 1: With each of the movements this thing made, it jerked

523
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:17,800
Speaker 1: around a lot, and it wasn't really a lifelike representation.

524
00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:20,760
Speaker 1: The mechanism that controlled the figure had to be within

525
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:24,120
Speaker 1: a couple of feet of it, so this gearbox essentially

526
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:27,360
Speaker 1: had to be really close to the dancing figure, uh,

527
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:29,960
Speaker 1: which meant that you had spatial issues you had to

528
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 1: take into account. So Disney's original thought was this could

529
00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:37,480
Speaker 1: be an attraction where maybe you walk up to a cabinet,

530
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:41,840
Speaker 1: you plunk a quarter in, a little curtain draws back,

531
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 1: and you see this dancing figure dance for a quarter,

532
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:49,200
Speaker 1: and then once it's done, the curtain draws close and

533
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 1: you move on. But the mechanics said, well, here's the problem.

534
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: The amount of money it took to develop this and

535
00:33:57,400 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 1: the amount of money it will take to maintain it,

536
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,520
Speaker 1: you will never recapture by going a quarter of you

537
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:06,600
Speaker 1: cents of you is not going to cut it. And

538
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,359
Speaker 1: you can't really go more expensive than that because at

539
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 1: the time cents was, you know, not insignificant amount of money.

540
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:17,680
Speaker 1: And keep in mind this is the nineteen fifties, so

541
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,439
Speaker 1: these initial attempts to create an animated figure in real life,

542
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 1: it kind of stalled out. The plans for Disneyland were

543
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:27,760
Speaker 1: continuing at the same time. The park opened in July

544
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 1: nineteen five, but the first attraction to use audio animatronics

545
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:36,439
Speaker 1: would follow in five years. That was a ride called

546
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:40,000
Speaker 1: the Mind Train through Nature's Wonderland, which opened in May

547
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:43,680
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty. And this was able to take advantage of

548
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 1: something that some of the engineers had noticed. They said,

549
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:49,400
Speaker 1: you know, these small figures, they require all these cams

550
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 1: and cables and everything has to be external. We have

551
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,480
Speaker 1: to build the actual power system outside of the figure,

552
00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 1: so you've always got to figure out how to mask

553
00:34:59,719 --> 00:35:02,240
Speaker 1: all the cables that are running up to the figure.

554
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 1: If we make the figures larger life size, then we

555
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 1: can store a lot of these mechanical components inside the

556
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:13,480
Speaker 1: figures themselves. It won't have to be externally controlled. You

557
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:17,120
Speaker 1: could actually build these figures that they have the internal parts,

558
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,680
Speaker 1: and that's you have a lot more freedom to stage

559
00:35:20,719 --> 00:35:23,280
Speaker 1: them the way you want to. And this really appealed

560
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 1: to Disney, so one of the first implementations they had

561
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:31,359
Speaker 1: was this Mind Train through Nature's Wonderland. Now that ride

562
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 1: might sound unfamiliar to you if you've been to Disneyland

563
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 1: and you're wondering where the Mind Trained through Nature's Wonderland

564
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:40,760
Speaker 1: ride is. Well, it used to be where Big Thunder

565
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 1: Mountain is now, so Big Thunder Mountain is a totally

566
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,640
Speaker 1: different kind of train ride. The Mind Train through Nature's

567
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,839
Speaker 1: Wonderland was a slow moving ride that puts you through

568
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: various scenes that were inspired by the Western United States

569
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:58,319
Speaker 1: of America. It was kind of the western version of

570
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 1: Jungle Crews. So if you've ever been on the Jungle Cruise,

571
00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 1: that's a boat ride where you go through areas have

572
00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:10,600
Speaker 1: been inspired by India and Africa. The Nature's Wonderland was similar,

573
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,840
Speaker 1: except it was a train ride through the Western US

574
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:18,440
Speaker 1: inspired areas and included things like bears playing around in

575
00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:21,760
Speaker 1: a pond. Now, that was the first attraction to feature

576
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:25,799
Speaker 1: audio animatronics, and I guess now as good a time

577
00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:30,640
Speaker 1: as any as to explain what audio animatronics are. Audio

578
00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:35,280
Speaker 1: animatronics take on these mechanical figures that you can power

579
00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:38,200
Speaker 1: in various ways, and they pair it with a system

580
00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:43,279
Speaker 1: that is programmable that uses audio as its method of

581
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:48,360
Speaker 1: transmitting information and taking the information and turning it into action.

582
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:52,880
Speaker 1: So everything is based off sound, which is kind of

583
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,440
Speaker 1: weird to think about it. But you would store the

584
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 1: information on these massive cassettes, these magnetic tapes. Really they're

585
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 1: magnetic reels. They weren't really cassettes. So you take magnetic

586
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:07,280
Speaker 1: reels of tape and you would encode information in sound

587
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:10,600
Speaker 1: on the tape, and when you played it back, that's

588
00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 1: what would create the uh well, it's what would allow

589
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:18,879
Speaker 1: circuits to be completed to create the movement. You see now,

590
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,680
Speaker 1: how that all works, It requires a bit more of

591
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:27,400
Speaker 1: a deeper dive. First of all, the earliest audio animatronic

592
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:30,799
Speaker 1: systems were digital. Now by that, I don't mean they

593
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:36,880
Speaker 1: were computer systems. This is purely mechanical approach. It's not electronic,

594
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 1: it's not uh you know, there's no microprocessors or transistors.

595
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:45,000
Speaker 1: It's all mechanical elements. But it is digital in the

596
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:48,000
Speaker 1: sense that it's binary and that you have two positions,

597
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:51,400
Speaker 1: you have on and off. That meant that any motion

598
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:57,760
Speaker 1: you wanted to make had only two outcomes. Arrest, position,

599
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:02,200
Speaker 1: which would be whatever it started off as. So let's

600
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 1: take let's say that it's a human figure that you're

601
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:08,399
Speaker 1: trying to animate, and one of your animations is your

602
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,720
Speaker 1: human figure needs to turn her head to the left.

603
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:17,600
Speaker 1: So in the off position, in the rest position, she's

604
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:21,720
Speaker 1: just staring straight forward and isn't moving. When you activate

605
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:25,480
Speaker 1: a circuit, then she moves her head to the left,

606
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:30,439
Speaker 1: but she can't halfway move her head to the left.

607
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:32,799
Speaker 1: She can't move it a quarter of the way. It's

608
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 1: either all the way to the left as far as

609
00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:39,880
Speaker 1: her freedom of movement allows, or it's in the that

610
00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:43,319
Speaker 1: rest position. That's it. Those two positions on or off,

611
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 1: zero or one. That's why we call it digital. This

612
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:50,440
Speaker 1: was a little primitive. It limited what the animators could do.

613
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,360
Speaker 1: They could not put in subtle movements, So it was

614
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:57,680
Speaker 1: good for certain types of audio animatronics early on, but

615
00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 1: it had limited use. It also was limited in how

616
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:07,520
Speaker 1: much force it could use. Uh that these original audio

617
00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 1: animatronics used one of two different systems to create movement.

618
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 1: Either it was using pneumatics or it was using solenoids.

619
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:21,880
Speaker 1: A pneumatic system uses compressed air. Compressed air is what

620
00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 1: creates the force that translates into mechanical motion in your system.

621
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:30,920
Speaker 1: So you would have tubes, pneumatic tubes that would move

622
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:34,480
Speaker 1: through this figure. You would have them, you know, wherever

623
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:38,000
Speaker 1: they needed to be, and you would have valves that

624
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:41,400
Speaker 1: when they're closed, do not allow air to move through.

