| The
following appeared October 2, 2006 in the
|
|
"Danger!
Warning! Robots invade Boca Raton".
Collector has TV,
movie cyber-stars in his garage. |
By Dale M. King
Boca Raton News Staff Writer
Published
October 2,
2006 |
|
Rick
Newman of Boca Raton has a couple of cinematic
"Stars" in his garage. One is a really tall guy
named "Robby the Robot", who made his debut
in the 1956 sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet".
Next to him is the "B9" - "Blinky"
robot whose cries of "Alert, alert", and
"Danger Will Robinson" were heard weekly in the
1960's on the TV show, "Lost in Space".
"No
one ever called him "Blinky", Newman told the
Boca Raton News as he looked at the robots in their local
niche. "He was known as the "B9 Environmental
Robot".
Newman collects space artifacts, scientific anomalies and
other high-tech gadgets. He has loaned them to museums and
science centers locally and around the nation. And he is preparing
to deliver the robotic pair to the South Florida Science
Museum for an exhibition that begins in December.
The sci-fi guy admits the robots are not the original ones
used on TV and in the movies. They were created from the same
materials, the same blueprints and the same molds as the
originals. Add to that the fact that Fred Barton, the man who
worked on the originals also put these guys together.
Speaking of original, for the "B9" robot, Newman got
hold of TV announcer Dick Tufeld, who provided the voice of
the robot for both the "Lost in Space" TV show and
movie. "I wrote a script for him", said Newman as he
activated the robot. As lights flashed, out came the voice
that is still familiar to fans of the 40 year old TV show.
Not only that, the day the exhibit opens at the Science Museum
in West Palm Beach, Bob May is scheduled to attend. May was
the guy inside the robot on the TV show. He will fly in for
the opening (from California). May, a close friend of comedian
Jerry Lewis and former vaudevillian, is looking forward to
meeting up with his former alter ego.
That doesn't mean all the attention will be on the B9 guy.
Robby has come to town to mark the 50th anniversary of the
1956 film that Starred Walter Pidgeon, a dark-haired Leslie
Nielson and an up-and-coming actress Anne Francis.
Newman, whose High-Tech Productions firm does high-speed video
and DVD duplication and converts vide formats for tapes from
other countries, has staged a dialogue for the two 'bots so
the audience can listen to them talking to each other.
The robots should feel right at home right now. Newman's house
is like a science center. Inside are actual space suits, space
suit gloves, space shuttle tiles and dozens of mission patches
with the crews name sewn in.
He
also owns the (world's) first electric car allowed on roads in
the United States, and also has a newer (2006) model.
For more information
about Newman’s Robot Collection, visit www.HighTechScience.org
|
