Garco the Robot Retires (1961)
Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 4:06PM ;)
Lately I've been obsessed with finding the current location of 1950's robot star Garco. Garco appeared on numerous TV shows, including one of my favorite pieces of retro-space-futurism, the 1957 Disneyland TV episode, "Mars and Beyond."
I can't seem to find any clue as to where this robot might be stored. Is Garco sitting in some guy's basement in Billings? Some museum I've never heard of? Robot heaven? If you have any info on his whereabouts please contact me immediately. I will not rest until this lovable hunk of metal is found!
The article below announcing Garco's retirement is from the July 31, 1961 Los Angeles Times.
Garco Shows Signs of Wear, Will Retire
A mechanical man who can play chess, mix drinks, hammer nails and carry out other assingments with human encouragement will retire from active duty soon.
His mechanism is breaking down. The Garrett Corp. owns the robot.
"We are hoping to find a permanent home for him in the Smithsonian Institute or some other museum where he can be preserved for posterity," said Mickey Parr, a company spokesman.
Active Robot
Workers who built him eight years ago with surplus aircraft parts call him "Garco." They contend he has had more activity in his short lifetime than the average man sees in a span of 70 years.
Since 1953 Garco has taken part in several motion pictures, television shows, commercials and appeared at numerous charity events.
Delicate Child
But from the start Garco proved to be a delicate child. His problems arose from mechanical sickness, often causing his operating system to break down. As a result, the company always kept an engineer assigned to Garco. The engineer in charge of the mechanical man would keep Garco in his garage at home.
Mechanical Doctoring
Presently, Garco is receiving mechanical doctoring from Gray Rollo, 5308 Clearsight St.
"I've had a lot of fun working on him," Rollo said, "and at times I wonder if he isn't really human. He certainly acts more intelligently than some people I know."
Previously on Paleo-Future:
- Mars and Beyond (1957)
- Will Robots Make People Obsolete? (1959)
- Closer Than We Think! Robot Housemaid (1959)
- Robot Christmas (1958)
- Call a Serviceman (Chicago Tribune, 1959)
- The Electronic Brain Made Beef Stew (1959)
- Something must be wrong with its radar eye! (Chicago Tribune, 1959)
Reader Comments (5)
Son of Garco - Shanghai Museum of Science and Technology - In 3D
Many have called Disney the eternal optimist, and in an era of scientific discovery, he became, what Leonard Maltin likes to call, the optimistic futurist. Disney loved innovation and was fascinated by what the future would bring. From his early days experimenting with sound for animated pictures, and throughout his fascination with animatronics for his Disneyland theme park
Nice article, thanks for the information.
This may be too obvious, but have you tried tracking down The Garrett Corporation, Gary Rollo, or any of the other engineers that worked on him?
are you sure hes a male