We Learn About the Telephone

The director of this industrial film, Jean Yarborough, spent most of his career writing and directing comedy movies and television shows. He is best remembered for his work with Abbott and Costello, directing their 1950s TV show.

Like most industrial films of the era, this is a straightforward piece about the evolution of the telephone and how to use one. It is enlivened a bit by spending most of its time in cartoon form. The UPA styling is hardly surprising, as that part was directed by John Hubley.

While it is of some historical interest to see how professionals coped with the end of the studio system, it is simplistic. Cute voice stylings, though, particularly by whoever does the voice of "Mr. Man."

Just watched this educational live action/animated short on Mark Evanier's blog. In it, a man tells his nephew and niece about the telephone, its uses, and how people originally communicated before its invention. They also visit a police station where the superior there explains how to call the operator for emergencies. The live action part was directed by Jean Yarbrough best known to me for helming Abbott & Costello in some movies and their television series. The animated part was by John Hubley. Those parts are pretty amusing especially knowing that the voices were provided by Mel Blanc and Paul Frees. The little girl is credited to one Pam Ferden but according to Evanier, it's actually Pam Ferdin who later did the voice of Lucy in the animated Charlie Brown specials and then played Felix Unger's daughter on the TV series version of "The Odd Couple". If you don't get too bored by the somewhat static live action scenes, We Learn About the Telephone is still a little effective learning film about what the communication device was like before cell phones eliminated the use of wires.

I was browsing through the Periscope Films channel on YouTube last night when this film was posted as a recommendation. When I saw the opening shot of that telephone on the desk, I thought: "This looks like that movie I saw in 3rd grade." And *indeed* it was. What especially rang bells were the sequences with the animals in the circus and the phone book listings. What nice, untapped childhood memories!

I also remember AT&T had an accompanying filmstrip with scenes from this short with onscreen captions the teacher read (remember those?), along with workbooks the whole class received and used. This film was also the first time I heard of that notorious phone number "555-2368." A month or so later in the spring of 1971 I heard that number repeated in an episode of "Sabrina and the Groovie Ghoulies." How funny!

Shame this isn't available on DVD. (Or is it? Does anybody know?)