Speaker 1: 0:00

Previously on the Lowdown on the Plus Up.

Speaker 2: 0:21

The Rocket.

Speaker 1: 0:22

Belt first appeared in early novels, comics, strips and movie serials as early as 1928. Nazis claimed to have made one in 1943, but being Nazis they probably lied. Wendell Moore creates one for Bell Aircraft in 1957. Several people train to fly the Rocket Belt and begin flying it commercially. Figuring that the pilots they've got are really too smart, they hire the kid who mows Wendell Moore's lawn, bill Souter Rocket Belt.

Speaker 1: 0:45

Guys fly over the 1964 World's Fair, disneyland in the James Bond movie Thunderball, which is really slow and boring, and a bunch of other places. A second rocket belt, the Tyler Rocket Belt, is built and flown by Souter over the 1984 Olympics. Sometime oil man Larry Stanley tries to steal parts of the second rocket belt but insurance salesman Brad Barker threatens him with a baseball bat and gets the stuff back. At some point Pete meets Felix Silla, both cousin it in the Addams Family and Tweaky in Buck Rogers. Brad Barker decides that he knows how to build his own rocket belt and even though he recently threatened to beat the guy up with the baseball bat, he asks Larry Stanley to help him. It's 1990, and the most prominent film about jetpacks is about to come out the Rocketeer. And now the thrilling conclusion.

Speaker 2: 1:44

What do?

Speaker 1: 1:44

you think you think your Rocky Belt's funny. Huh, like a comedian. Like you think it's kind of funny what you think belt's funny. Huh, like a comedian Like you think it's kind of funny. What you think it's funny.

Speaker 4: 1:50

Like how funny. Like ha-ha zoom-zoom funny.

Speaker 1: 1:54

Or even better yet, with that rocket belt, you have enthusiasms, enthusiasm, teamwork.

Speaker 4: 2:03

Teamiasm. Teamwork, team, team, team, team. By the way, that's De Palma, yeah, film nerd, okay. So anyway, let's talk about the Rocketeer. The Rocketeer was created by a comic artist who is no longer with us. His name is Dave Stevens. Dave Lee Stevens, great artist. Yeah, he was born in Linwood, california, and his parents moved to San Diego. He spent a lot of his time in the earliest San Diego Comic-Con, but his earliest career was actually doing a lot of inking. He was a master inker. He did a lot of work on Russ Manning's Tarzan newspaper strip. Oh, okay.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4: 2:46

In the 70s he started doing stuff for the Star Wars newspaper strip. Yes, there was a Star Wars newspaper strip, I recall, and it's as boring as you think it's going to be Not nearly as good as the Marvel comic with the giant green rabbit.

Speaker 4: 2:59

Oh, that is awesome stuff. You know, like that's really cool. Jackson, yeah, good old Jackson. But he also did a lot of fanzines, including inking stuff of Jack Kirby's work. Yeah, he also did a lot of Aurora feature for Japan's Sanrio Publishing. Oh, interesting. He also is kind of somewhat famous for all of us 70s and 80s kids for creating the plates for, oh, what's it called Monsters and Musclemen or something like that, and it's a special kit. There was like this there was a fashion toy made by Tomy, yeah, which you get these little plates it was called fashion plates, yeah, and you assemble the head and then the torso and the legs. You can make these different dresses.

Speaker 4: 3:41

Oh yeah, and he took a black Conte crayon, he would scrape it on. You know, it's like a rubbing plate and then you take that rubbing and then you can color it in. My daughter has one of these. It's a lot of fun. But I had one that was all monsters and spacemen and stuff like that, one of which had a rocket pack, a rocket belt character. But those were all drawn by Dave Stevens way back in the day.

Speaker 1: 4:04

Dave Stevens was in a long-term relationship, as I recall, with Scream Queen Brink Stevens. Yes, he was yeah, who I believe he used as a model when he was drawing the Rocketeer.

Speaker 4: 4:15

Absolutely. She's the physical model for Betty.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Yeah, the Betty Page. Yeah, even though Betty Page.

Speaker 4: 4:22

The pin-up queen herself was the inspiration for the character Betty, a lot of the physical you know. Whenever she needed a pose it was Brink, yeah. But in 77, he was a storyboard artist for Hanna-Barbera yeah, Including Super Friends, the Godzilla, Power Hour, and he worked with William Stout and Richard Heskux in doing projects, a lot of storyboarding and production designs for Lucas and Spielberg, doing Raiders of the Lost Ark storyboard work and concept design. And he also did a lot of designs for the Thriller video, Michael Jackson's Thriller, designing a lot of the zombies and stuff that would be sculpted by Rick Baker.

Speaker 1: 5:07

That's super interesting. As a weird aside, Kenny Gibson flew the Tyler rocket belt for Michael Jackson's Bad Tour.

Speaker 4: 5:15

That's awesome, yeah. Well, there you go. See, there's connections everywhere in history. Yeah, the Rocketeer was first published in 1982. Mm-hmm, and it was just kind of a supplemental little six to seven page thing. Yeah, but it was meant as a portmanteau of different independent artists' work. It's an anthology series and it was published by Pacific Comics and the comic was called Star Slayer. Okay, and it was just like a supplemental thing. Sometimes, especially in the independent circuit, life happens. Independent comic artists are not getting paid huge amounts of dollars to do an entire comic.

