Shot 100 / 16:30–16:38Select a shot, or shift-click to select multipleSelect a shot, or double-tap to select multiple

We Learn About the Telephone I

196522 min 33 sec135 shots

While rain delays a picnic, Jimmy and Susie ask their uncle Bill how people sent urgent messages before the telephone. Bill draws a figure called Mr. Man, whose animated adventures trace communication from runners and horses through smoke signals, flashing lights, the telegraph, and the telephone. Further animation explains how voices create sound waves and how a telephone uses changing electrical current to reproduce those sounds at the receiver.

A talking-animal circus teaches the children to speak clearly and calmly, answer promptly, dial a rotary phone correctly, and avoid occupying the line too long. Jimmy uses a telephone directory and a personal number book before calling his friend Bobby about the picnic. The children then accompany Bill to police headquarters to deliver a poster about calling for emergency help.

Captain Adams explains how to reach an operator and give the police a caller’s name, location, and reason for calling; a missing-child report shows officers recording details and using telephone calls to locate the girl. Scenes of households, businesses, telephone operators, and emergency services show how calls connect people across a community and over long distances. The film closes with communication satellites and the possibility of someday speaking by telephone with someone on the moon, after which Bobby arrives and the group leaves for the picnic.

Provenance and rights

Original producer: Fairbanks (Jerry) Productions
Collection: Prelinger Archives
Original title: We Learn About the Telephone I
Date: 1965
Original link: Open on Internet Archive
Rights: public_domain