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Chronicle of Our Death Forestalled
Weekend Sedition

The Soul of an Old Machine

Even Jim Henson had to pay the rent, and in 1963 he helped keep the landlord at bay with this short film, produced for the Bell System to show at a data-communications seminar for business owners. If you’d like to try imagining the audience’s frame of mind, pretend that The Jetsons is a first-run prime-time cartoon.

1963 was more notable in Henson’s life — and everybody’s — for another reason: That was the year he hired Frank Oz.

[via Nerdist]


7:00 am • Saturday • January 28, 2012
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7 comments:

Serolf Divad
7:25 am • Saturday • January 28, 2012

Another genius who brought joy to our lives and was taken from us far too soon.

rptrcub
10:03 am • Saturday • January 28, 2012

The best thing I’ve done in a while is to show my pretty tech-savvy 76-year-old grandmother, who worked for the Bell System (then after the divestiture in the early 80s, Southern Bell, which then became BellSouth, which then became AT&T again) these archives. I really dug the film about the then-new Saul Bass designed Bell logo. Because I am a nerd.

ManchuCandidate
10:13 am • Saturday • January 28, 2012

Yip yip yip.

blogenfreude
1:19 pm • Saturday • January 28, 2012

That’s so steampunk – ahead of his time, that guy.

nojo
1:35 pm • Saturday • January 28, 2012

@rptrcub: I really dug the film about the then-new Saul Bass designed Bell logo.

That sound you just heard was Silent Creative Partner and me having a simultaneous orgasm.

ADD: And if you have 27 minutes to spare, here it is.

ADD2: “Ma Bell has gone Mod.” That alone was worth the price of admission.

ADD3: Also, the Muzak version of “Magical Mystery Tour”.

matador1015
8:22 pm • Saturday • January 28, 2012

And once the machine freed itself from human error, the Cylons were born. Or the Terminator, depending on your taste.

nojo
9:09 pm • Saturday • January 28, 2012

@matador1015: Miss Piggy as Number 6?

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