625
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:45,120
Speaker 1: When you would complete a circuit, it would make the

626
00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:48,319
Speaker 1: valve open, which would allow air to move through, which

627
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:52,560
Speaker 1: would then create the mechanical force necessary to make the

628
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:55,040
Speaker 1: figure move in whichever way you wanted it to. So

629
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:59,680
Speaker 1: let's say it's a a bird in the enchanted Tiki room,

630
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 1: which one of the earliest audio animatronic attractions outside of

631
00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:09,600
Speaker 1: Nature's Wonderland and still exists to this day. The pneumatics

632
00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:13,560
Speaker 1: would allow the mouth to open. The closed position would

633
00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:16,839
Speaker 1: be the rest position, and it would allow the mouth

634
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:20,880
Speaker 1: to open up. And when you do a lot of

635
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,800
Speaker 1: opening and closing, it gives the illusion that the bird

636
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:27,520
Speaker 1: is actually talking when you pair it with the appropriate sound.

637
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:32,200
Speaker 1: That was one way of creating motion, but the solenoids

638
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:34,640
Speaker 1: were a different way that was also being used in

639
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 1: this digital system. Solenoids are a variation on electro magnets.

640
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:42,439
Speaker 1: So those of you who have listened to me talk

641
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:47,160
Speaker 1: endlessly about electromagnetism. Get ready for some more so. Your

642
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:51,280
Speaker 1: basic electromagnet consists of a coil of conductive material. Often

643
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:55,240
Speaker 1: it is insulated copper wire. You run a current through

644
00:40:55,320 --> 00:41:00,200
Speaker 1: this coil and that generates a magnetic field. The magnetic

645
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:02,920
Speaker 1: field can then be used to attract any sort of

646
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:07,240
Speaker 1: faro magnetic material. That's the case of a solenoid, where

647
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:10,720
Speaker 1: you have a core that connect kind of like a piston.

648
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,719
Speaker 1: So when it's in his rest position, the core is

649
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:18,480
Speaker 1: outside of the cylinder. May his positioned right at the

650
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 1: very end, so the cylinder is big enough so that

651
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,239
Speaker 1: the core can fit completely inside the cylinder. And when

652
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,719
Speaker 1: you run a current through the coil, it generates a

653
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:33,520
Speaker 1: magnetic field which attracts the faro magnetic core into the cylinder,

654
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 1: pulls it in. And if you connect something to the

655
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:41,759
Speaker 1: other end of that little core, like a cable that

656
00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: then attaches to a piece on a larger animatronic figure,

657
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:51,960
Speaker 1: like let's say a mouth of the character, whenever the

658
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,560
Speaker 1: circuit activates, it'll pull the solenoid in the core into

659
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:59,320
Speaker 1: the solenoid, which in turn pulls on the wire or cable,

660
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 1: but just attached to whatever body part the mouth let's say,

661
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:09,560
Speaker 1: of Mr. Lincoln, and pull pulls it down, pulls it open,

662
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:14,080
Speaker 1: and then by turning off the electricity to this coil,

663
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:18,400
Speaker 1: it negates that magnetic field. It returns to rest position,

664
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:24,080
Speaker 1: and Lincoln shuts his trap. And thus, by controlling the

665
00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:27,279
Speaker 1: the flow of electricity through the solenoid, you can open

666
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:30,880
Speaker 1: and close the mouth of one of the greatest presidents

667
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:37,080
Speaker 1: of United States history, and thus magnificence is born. I mean,

668
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:40,719
Speaker 1: this was a an enormous use of technology, a very

669
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 1: innovative use of technology at the time. So that was

670
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:47,279
Speaker 1: the basics for the movement, but that we still haven't

671
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:49,360
Speaker 1: talked about the audio part. That's kind of more the

672
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:55,719
Speaker 1: animatronic part, the idea of this animated physical being. But

673
00:42:55,840 --> 00:43:00,359
Speaker 1: whether it was a bird or a president, or or

674
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:03,520
Speaker 1: a hippopotamus or whatever it might be that was using

675
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:11,399
Speaker 1: audio animatronics, the secret sauce was in that audio. They

676
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:13,880
Speaker 1: found that what they could do is create a tone

677
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:19,480
Speaker 1: on a cassette or on a magnetic reel, I should say,

678
00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:23,120
Speaker 1: they could create a tone, and they used these little

679
00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:27,080
Speaker 1: metal reads that would connect to circuits. When the reds

680
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:30,279
Speaker 1: would vibrate, it would close the circuit and allow a

681
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:34,600
Speaker 1: current to pass through. So if you made the reds vibrate,

682
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:38,359
Speaker 1: it would create a physical circuit that would end up

683
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:42,719
Speaker 1: making the pneumatic or solenoid system activate and thus be

684
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:46,200
Speaker 1: either on or off. You know, well on really, and

685
00:43:46,239 --> 00:43:48,799
Speaker 1: once it stopped activating, it would be off. You could

686
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:51,560
Speaker 1: have your character open his or her mouth or move

687
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:53,759
Speaker 1: his or her head, or whatever the action needed to be.

688
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:57,160
Speaker 1: And the reason the way they would make it vibrate

689
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:01,400
Speaker 1: is they would use a resonant frequency. So resonant frequencies

690
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:06,319
Speaker 1: are the natural vibrating frequency of any given material. If

691
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:08,680
Speaker 1: you have a glass and you tap the glass and

692
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:12,000
Speaker 1: it makes a little ringing noise, that is its resonant frequency,

693
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: and if you're able to replicate that resonant frequency, then

694
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 1: you will make the glass vibrate just by exposing it

695
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:23,319
Speaker 1: to that frequency. So if you create a sound that

696
00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:27,280
Speaker 1: is of the same pitch as an object's resonant frequency,

697
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:29,880
Speaker 1: it will naturally begin to vibrate. And if you then

698
00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:33,160
Speaker 1: amplify that signal, in other words, if you increase the volume,

699
00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:38,440
Speaker 1: you will increase the amount of vibration that you're creating

700
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 1: in that material. So, again with the example, of a glass.

701
00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:45,759
Speaker 1: If you have a crystal glass, then it generates a

702
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:48,880
Speaker 1: particular tone when you strike it. If you replicate that

703
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:51,919
Speaker 1: tone and you amplify the signal enough, you can make

704
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 1: the glass vibrate enough so that it shatters. This is

705
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,400
Speaker 1: what we see when opera singers replicate a particular note

706
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:00,839
Speaker 1: and they try and shatter a glass. Some people can

707
00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:02,759
Speaker 1: do it, but it all depends on the glass. It

708
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 1: all depends on the person's range and how how pitch

709
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:08,920
Speaker 1: perfect they are and creating that particular frequency. It has

710
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:12,520
Speaker 1: to be close enough. There's actually a small range where

711
00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:14,120
Speaker 1: it will work, but you need to be as close

712
00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 1: as possible to really get the maximum effect. It's a

713
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 1: it's much easier to do with amplification than it is unamplified.

714
00:45:21,160 --> 00:45:23,879
Speaker 1: But that's the basis for audio animatronics. They had these

715
00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:28,200
Speaker 1: little metallic reads that would be connected to the various circuitry,

716
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:32,160
Speaker 1: and each one would have its own specific resonant frequency.

717
00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:35,319
Speaker 1: When you played the magnetic tape back, it would play

718
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:40,720
Speaker 1: tones at that resonant frequency for whichever particular action it needed.

719
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:46,000
Speaker 1: That specific metallic read would start to vibrate close that

720
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 1: specific circuit and then you get the motion. So if

721
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:52,880
Speaker 1: it's a figure that has several motions associated with it,

722
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:55,600
Speaker 1: Let's say it's a bird that can turn its head,

723
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:59,760
Speaker 1: flap its wings, or open its mouth. That's three different motions.

724
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,160
Speaker 1: That means you would have three different circuits with three

725
00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:06,239
Speaker 1: different metallic reads, with three different resonant frequencies. So that

726
00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 1: way you could produce different tones and make the specific

727
00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:13,720
Speaker 1: outcome that you wanted. Otherwise, every time you generated a tone,

728
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:17,799
Speaker 1: everything would go off and you would have chaos. More

729
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:20,799
Speaker 1: on that in a little bit. Again, this is a

730
00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:24,319
Speaker 1: digital system, so there's no variation here. You could not

731
00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:27,160
Speaker 1: have the bird turn its head halfway. It's always going

732
00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:30,920
Speaker 1: to turn it as far as the animatronic is allowed.

