This 1967 color installment of “Discovery,” a syndicated program for young viewers hosted by Bill Owen and Virginia Gibson pays a visit to Dearborn, Michigan’s Greenfield Village (now part of The Henry Ford) to examine and demonstrate early 1900’s mechanical innovations and historical automobiles (TRT: 21:52).
ABC color opening logo (0:07). Montage: An apple peeler, a nutcracker, an early automobile (0:18). Animated “Discovery ‘67” opening titles (0:43). A red 1909 Ford Model T touring car rolls to a stop. Our hosts introduce themselves. A horse-drawn carriage. A penny farthing bicycle (1:12). The Model T drives around the campus of Greenfield Village in autumn (2:03). Bill Owen releases the handbrake of the Model T in closeup, then engages the clutch and turns a crank handle (2:36). Our hosts pantomime driving against an unmoving background. A 1909 sports car races by (3:11). A player piano in closeup shows automatically depressed keys, a scrolling roll. Pull back to reveal Virginia Gibson in a turn of the century costume, pumping the pedals (3:51). An early vacuum cleaner is operated by pulling a manual handle (5:15). A sewing machine operated by a foot pedal (5:55). Kitchen innovations: An ice box with a large ice cube. (6:24). An antique butter churn is demonstrated alongside a modern churn driven by a lever. Gibson tastes a glob of butter (7:14). A sausage making machine is demonstrated. A sausage casing is filled with meat (7:58). A novel apple peeler rotates, then fails (8:38). A cast-iron nutcracker in the shape of a lion (9:10). A washing machine, soap shavings, a bucket of hot water. Gibson spins the agitator wheel (9:43). Outdoors, Owen approaches a grazing goat, the original lawnmower. Then, he demonstrates a mechanical push mower (10:25). Cranking the Model T, Owen reappears, now in period costume. A horse and buggy. A replica of a saddle shop (11:19). Gibson enters a “Millinery & Fancy Goods” shop for ladies hats. A historical interpreter helps her to try on an assortment of bonnets and decorated head coverings. She settles on a wide brim with floral embellishments (12:05). A cobbler shop offers a number of uncomfortable looking options (13:16). Montage of other shops at Greenfield Village: Combs, locksmiths, wood, hardware, tinsmith, candlemaker, and pewterer signage (13:56). An apothecary style drugstore. Three Flowers face powder, Dr. Dillingham’s Plant Juice, Dr. Pedro’s Sasparilla Syrup and a sponge, all totalling $3 (14:21). A blacksmith works at an anvil. A violin shop. A crystal radio. An Edison cylinder phonograph. An antique upright music box automatically changes and plays a rotating disc, offering piano or banjo settings for playback (15:04). Owen and Gibson regroup back at the Model T, which backs up in reverse, then drives away (17:42). Our hosts and the goat sum up outside the Wright Brothers reconstructed Ohio workshop. Book recommendations for young readers: Little Britches, Sky Pioneers, A Lemon and a Star (19:25). End credits. Executive Producer and director Jules Power. Produced in cooperation with the National Education Association, ABC News and Public Affairs (20:35).
Greenfield Village opened to the public in 1933, offering a look at the reconstructed past via historical interpreters and reenactments, staged in a “village” of relocated historic homes and shops, including buildings from the 17th century to the present.
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