This color educational film (with some animation) takes the viewer through history to explain how people developed a need to communicate, and shows us devices that helped to do so along with current day communication devices. It is from 1965 and stars Wright King as Uncle Bill and is presented by Bell System.

Opening titles over a telephone: WE LEARN ABOUT THE TELEPHONE (:06-:14). A telephone rings and a little girl, Susie, picks it up making her duck make noises into the receiver, her brother, Jimmy, grabs it and hands it over to his Uncle Bill. As the uncle talks on the phone the children rush over to a couch and stare out the window at the pouring rain. The uncle talks with the children. He creates an animated character, Mr. Man, who is going to explain the history of communications. Animation: the character makes himself into a caveman, they seek food. The caveman runs and tuns into an Egyptian and then a Greek, as a Greek he jumps onto a horse and rides the horse. He becomes a Roman and then a Knight and then a Pony Express Cowboy rider. As an Indian, he creates smoke signals to send a message. A rainstorm curtails that. Mirrors in daylight and blinking lights when dark for ships to communicate (:15-3:58). Animated: telegraph machine, Samuel Morris invented it and uses it. The first message sent was: What hath God wrought?, happy people shake hands. 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Back to live action, the nephew answers his Uncle’s phone. Susie holds the wire to her ear to hear it but cannot. Uncle Bill explains how a telephone works. Mr. Man in animation shows how a phone works. A musician plays a cello (3:59-6:13). Animated: sound waves are explained as the musician plays the cello. Vocal cords and sound waves are shown. Interior of an ear canal. Wires through the phone company. A ringing phone, the musician answers the phone. Vocal cords. Flow of electricity through the wires. Vibration and sound waves explained (6:14-8:38). Susie plays with the phone, Uncle Bill scolds her and puts it down, it rings, he answers it, its a wrong number. Susie squeezes her duck. Uncle Bill makes Mr. Man as a ringmaster. Animation: the Ringmaster has a spotlight on him as a Lion dials a phone, a bird answers it. They chat through the phone. The Lion feels bad and turns around. The Ringmaster introduces a squirrel and a bear. The squirrel dials a rotary phone. The bear waits and then yawns and answers it, no one there since he took so long. The squirrel is annoyed. Elephant is on the phone with another elephant, miscommunication is shown. A fox wanders around as a pig is on the phone. The fox needs to make an important call. Don’t hog a phone is the message (8:39-13:42). Jimmy dials the phone to call a friend. The phone rings and rings, no answer, he hangs up. Uncle Bill hands him phone book and animation explains how to use the phone book. A military animated character explains in detail. The name Robert Martin changes to Martin, Robert to give an example. Alphabetical order is the way the names in the phone book are listed, this is shown and explained (13:43-16:48). Live action: Jimmy uses the phone book, close on the name and the number in the book. Uncle discusses with Jimmy and shows him a book with important numbers saved. Jimmy dials his friend as the sun is now shining. Close on phone dialing. Susie gets ready with her Uncle to leave. Uncle Bill carries a sign to the Police Dept to drop off and introduces his relatives to the police officer. They enter the police building (16:49-18:58). A police office explains how to contact the police and shows the Uncle’s poster – dial O to get the operator. Close on a phone. A phone rings and a sergeant answers, takes a call for help for a missing child. The police officer puts out an APB for a lost child. 6th and Elm Street, the officer found the missing child (18:59-21:36). Telephone building. Interior of how it works and how it looks inside with the wires and cables. Many people are shown making calls to one another in split windows, all types of scenarios. Different operators shown doing their jobs. The police officer leads the Uncle & company down the stairs and out of the building. A plane flies high in the sky. Animation of the planet Earth with satellites going around it. An animated rocket ship in space, Mr. Man is in it, heading for the moon. Jimmy’s friend runs over to join them. They all have a picnic at the park (21:37-24:51). End credits (24:52-25:27).

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com