733
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:33,400
Speaker 1: Whatever it's freedom of movement is, that's where it's going

734
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:38,240
Speaker 1: to go to. So it's still had limitations. However, by

735
00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:41,880
Speaker 1: creating a specific circuit for every single motion, you could

736
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:47,040
Speaker 1: make a pretty sophisticated figure. The individual motions were pretty primitive,

737
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:51,920
Speaker 1: but collectively it could be very sophisticated. It did require

738
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:57,880
Speaker 1: a lot of work, and it required a lot of cheating,

739
00:46:58,000 --> 00:46:59,840
Speaker 1: I guess is the right way of putting it. So,

740
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:04,000
Speaker 1: for example, one of the figures that Disney was working

741
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:08,080
Speaker 1: on for the New York World's Fair was Abraham Lincoln,

742
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:12,480
Speaker 1: and in order to make all the different motions of

743
00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:16,160
Speaker 1: the face the way they wanted to UH, they had

744
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:19,799
Speaker 1: to put in more components than could fit within the

745
00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 1: constraint of a human head, and they weren't They didn't

746
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:25,640
Speaker 1: really have the option of scaling it up. They couldn't

747
00:47:25,680 --> 00:47:28,840
Speaker 1: build Lincoln larger than human sized and get the effect

748
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:33,239
Speaker 1: they wanted. They wanted to keep Lincoln at the dimensions

749
00:47:33,239 --> 00:47:37,480
Speaker 1: that they felt were important for him to get the

750
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:40,600
Speaker 1: feeling across that they wanted to make. So they had

751
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:42,040
Speaker 1: to figure out, well, how can we fit all these

752
00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:45,680
Speaker 1: components inside a human head when they're larger than what

753
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:48,480
Speaker 1: the space can contain. And eventually they were able to

754
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:50,680
Speaker 1: make a head that had kind of a bulge in

755
00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:53,239
Speaker 1: the back of it, and they were able to fake

756
00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:56,040
Speaker 1: it with the wig that they put on Mr. Lincoln,

757
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:59,160
Speaker 1: although apparently, and at least some of the wigs that

758
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:03,080
Speaker 1: they designed for the character UH, the bulge in the

759
00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 1: back of the head was noticeable, so, considering Lincoln's fate,

760
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:11,359
Speaker 1: that might have been viewed as being tasteless, but they

761
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:15,160
Speaker 1: were working within the constraints of a very new technology. Now,

762
00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:20,080
Speaker 1: I mentioned that this approach had its limitations that you

763
00:48:20,120 --> 00:48:23,400
Speaker 1: could only be on or off, and that they needed

764
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:27,279
Speaker 1: to have something with a little bit more of a

765
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:31,120
Speaker 1: spectrum of outcomes in order to get the effect that

766
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:35,400
Speaker 1: they really wanted. That approach required them to switch from

767
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:41,320
Speaker 1: pneumatic and solenoid systems to hydraulic systems. Hydraulic system uses liquid.

768
00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:45,160
Speaker 1: Typically it's just water as its means of creating that

769
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:48,799
Speaker 1: same sort of mechanical force. You can't really compress water,

770
00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:51,839
Speaker 1: as it turns out, so if you just put force

771
00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 1: behind water, it will push against whatever constraints you have

772
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,520
Speaker 1: it in. So if you put a good amount of

773
00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:01,279
Speaker 1: water pressure in and you use valves to control where

774
00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:04,680
Speaker 1: that water can go by opening and closing those valves,

775
00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:09,120
Speaker 1: you can allow for some pretty powerful movements, including stuff

776
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:12,200
Speaker 1: that's strong enough to do something like lift and arm.

777
00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:17,279
Speaker 1: Because the various pieces of machinery that Disney engineers were

778
00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 1: creating they weighed a good amount of they had a

779
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:21,840
Speaker 1: good amount of weight to him, a good amount of

780
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:26,120
Speaker 1: mass to them, and pneumatic ability on pneumatic systems weren't

781
00:49:26,120 --> 00:49:29,719
Speaker 1: strong enough to move them, especially not smoothly. If you

782
00:49:29,719 --> 00:49:31,879
Speaker 1: want to build a compressed air system that can move

783
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:35,279
Speaker 1: a significant amount of weight, Chances are you're going to

784
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:37,920
Speaker 1: end up with an air catapult, which was not exactly

785
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:40,920
Speaker 1: what Disney was hoping for when he was thinking of

786
00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:46,520
Speaker 1: these different designs. So imagineers switched to these hydraulic systems UH,

787
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:48,759
Speaker 1: and it also meant that they wanted to create more

788
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:52,279
Speaker 1: gradations of movement. They didn't want to just be on

789
00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:55,319
Speaker 1: and off then just want to be open and closed,

790
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:59,520
Speaker 1: or left or right. They wanted to have some different abilities.

791
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:04,200
Speaker 1: They wanted to create a lot of different potential movements

792
00:50:04,440 --> 00:50:08,600
Speaker 1: within the limbs of characters. One of the UH exhibits

793
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:10,840
Speaker 1: that they were working on for the New York World's

794
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:14,439
Speaker 1: Fair was the Carousel of Progress, which you can still

795
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:19,160
Speaker 1: see in certain Disney parks. The Carousel Progress features multiple

796
00:50:19,239 --> 00:50:25,000
Speaker 1: scenes of a family through different eras of human history,

797
00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:29,239
Speaker 1: including near future, where you get to see the innovation

798
00:50:29,520 --> 00:50:34,399
Speaker 1: of progress, how systems have improved over time to make

799
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:39,600
Speaker 1: our lives more convenient and enjoyable, and all of these

800
00:50:40,280 --> 00:50:45,280
Speaker 1: various exhibits. A New York had different sponsors, so Disney

801
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:48,000
Speaker 1: was partnering with other companies that had a vested interest

802
00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:53,000
Speaker 1: in the public seeing this stuff. So there were branded

803
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:57,960
Speaker 1: materials inside Carousel of Progress so that people would say, oh,

804
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,719
Speaker 1: you know what, I need to buy X kind of

805
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:03,760
Speaker 1: refrigerator because I want my life to be as convenient

806
00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:06,279
Speaker 1: as it was for those robots we just saw. So

807
00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:11,200
Speaker 1: in order to make this look convincing, they wanted the

808
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:16,759
Speaker 1: human characters to have very lifelike motions. Well, you can't

809
00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:19,280
Speaker 1: do that with just the digital system, so they needed

810
00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:23,680
Speaker 1: to go with an analog system. Analog means that you

811
00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:28,279
Speaker 1: can have a variable element. It's not just on or off.

812
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:31,600
Speaker 1: That's what digital is. Either the signals going or it's not.

813
00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:35,799
Speaker 1: Variable means you can actually create variations, and you do

814
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:39,799
Speaker 1: this through voltage. By changing the amount of voltage in

815
00:51:39,840 --> 00:51:43,680
Speaker 1: a system, and by increasing it or decreasing it, you

816
00:51:43,719 --> 00:51:50,000
Speaker 1: could create different ranges of motion within a properly designed system.

817
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:52,919
Speaker 1: So that's what the imagineers started working on with both

818
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:56,520
Speaker 1: Lincoln and the Carousel Progress. They wanted to create more

819
00:51:56,560 --> 00:52:01,760
Speaker 1: sophisticated systems that would allow for this sort of realistic motion,

820
00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:08,880
Speaker 1: and by pairing the hydraulic systems with this analog voltage system,

821
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:15,040
Speaker 1: they could then create a more natural movement. Now, in

822
00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:20,800
Speaker 1: order to encode that they had to use varying tones

823
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:24,560
Speaker 1: on this magnetic tape, and to do that, they ended

824
00:52:24,640 --> 00:52:27,840
Speaker 1: up having to use multiple tracks on a single piece

825
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:31,240
Speaker 1: of magnetic tape in order to conserve space, because otherwise

826
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:34,880
Speaker 1: you would have to have a real for every single

827
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:42,360
Speaker 1: component that is controlled by some sort of hydraulic system,

828
00:52:42,400 --> 00:52:47,000
Speaker 1: and that's just not feasible. So they ended up creating

829
00:52:47,160 --> 00:52:52,239
Speaker 1: multi track systems where they could record I think up

830
00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:55,560
Speaker 1: to twenty four eventually different tracks. But not all of

831
00:52:55,600 --> 00:52:58,319
Speaker 1: those tracks were for the actual animatronic figures. Some of

832
00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:02,440
Speaker 1: them were for theat coal elements like lighting queues, or

833
00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 1: whether or not certain uh like products would open, like

834
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:11,080
Speaker 1: the refrigerator door might open, a drawer might slide out,

835
00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:14,759
Speaker 1: an element in the fridge might tilt so people can

836
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:17,399
Speaker 1: get a better look at it. All of those were

837
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:20,400
Speaker 1: their own separate little circuits, and they all needed to

838
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:25,560
Speaker 1: be programmed into the audio animatronic reels, which again we're

839
00:53:25,600 --> 00:53:28,920
Speaker 1: still using tones, So the sound department was still heavily

840
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:33,600
Speaker 1: involved in this. As you can imagine this complicated thing

841
00:53:33,760 --> 00:53:37,040
Speaker 1: significantly once they got to the part where it was

842
00:53:37,080 --> 00:53:41,320
Speaker 1: time to program the carousel of progress and the great

843
00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:44,160
Speaker 1: moments with Mr Lincoln and I'll explain how some of

844
00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:47,759
Speaker 1: that turned out in just a minute, but first let's

845
00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:57,839
Speaker 1: take another quick break and thank our sponsor. So when

846
00:53:57,840 --> 00:54:01,080
Speaker 1: we talk about programming this this stone where you've got

847
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:06,280
Speaker 1: all these different tracks that control these different elements within

848
00:54:06,520 --> 00:54:11,000
Speaker 1: an animatronic UH system, keep in mind that depending on

849
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:13,480
Speaker 1: how many figures you have and how many points of

850
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:16,479
Speaker 1: articulation they have and what they need to do, these

851
00:54:16,480 --> 00:54:21,000
Speaker 1: could be incredibly complicated. From a macro standpoint, each individual

852
00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:25,200
Speaker 1: figure might be fairly simple, but taken as a as

853
00:54:25,200 --> 00:54:29,600
Speaker 1: a whole, it gets to be enormously complex. One of

854
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:34,399
Speaker 1: the earliest ways that they experimented with programming was using

855
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:38,279
Speaker 1: silver paint. They use these old movieola movie editors that

856
00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:41,799
Speaker 1: were designed to edit film, but instead of that, what

857
00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:46,200
Speaker 1: they did was they took this this tape and they

858
00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:50,800
Speaker 1: would paint silver lines on it to create a circuit,

859
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:56,280
Speaker 1: and whenever the reading head would pass over the silver

860
00:54:56,480 --> 00:55:00,520
Speaker 1: it would create UH an electrical circuit that in would

861
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:05,600
Speaker 1: send out as a command for the various action to happen.

862
00:55:06,040 --> 00:55:08,960
Speaker 1: So let's say again that it's a parrot opening its beak,

863
00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:12,640
Speaker 1: and you would use a little line of silver paint

864
00:55:12,719 --> 00:55:17,040
Speaker 1: along the length of this tape to indicate this is

865
00:55:17,080 --> 00:55:20,680
Speaker 1: where the beak needs to be opened. Because they were

866
00:55:20,760 --> 00:55:25,399
Speaker 1: using animators to design the system, in part, the animators

867
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:27,759
Speaker 1: loved it. They were using it very similar to the

868
00:55:27,760 --> 00:55:32,120
Speaker 1: way they would edit animation reels. With animation, you think

869
00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:38,120
Speaker 1: of the work in terms of feet, not necessarily in seconds.

870
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:41,080
Speaker 1: So instead of saying, oh, I need this mouth to

871
00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 1: be open for two seconds, you might say, oh, I

872
00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:47,200
Speaker 1: need this to happen for two ft of film. So

873
00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:50,400
Speaker 1: you would literally mark out the spot on the tape

874
00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:53,200
Speaker 1: where the action needed to start, and you would mark

875
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:55,240
Speaker 1: out the spot on the tape where the action needed

876
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:58,040
Speaker 1: to stop, and you would just connect those two points

877
00:55:58,080 --> 00:56:01,120
Speaker 1: with some silver paint, and then when it would read

878
00:56:01,160 --> 00:56:03,440
Speaker 1: through the system, it would play back that way. When

879
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:06,760
Speaker 1: it would hit that point in the tape, the action

880
00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:10,920
Speaker 1: would happen. So as long as you either had all

881
00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:14,319
Speaker 1: of your tracks on one tape, and they could do

882
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:17,719
Speaker 1: up to six tracks on this method. This was just

883
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:21,880
Speaker 1: the prototype method. If you had six different sets of

884
00:56:21,920 --> 00:56:25,479
Speaker 1: actions all on their each individual lines, you had six

885
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:29,040
Speaker 1: contacts that could create the different circuits. Then you can

886
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:33,640
Speaker 1: program up to six different components of your audio animatronic

887
00:56:33,719 --> 00:56:37,319
Speaker 1: scene using one reel of tape, and they'd all be

888
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:39,440
Speaker 1: synchronized because you would just measure it out on the

889
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:43,200
Speaker 1: physical tape and draw where you needed the elements to happen.

890
00:56:43,760 --> 00:56:47,240
Speaker 1: So maybe you'd say, all right, well, in three seconds

891
00:56:47,239 --> 00:56:49,440
Speaker 1: in I need the bird to flap its wings, and

892
00:56:49,600 --> 00:56:52,640
Speaker 1: at second number four I needed to start talking, but

893
00:56:52,719 --> 00:56:55,200
Speaker 1: by second number five and needed to stop flapping its wings.

894
00:56:55,200 --> 00:56:59,799
Speaker 1: But it keeps talking on and off until second number ten. Well,

895
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:02,879
Speaker 1: that's how you would mark it out on your magnetic tape,

896
00:57:02,920 --> 00:57:05,120
Speaker 1: and you would just draw one line to be the

897
00:57:05,160 --> 00:57:07,640
Speaker 1: control for the beak and another line to be the

898
00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:10,719
Speaker 1: control for the wings, and as it would move through

899
00:57:10,719 --> 00:57:14,759
Speaker 1: the Moviola editor and the contacts that the engineers that

900
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:18,680
Speaker 1: essentially added into this Moviola editor, it would play it

901
00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:21,640
Speaker 1: back the same way every time. Now, this was not

902
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:25,760
Speaker 1: the system that Disney decided to use for everything. They

903
00:57:25,800 --> 00:57:29,920
Speaker 1: again switched to an audio tone format instead of using

904
00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:33,120
Speaker 1: lines of silver paint, the reason being that you could

905
00:57:33,120 --> 00:57:35,680
Speaker 1: only play the tape so many times before the silver

906
00:57:35,720 --> 00:57:37,920
Speaker 1: paint started to flake off, and once it started to

907
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:40,160
Speaker 1: flake off, then you no longer had a strong signal.

908
00:57:40,240 --> 00:57:44,280
Speaker 1: You never didn't necessarily have the circuit completing anymore, and

909
00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:49,160
Speaker 1: so you would get jitter emotions, or sometimes enough paint

910
00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:52,080
Speaker 1: would peel off where you wouldn't even get the result

911
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:55,160
Speaker 1: you wanted at all. So it wasn't a permanent solution,

912
00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:58,480
Speaker 1: but it was an interesting step towards what they needed.

913
00:57:59,240 --> 00:58:03,000
Speaker 1: When they went with tones, they found that that was

914
00:58:03,120 --> 00:58:06,320
Speaker 1: a better approach. But as they started programming the Great

915
00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:08,800
Speaker 1: Moments with Mr. Lincoln, they started to run into some

916
00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:13,440
Speaker 1: serious issues. The way they did this is they had

917
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:17,480
Speaker 1: editing machines and had playback machines. The playback machines all

918
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:21,440
Speaker 1: they could do was play the magnetic tape back again.

919
00:58:21,760 --> 00:58:26,680
Speaker 1: And this was they would call these machines dummies, because

920
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:28,800
Speaker 1: that's all they could do is just play something back.

921
00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:32,520
Speaker 1: So they had more dummies than they had editing machines

922
00:58:32,520 --> 00:58:36,760
Speaker 1: where they could write to magnetic tape. They would record

923
00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:40,200
Speaker 1: to magnetic tape both the tones that would control the

924
00:58:40,240 --> 00:58:44,880
Speaker 1: various animatronic actions, the lighting of the theater, any other

925
00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:47,320
Speaker 1: elements that needed to happen within the theater. They would

926
00:58:47,360 --> 00:58:50,480
Speaker 1: all be encoded on this magnetic tape as well, and

927
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:55,320
Speaker 1: they would also have the audio for the actual presentation.

928
00:58:55,520 --> 00:58:59,040
Speaker 1: So in the case of Great Moments with Mr Lincoln,

929
00:58:59,360 --> 00:59:03,160
Speaker 1: the various speeches that Mr Lincoln delivers had to be

930
00:59:03,240 --> 00:59:06,960
Speaker 1: on that magnetic tape as well. You would first produce

931
00:59:07,160 --> 00:59:10,600
Speaker 1: an individual tape for every single one of those, and

932
00:59:10,640 --> 00:59:16,280
Speaker 1: then you would end up combining those onto a master tape. Eventually,

933
00:59:16,680 --> 00:59:18,920
Speaker 1: there's actually a step in between, called a sub master,

934
00:59:19,080 --> 00:59:21,760
Speaker 1: but we're gonna simplify for the purposes of this podcast,

935
00:59:22,440 --> 00:59:24,400
Speaker 1: so that if ultimately you would end up with a

936
00:59:24,440 --> 00:59:27,080
Speaker 1: master tape that would have everything you needed on it,

937
00:59:27,920 --> 00:59:31,240
Speaker 1: you might imagine that having one master tape that has

938
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:35,280
Speaker 1: multiple tracks numbering and more than two dozen in some cases,

939
00:59:36,200 --> 00:59:38,520
Speaker 1: that you could run into some interference and you would

940
00:59:38,560 --> 00:59:42,400
Speaker 1: be right. It turned out that some of these, because

941
00:59:42,440 --> 00:59:45,600
Speaker 1: of the different volumes that they recorded at the tones,

942
00:59:45,640 --> 00:59:49,920
Speaker 1: would sometimes mask one another and or other times they

943
00:59:49,960 --> 00:59:53,640
Speaker 1: would activate more than one element and you'd end up

944
00:59:53,640 --> 00:59:57,320
Speaker 1: with chaos. So Mr Lincoln might end up having a

945
00:59:57,400 --> 01:00:00,080
Speaker 1: bit of a freak out on stage while deliver the

946
01:00:00,120 --> 01:00:04,160
Speaker 1: Getty's Brig address, and that just doesn't convey the stately

947
01:00:04,320 --> 01:00:09,560
Speaker 1: nature that you want when you're trying to reenact one

948
01:00:09,560 --> 01:00:13,120
Speaker 1: of the most iconic moments in American history that there is.

949
01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:17,840
Speaker 1: Having Abraham Lincoln's eyebrows go crazy all over his face

950
01:00:17,880 --> 01:00:21,520
Speaker 1: while he's talking might be a little distracting, so it

951
01:00:21,600 --> 01:00:26,320
Speaker 1: required a painstaking process of editing. They would get the

952
01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:29,120
Speaker 1: magnetic tape, they would run it through the system using

953
01:00:29,160 --> 01:00:33,640
Speaker 1: one of these dummies. They would take notes, copious notes

954
01:00:33,720 --> 01:00:38,680
Speaker 1: about everything that was going on with the performance of

955
01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:42,640
Speaker 1: the audio animatronic show, in this case Great Moments with

956
01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:45,760
Speaker 1: Mr Lincoln, and anything that went wrong. They had to

957
01:00:45,800 --> 01:00:49,960
Speaker 1: make note of whether it was a hand motion or

958
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:52,880
Speaker 1: an eyebrow, or the mouth wasn't moving in sync with

959
01:00:53,000 --> 01:00:55,240
Speaker 1: the sound, or maybe the sound itself was at the

960
01:00:55,280 --> 01:00:57,400
Speaker 1: wrong volume. Whatever the problem was, they had to make

961
01:00:57,440 --> 01:00:59,840
Speaker 1: note of it, and then they had to take that

962
01:01:00,120 --> 01:01:03,480
Speaker 1: same magnetic tape back and figure out how they could

963
01:01:03,520 --> 01:01:06,240
Speaker 1: fix it. Sometimes they could fix it by making a

964
01:01:06,240 --> 01:01:10,240
Speaker 1: couple of tweaks. Sometimes it require re recording an entire section,

965
01:01:10,720 --> 01:01:13,520
Speaker 1: so it might be that you're recording a brand new

966
01:01:13,560 --> 01:01:16,440
Speaker 1: section just to control the fingers on the left hand.

967
01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:20,600
Speaker 1: That's how exacting this had to be. And again you

968
01:01:20,600 --> 01:01:22,800
Speaker 1: had to make sure that you were synchronizing it with

969
01:01:22,840 --> 01:01:25,640
Speaker 1: everything else. And it may be that you would find

970
01:01:25,680 --> 01:01:28,560
Speaker 1: that one element is slightly out of sync of everything else.

971
01:01:28,600 --> 01:01:31,520
Speaker 1: You had planned it out, you plotted it, you recorded it.

972
01:01:31,600 --> 01:01:34,000
Speaker 1: When you laid down the tracks, you didn't realize that

973
01:01:34,080 --> 01:01:36,240
Speaker 1: they didn't quite line up the way you wanted them to,

974
01:01:36,720 --> 01:01:39,520
Speaker 1: and that might require you to cut out one of

975
01:01:39,560 --> 01:01:43,120
Speaker 1: the tracks and then splice it back in by hand

976
01:01:43,240 --> 01:01:47,080
Speaker 1: cranking the system to the right starting point and adjusting

977
01:01:47,080 --> 01:01:49,720
Speaker 1: it that way. So maybe you would say, all right, well,

978
01:01:49,720 --> 01:01:51,880
Speaker 1: the track for the left hand needs to start at

979
01:01:51,920 --> 01:01:56,040
Speaker 1: second number two point four, and unfortunately it's starting at

980
01:01:56,080 --> 01:01:59,000
Speaker 1: two point eight, and because of that, the left hand

981
01:01:59,280 --> 01:02:02,480
Speaker 1: is making just years point four seconds after it's supposed to,

982
01:02:02,680 --> 01:02:05,640
Speaker 1: and it looks ridiculous. You would have to go back

983
01:02:06,000 --> 01:02:07,919
Speaker 1: and try and hand crank it to the spot where

984
01:02:07,920 --> 01:02:10,160
Speaker 1: it needs to start and splice it back in that

985
01:02:10,320 --> 01:02:15,360
Speaker 1: section that track back into the master. Worst case scenario scenario,

986
01:02:15,360 --> 01:02:18,120
Speaker 1: you'd have to rerecord the master and just make sure

987
01:02:18,160 --> 01:02:22,160
Speaker 1: everything is lined up in its new orientation based upon

988
01:02:22,320 --> 01:02:25,280
Speaker 1: the notes you made. To make matters even more complicated,

989
01:02:25,320 --> 01:02:28,320
Speaker 1: they were using a sound studio that was busy during

990
01:02:28,360 --> 01:02:31,160
Speaker 1: the day, so the only time the engineers could actually

991
01:02:31,160 --> 01:02:34,960
Speaker 1: work on this project, which had to be done before

992
01:02:35,000 --> 01:02:38,280
Speaker 1: the World's Fair opened was at night. They would go

993
01:02:38,400 --> 01:02:41,760
Speaker 1: to this recording studio at night that had its equipment

994
01:02:41,760 --> 01:02:44,160
Speaker 1: on different floors, so they actually had to run cabling

995
01:02:44,240 --> 01:02:47,120
Speaker 1: systems to go up and down floors so that they

996
01:02:47,120 --> 01:02:49,880
Speaker 1: could connect the various parts that they were using in

997
01:02:50,000 --> 01:02:54,240
Speaker 1: order to make these minute changes. It was an incredibly

998
01:02:54,360 --> 01:02:58,200
Speaker 1: painstaking process to get the the performance that they wanted,

999
01:02:58,680 --> 01:03:03,520
Speaker 1: all using this combination of pneumatics, hydraulics, and solenoids to

1000
01:03:03,600 --> 01:03:08,200
Speaker 1: see if they can get the right sequence of movements

1001
01:03:08,520 --> 01:03:14,080
Speaker 1: to match the prerecorded audio and give the experience that

1002
01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:19,480
Speaker 1: they intended to their audience. Programming this way took a

1003
01:03:19,520 --> 01:03:23,520
Speaker 1: lot of work. If you watch there's a Wonderful World

1004
01:03:23,520 --> 01:03:28,920
Speaker 1: of Color episode where they talk about the Disneyland presence

1005
01:03:28,960 --> 01:03:32,120
Speaker 1: at the World's Fair and the way the audio animatronics work.

1006
01:03:32,800 --> 01:03:35,560
Speaker 1: There's a point where Walt Disney walks up to one

1007
01:03:35,600 --> 01:03:39,880
Speaker 1: of his imagineers who's wearing this weird harness. Uh, there's

1008
01:03:39,920 --> 01:03:44,240
Speaker 1: a control system. It's directly connected to the father character

1009
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:48,520
Speaker 1: of carousela Progress. So when the guy makes a big

1010
01:03:48,560 --> 01:03:51,760
Speaker 1: motion with his arm, you see the Carousel of Progress

1011
01:03:51,840 --> 01:03:55,240
Speaker 1: character make that same motion, and Disney refers to that

1012
01:03:55,320 --> 01:03:58,120
Speaker 1: as programming, but that's not actually how they programmed it.

1013
01:03:58,160 --> 01:04:03,840
Speaker 1: They programmed it more more granularly than that. They could

1014
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:08,800
Speaker 1: control a character directly using this method, but that was

1015
01:04:08,840 --> 01:04:12,400
Speaker 1: only really good for one on one digital puppetry, as in,

1016
01:04:12,640 --> 01:04:16,000
Speaker 1: you have a human controller actually manipulating the character at

1017
01:04:16,040 --> 01:04:18,800
Speaker 1: that very moment. If you wanted it automated, you had

1018
01:04:18,840 --> 01:04:22,800
Speaker 1: to go through this other, very painstaking process. And this

1019
01:04:22,840 --> 01:04:26,480
Speaker 1: is pretty much how they used audio animatronics. For the

1020
01:04:26,520 --> 01:04:30,040
Speaker 1: next several years, they would develop lots of different rides

1021
01:04:30,560 --> 01:04:33,920
Speaker 1: that used audio animatronic figures. Pirates of the Caribbean, the

1022
01:04:33,960 --> 01:04:38,760
Speaker 1: Haunted Mansion, rides like that, where you had some sophisticated movements,

1023
01:04:38,760 --> 01:04:43,160
Speaker 1: something a little more advanced than just a static character turning.

1024
01:04:43,240 --> 01:04:46,240
Speaker 1: A lot of the dark rides in fantasy Land are

1025
01:04:46,600 --> 01:04:49,919
Speaker 1: more primitive and don't need to be audio animatronic because

1026
01:04:49,920 --> 01:04:53,120
Speaker 1: there's no real articulation with the characters. They're kind of

1027
01:04:53,280 --> 01:04:56,240
Speaker 1: static and they can move up and down or turn

1028
01:04:56,360 --> 01:04:59,640
Speaker 1: left and right, but they don't have any facial motion

1029
01:04:59,840 --> 01:05:03,760
Speaker 1: or their limbs don't really move in any meaningful way

1030
01:05:04,600 --> 01:05:07,880
Speaker 1: as opposed to characters that say Pirates or Haunted Mansion.

1031
01:05:08,160 --> 01:05:11,400
Speaker 1: Some of those have much more sophisticated movements and needed

1032
01:05:11,400 --> 01:05:14,240
Speaker 1: the audio animatronic system in order to do it. To me,

1033
01:05:14,280 --> 01:05:16,840
Speaker 1: it's fascinating that they were able to do all of

1034
01:05:16,840 --> 01:05:20,720
Speaker 1: this using tones, whether it was to just create that

1035
01:05:20,840 --> 01:05:25,080
Speaker 1: binary system or the UH analog system where you had

1036
01:05:25,120 --> 01:05:29,680
Speaker 1: the variable voltage that could create different types of movement.

1037
01:05:30,840 --> 01:05:33,560
Speaker 1: And I'm also fascinated by all the different people who

1038
01:05:33,560 --> 01:05:36,600
Speaker 1: worked on these systems. There were a ton of them

1039
01:05:36,680 --> 01:05:41,520
Speaker 1: who all contributed, and without them, these just wouldn't even

1040
01:05:41,600 --> 01:05:45,560
Speaker 1: be a reality today. UH. They were able to make

1041
01:05:46,160 --> 01:05:48,520
Speaker 1: a huge impact at the New York World's Fair, and

1042
01:05:48,560 --> 01:05:52,160
Speaker 1: this really did cement Disney as being an innovative company,

1043
01:05:52,160 --> 01:05:57,160
Speaker 1: not just in movies and animation, but also in theme

1044
01:05:57,240 --> 01:06:03,520
Speaker 1: parks and experiences. UH set them apart from their competitors.

1045
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:06,560
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just the theming, which has always been

1046
01:06:06,560 --> 01:06:09,880
Speaker 1: one of disney strong suits, but the technology itself, the

1047
01:06:09,920 --> 01:06:13,760
Speaker 1: fact that the company was willing to be a pioneer

1048
01:06:13,800 --> 01:06:16,400
Speaker 1: in those spaces. So I find it one of the

1049
01:06:16,400 --> 01:06:18,880
Speaker 1: most interesting stories, and I love the fact that it

1050
01:06:18,960 --> 01:06:22,080
Speaker 1: also gives me the opportunity to touch on other elements

1051
01:06:22,400 --> 01:06:26,000
Speaker 1: of the mechanical and technological worlds. Stuff like pneumatic systems,

1052
01:06:26,040 --> 01:06:31,080
Speaker 1: hydraulic systems, the concept of cams, the concept of solenoids.

1053
01:06:31,120 --> 01:06:35,000
Speaker 1: All of these elements are obviously components of the audio

1054
01:06:35,040 --> 01:06:38,640
Speaker 1: animatronic systems, but also it's fun to have that opportunity

1055
01:06:38,680 --> 01:06:41,200
Speaker 1: to just touch on those in this episode and to

1056
01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:44,120
Speaker 1: tell you, guys, you know what those were and how

1057
01:06:44,240 --> 01:06:49,440
Speaker 1: they were incorporated into this audio animatronic system. So the

1058
01:06:49,480 --> 01:06:53,000
Speaker 1: next time you ride one of these rides, think about

1059
01:06:53,040 --> 01:06:55,320
Speaker 1: all the technology that went into it and the fact

1060
01:06:55,320 --> 01:06:58,480
Speaker 1: that it's just magnetic tape that's giving all the instructions

1061
01:06:58,560 --> 01:07:02,320
Speaker 1: and not through any sort of computer program, but literally

1062
01:07:02,400 --> 01:07:06,280
Speaker 1: through sound. That the sound itself is what allows those

1063
01:07:06,320 --> 01:07:09,760
Speaker 1: circuits to complete, and it varies that voltage, and it

1064
01:07:09,800 --> 01:07:13,520
Speaker 1: allows Mr Lincoln to stand up as he addresses you.

1065
01:07:13,840 --> 01:07:17,400
Speaker 1: And here's where we get to my story of a

1066
01:07:17,520 --> 01:07:21,120
Speaker 1: funny little disney World fail. This was at disney World,

1067
01:07:21,240 --> 01:07:25,040
Speaker 1: not at Disneyland, and it was the first time my

1068
01:07:25,120 --> 01:07:29,680
Speaker 1: wife had ever been to disney World. And I was

1069
01:07:29,800 --> 01:07:34,240
Speaker 1: so excited because if you've been to disney World several times,

1070
01:07:35,200 --> 01:07:39,080
Speaker 1: after a while, you know what to expect. And while

1071
01:07:39,240 --> 01:07:42,960
Speaker 1: it is still an amazing achievement to have built an

1072
01:07:43,000 --> 01:07:49,080
Speaker 1: amusement park so uh immersive and with such detail, and

1073
01:07:49,400 --> 01:07:51,920
Speaker 1: to then staff it with people who have some of

1074
01:07:51,920 --> 01:07:57,080
Speaker 1: the best customer service points in the world. That alone

1075
01:07:57,120 --> 01:07:59,520
Speaker 1: is amazing. But if you go with someone who has

1076
01:07:59,560 --> 01:08:02,520
Speaker 1: never been before and you've been several times, there's a

1077
01:08:02,560 --> 01:08:05,800
Speaker 1: special kind of joy there because you can almost experience

1078
01:08:05,920 --> 01:08:10,360
Speaker 1: Disney World for the first time by vicariously experiencing it

1079
01:08:10,440 --> 01:08:12,960
Speaker 1: through your friend who had not been there before. In

1080
01:08:13,000 --> 01:08:14,960
Speaker 1: this case, it was my wife. She had never been

1081
01:08:15,000 --> 01:08:18,280
Speaker 1: to Disney World, so I was having this wonderful experience

1082
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:20,400
Speaker 1: of taking her to different rides and she gets to

1083
01:08:20,439 --> 01:08:23,160
Speaker 1: see them for the first time, and she's blown away,

1084
01:08:23,200 --> 01:08:26,040
Speaker 1: and I remember how special it is because again I've

1085
01:08:26,120 --> 01:08:29,599
Speaker 1: ridden most of these rides dozens of times, so for me,

1086
01:08:29,720 --> 01:08:32,040
Speaker 1: while I enjoyed them, the special part it kind of

1087
01:08:32,040 --> 01:08:35,479
Speaker 1: worn off. Seeing it through her eyes brought it all

1088
01:08:35,520 --> 01:08:38,920
Speaker 1: back and it was amazing. Then we go to the

1089
01:08:38,920 --> 01:08:43,720
Speaker 1: Hall of Presidents, and at the Hall of Presidents, uh,

1090
01:08:43,960 --> 01:08:45,960
Speaker 1: the curtains open and if you've never been to the

1091
01:08:45,960 --> 01:08:48,880
Speaker 1: Hall of Presidents at Disney World, there's a point where

1092
01:08:49,240 --> 01:08:54,080
Speaker 1: curtains open up and you see all of the presidence

1093
01:08:54,080 --> 01:08:57,240
Speaker 1: of the United States they're all there, every single one

1094
01:08:57,360 --> 01:09:01,719
Speaker 1: who's ever sat as president is there, animated this audio

1095
01:09:01,760 --> 01:09:04,639
Speaker 1: animatronic and they all do little weird things like they fidget,

1096
01:09:05,120 --> 01:09:07,680
Speaker 1: they look around. Some of them appear to be a

1097
01:09:07,680 --> 01:09:10,200
Speaker 1: little bored with what's going on. Some of them seem

1098
01:09:10,280 --> 01:09:14,080
Speaker 1: really engaged. It's kind of it's kind of charming. They

1099
01:09:14,120 --> 01:09:18,639
Speaker 1: introduced them one at a time. Well, Mr Lincoln uh

1100
01:09:18,760 --> 01:09:21,360
Speaker 1: sits in a chair and then when it's his turn

1101
01:09:21,520 --> 01:09:26,520
Speaker 1: to actually address the audience, because he first, they introduce everybody,

1102
01:09:26,520 --> 01:09:28,800
Speaker 1: and everyone does a little gesture. They might not or

1103
01:09:29,200 --> 01:09:33,200
Speaker 1: wave a hand, but ultimately Lincoln stands up and then

1104
01:09:33,240 --> 01:09:36,559
Speaker 1: delivers a speech to the audience. When the curtains open,

1105
01:09:36,760 --> 01:09:39,680
Speaker 1: Lincoln was already standing. He was not seated as he

1106
01:09:39,720 --> 01:09:42,920
Speaker 1: normally would be, which tells me that the hydraulic system

1107
01:09:43,000 --> 01:09:46,240
Speaker 1: for his legs had already activated. However, he was not

1108
01:09:46,400 --> 01:09:51,960
Speaker 1: standing tall. He was bent at the waist. So he's

1109
01:09:52,000 --> 01:09:54,880
Speaker 1: standing up bent down as if he's tying his shoes,

1110
01:09:55,920 --> 01:09:59,000
Speaker 1: and his two arms are dangling at his sides. But

1111
01:09:59,040 --> 01:10:02,680
Speaker 1: they're still animated, so you still see them fidget and gesture.

1112
01:10:02,680 --> 01:10:06,599
Speaker 1: When he's announced and the spotlight hits his chair, which

1113
01:10:06,600 --> 01:10:08,920
Speaker 1: he was not sitting in, so the spotlight's actually hitting

1114
01:10:08,920 --> 01:10:12,200
Speaker 1: behind where he was. His hand made a little motion.

1115
01:10:13,200 --> 01:10:15,759
Speaker 1: It was at that point that I expected someone from Disney,

1116
01:10:15,840 --> 01:10:18,080
Speaker 1: one of the cast members to come down and hit

1117
01:10:18,120 --> 01:10:22,120
Speaker 1: the stop on the show, but they had not yet

1118
01:10:22,160 --> 01:10:26,559
Speaker 1: noticed the problem, and so I was starting to get

1119
01:10:26,560 --> 01:10:29,960
Speaker 1: the giggles a little bit. My wife was definitely getting

1120
01:10:30,000 --> 01:10:33,120
Speaker 1: the giggles, and my dad was encouraging it. My dad

1121
01:10:33,240 --> 01:10:37,080
Speaker 1: is the ultimate dad joke dad, and I love him dearly.

1122
01:10:38,000 --> 01:10:40,559
Speaker 1: But I hear my dad just say I begged them

1123
01:10:40,600 --> 01:10:45,080
Speaker 1: not to make an animatronic John Wilkes booth completely inappropriate

1124
01:10:45,520 --> 01:10:51,320
Speaker 1: and hilarious and tragic and hilarious. So we're watching as

1125
01:10:51,360 --> 01:10:57,480
Speaker 1: Lincoln continues to gesticulate while bent over, staring at the floor. Ah,

1126
01:10:57,560 --> 01:11:01,320
Speaker 1: And then it gets to his speech and music swells

1127
01:11:01,400 --> 01:11:04,320
Speaker 1: and he starts to speak and move his arms more expressively,

1128
01:11:04,479 --> 01:11:06,639
Speaker 1: still bent at the waist, he does not stand up.

1129
01:11:07,120 --> 01:11:09,479
Speaker 1: It's at that point that a Disney cast member takes

1130
01:11:09,520 --> 01:11:11,880
Speaker 1: notice and rushes down and hits the stop button, which

1131
01:11:11,880 --> 01:11:14,679
Speaker 1: closes the curtains, and says, Mr Lincoln is not feeling

1132
01:11:14,760 --> 01:11:18,320
Speaker 1: very well, please check back again later today. And as

1133
01:11:18,360 --> 01:11:20,840
Speaker 1: we walk out I you know, we start making other

1134
01:11:20,920 --> 01:11:24,160
Speaker 1: jokes like is that my face on that penny, little

1135
01:11:24,240 --> 01:11:28,240
Speaker 1: jokes about Lincoln bent over for some reason. And Uh,

1136
01:11:28,280 --> 01:11:33,120
Speaker 1: it's unfortunate because that's my wife's first and first impression

1137
01:11:33,240 --> 01:11:35,799
Speaker 1: of the Hall of Presidents. That's her, that's the memory

1138
01:11:35,840 --> 01:11:39,200
Speaker 1: she associates with it. And I know for a fact

1139
01:11:39,400 --> 01:11:41,640
Speaker 1: that I can never take her to the Hall of

1140
01:11:41,680 --> 01:11:46,120
Speaker 1: Presidents ever again and have her take it seriously at all.

1141
01:11:46,360 --> 01:11:49,559
Speaker 1: Whenever it gets to Lincoln, she's gonna get the giggles,

1142
01:11:49,920 --> 01:11:52,160
Speaker 1: and she's gonna expect him to stand up and bend

1143
01:11:52,200 --> 01:11:54,280
Speaker 1: over at the waist and just stare at the floor

1144
01:11:54,320 --> 01:11:59,639
Speaker 1: for the rest of the day. So these animatronics didn't

1145
01:11:59,680 --> 01:12:03,320
Speaker 1: always is work perfectly. Sometimes some part of the system

1146
01:12:03,400 --> 01:12:08,760
Speaker 1: or other would fail, and once that happens, then you

1147
01:12:08,840 --> 01:12:11,720
Speaker 1: get these sort of experiences where maybe part of the

1148
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:14,400
Speaker 1: animation just isn't working. It could be something as simple

1149
01:12:14,439 --> 01:12:17,320
Speaker 1: as an arm is not animating the way it's supposed to,

1150
01:12:17,840 --> 01:12:20,439
Speaker 1: or it could be something a little more noticeable, like

1151
01:12:20,479 --> 01:12:23,439
Speaker 1: a character is bent over and slumped down because they

1152
01:12:23,520 --> 01:12:28,200
Speaker 1: don't have the proper pressure to stand up. Uh, it

1153
01:12:28,360 --> 01:12:31,679
Speaker 1: probably was just a valve that had failed to open,

1154
01:12:32,160 --> 01:12:35,240
Speaker 1: so there was probably some circuit where it no longer

1155
01:12:35,400 --> 01:12:40,439
Speaker 1: was completing, and therefore the hydraulic system could not actually

1156
01:12:40,560 --> 01:12:44,080
Speaker 1: activate through the upper half of Mr. Lincoln, so he

1157
01:12:44,080 --> 01:12:47,640
Speaker 1: couldn't stand up tall. That's that's my guess as a

1158
01:12:48,360 --> 01:12:53,240
Speaker 1: you know, armchair technologist taking a look at what happened.

1159
01:12:54,920 --> 01:12:58,559
Speaker 1: So that's it. That's how audio animatronics work. It is

1160
01:12:58,600 --> 01:13:02,519
Speaker 1: a really interesting system. I love the fact that it

1161
01:13:02,840 --> 01:13:06,599
Speaker 1: predates computer systems. For theme parks. These days, you're going

1162
01:13:06,640 --> 01:13:11,040
Speaker 1: to find much more complicated programming. There's gonna be microprocessors

1163
01:13:11,040 --> 01:13:14,320
Speaker 1: and characters. I don't know for a fact that the

1164
01:13:14,439 --> 01:13:17,280
Speaker 1: characters they added to the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride,

1165
01:13:17,280 --> 01:13:21,679
Speaker 1: for example, are more advanced versions, like there's a Johnny

1166
01:13:21,680 --> 01:13:24,720
Speaker 1: Depp character that shows up three times and the new

1167
01:13:24,760 --> 01:13:29,320
Speaker 1: Pirates of the Caribbean Ride. Uh, there's Barbosa character. Jeffrey

1168
01:13:29,360 --> 01:13:32,680
Speaker 1: Rush's character from the movies is also in that. I

1169
01:13:32,760 --> 01:13:35,960
Speaker 1: suspect that those are updated systems that are not running

1170
01:13:36,080 --> 01:13:40,120
Speaker 1: on the old audio animatronic system, but that's just a guess.

1171
01:13:40,720 --> 01:13:42,800
Speaker 1: I do not know that for a fact. They are

1172
01:13:42,840 --> 01:13:46,320
Speaker 1: certainly much more sophisticated than the original Pirates of the

1173
01:13:46,320 --> 01:13:49,640
Speaker 1: Caribbean characters were. Now there's a lot more stuff I

1174
01:13:49,640 --> 01:13:52,599
Speaker 1: could talk about, Like I could talk about how Disney

1175
01:13:52,640 --> 01:13:55,080
Speaker 1: had to work on building a new type of material

1176
01:13:55,360 --> 01:13:58,280
Speaker 1: for these human figures called d reflex. It's not the

1177
01:13:58,320 --> 01:14:00,840
Speaker 1: same thing that you find in cars that have d

1178
01:14:00,960 --> 01:14:04,320
Speaker 1: reflex bumpers, but they had to create d reflex because

1179
01:14:04,400 --> 01:14:08,400
Speaker 1: latex was too delicate to work over and over, especially

1180
01:14:08,439 --> 01:14:12,280
Speaker 1: in an environment that had lots of oil and moving parts.

1181
01:14:12,840 --> 01:14:14,960
Speaker 1: Uh sod reflex was the thing that they had to

1182
01:14:15,000 --> 01:14:18,840
Speaker 1: create in order to keep a realistic skin looking texture.

1183
01:14:19,640 --> 01:14:23,320
Speaker 1: But I figured that's for another episode further down the line. Well,

1184
01:14:23,360 --> 01:14:27,040
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed that classic episode, and please forgive me.

1185
01:14:27,400 --> 01:14:30,880
Speaker 1: It was not something I entered into lightly to do

1186
01:14:31,000 --> 01:14:34,519
Speaker 1: a classic episode instead of a normal one. But honestly,

1187
01:14:34,640 --> 01:14:37,040
Speaker 1: I ran out of time and I and rather than

1188
01:14:37,400 --> 01:14:41,720
Speaker 1: give you a haphazard, you know, jerky kind of tech

1189
01:14:41,760 --> 01:14:44,240
Speaker 1: stuff episode that clearly I did not put my full

1190
01:14:44,280 --> 01:14:48,520
Speaker 1: effort and attention into would not have met my standards.

1191
01:14:48,600 --> 01:14:51,160
Speaker 1: So it was a tough call. But I think this

1192
01:14:51,280 --> 01:14:54,439
Speaker 1: is probably the best option. But I'm very curious about

1193
01:14:54,479 --> 01:14:57,720
Speaker 1: you guys out there, if you have any favorite technology

1194
01:14:57,760 --> 01:15:02,840
Speaker 1: that relates to things like amusement part or attractions like that.

1195
01:15:03,040 --> 01:15:05,080
Speaker 1: Let me know because I would love to really do

1196
01:15:05,120 --> 01:15:09,519
Speaker 1: another dive into this kind of topic. I love amusement parks,

1197
01:15:09,920 --> 01:15:11,880
Speaker 1: So let me know what you would like. Send me

1198
01:15:11,920 --> 01:15:14,679
Speaker 1: an email the addresses text stuff at how stuff works

1199
01:15:14,720 --> 01:15:17,000
Speaker 1: dot com or pop on over to our website that's

1200
01:15:17,080 --> 01:15:20,519
Speaker 1: text stuff podcast dot com. You'll find an archive of

1201
01:15:20,520 --> 01:15:22,840
Speaker 1: all of our past episodes. You'll find links to where

1202
01:15:22,880 --> 01:15:25,519
Speaker 1: we are on social media. You can always reach out there,

1203
01:15:25,800 --> 01:15:27,840
Speaker 1: and you'll find a link to our online store where

1204
01:15:27,840 --> 01:15:30,080
Speaker 1: every purchasing make goes to help the show and greatly

1205
01:15:30,120 --> 01:15:33,360
Speaker 1: appreciate it, and I'll talk to you again really soon.

1206
01:15:37,800 --> 01:15:40,000
Speaker 1: Text Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How

1207
01:15:40,080 --> 01:15:43,439
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit

1208
01:15:43,479 --> 01:15:46,519
Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

1209
01:15:46,640 --> 01:15:47,960
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.