Speaker 4: 5:53

So sometimes— as a former comic book publisher- I can tell you this yeah, you have to just kind of keep going, yeah, and sometimes you need to have some filler, yeah, and so it was originally meant as filler. But nobody remembers Star Slayer that much, except all of us diehards yeah, but everybody remembers the Rocketeer, yes, and Star Slayer was great. It was, I remember it. Mike Grell did a great job with it. But eventually it became its own anthology and Eclipse Comics finally took it over and published Rocketeer and Airboy and it just took off because, again, independent publishing is weird and you have to pay your bread and butter with supplementing your work. They approached Disney and other movie studios with the idea of the Rocketeer as a film very early actually it was only a couple of years. There was a guy named Steve Miner, Uh-huh, and he purchased the film rights in 1983. So it was only around for a year. He said this is a great idea for a movie, huh, interesting. Within a year it was already the film rights were already being, you know, shipped around. Yeah, but Miner just kept pushing it too far away, too Too far away from that original concept that this is supposed to be kind of like a movie serial. It's pulpy. And so finally, in 1985, dave Stevens gave Danny Bilson and Paul DiMeo kind of a free option for the Rocketeer. He's just like here you take it and you make it work. Yeah, and they did. They were attached to it and they really kind of gave that flavor of the old serials and the approach to it Right, that flavor of the old cereals and the approach to it Right Over the course of the production they got fired and rehired three times in the production of the Rocketeer Because Disney, the studio, was like, oh, this isn't going to sell much, it's just like, oh, and they finally got turned down by 1986.

Speaker 4: 7:41

You know, they were like we're done, yeah, and I think part of that was the failure of Howard the Duck oh, interesting, lucas's Howard the Duck, that almost bankrupted him. So they basically felt that okay, it's 87, 88. They said the Rocketeers got some toy ability factor here. For sure, this will fit in with all of the craze currently of Masters of the Universe. Yeah, we can make action figures off of this, let's go for it. So Jeffrey Katzenberg, who at the time was the chairman, decided to let it go and it became a full. There was going to be a touchstone picture, so there was going to be a lot more sex and violence involved. It would be acceptable with touchstone, but Katzenberg said if we're going to sell toys, it's got to be for kids. Yeah, so let's make it for Walt Disney Studios. After a long fight, after all these rewrites and fighting over the tone of this film, they finally got a greenlit in 1990. Yeah, it's a really interesting story. If you've never seen the Rocketeer, I really give it a try.

Speaker 4: 8:40

Yeah it's lovely. It is a lovely film. Yeah, there's lots of little ties to history. There's a character in it, played by Timothy Dalton, called Neville Sinclair. Neville Sinclair is a big-time Hollywood actor based off of Errol Flynn yeah, who is?

Speaker 1: 8:55

actually in effect— who is a Nazi sympathizer?

Speaker 4: 8:57

Yeah, but in this case, neville Sinclair is an actual Nazi spy, right, he's not just a sympathizer, he's like no, I am a true-blooded Nazi. Yeah, and he's trying to get his hands on the rocket pack. Yeah, apparently the rocket pack is invented by Hollywood producer and aeronautics aficionado, howard Hughes. Uh-huh, so Howard Hughes is in this film as well. Which is plausible, really it's totally plausible and it's a delightful little film. Yeah, and it's a delightful little film. Yeah, it's directed by Joe Johnston, who started off as a special effects guy.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Yeah, I know that name. For some reason.

Speaker 4: 9:30

Well, he did a lot of visual effects for a lot of films at Lucas, doing animation with Phil Tippett, okay, yeah. And then eventually he had other ambitions and he went on to direct Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Oh yeah, the Rocketeer, yeah, jumanji. Uh-huh, jurassic Park 3. Uh-huh, the Wolfman, hmm, and finally, captain America, the first Avenger. Wow, that's a pretty solid career right there.

Speaker 4: 9:57

Yeah, I mean and with a couple of exceptions, you know, my favorites, of course, being the Rocketeer and Captain America, first Avenger. He's not and no offense, joe, I'm actually paying you a compliment here. So if you ever listen to this episode, he won't. But if he ever does, just understand that I really do enjoy your movies, but his movies are not necessarily movies that are going to bat it out of the park, like, say, a Scorsese film or a Spielberg movie, sure, but his films get the job done. He's the workhorse who knows how to get it in on time, on budget and boom, you're ready to go.

Speaker 1: 10:31

You know people will go crazy when I say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. Captain America, the first Avenger, is actually my favorite of the Captain America movies. There's something beautiful and simplistic and nostalgic about it. I love it and I like those other ones too, I do, but there's just something very heartfelt about that first one.

Speaker 4: 10:55

Yeah, and you can kind of see the Rocketeer leak through. There's lots of elements to the Rocketeer that just totally leak through in Captain America and you're like waiting for Cliff Secourt to make this little cameo somewhere in the background.

Speaker 3: 11:09

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 11:09

It's like you're owned by Disney. Just throw them in there, yeah, put them in at the Stark, you know convention, and just have them off in the distance there trying to sell the pack, totally Something. I guess it's because it's not a Marvel property, but anyway, one of my other favorite little cameos that's made in the Rocketeer is the character of Lothar, who's the big lumbering, hulking figure that is the henchman of Neville Sinclair. Yeah, he is played by a guy named Tiny Ron Taylor. Well, tiny Ron Taylor is a big fella like yourself. He is about your height, he is seven foot. Wow. So I mean, kelly is very tall, taller than I am, and I'm 6'5". Yeah, and Tiny Ron was in a lot of films.

Speaker 4: 11:56

He was in a lot of big monster roles. Yeah, you know, it's the same kind of thing as, like Felix Silla, he's going to be in a lot of dwarf and midget roles and et cetera, et cetera, little fairies and goblins and that kind of stuff, where Ron is like, okay, we need a big alien in Star Trek VI. Yeah, he's the one who gets kicked in the knee. Oh, yeah, so that's Tiny Ron. Huh, he plays Lothar, and Lothar is—the makeup was done by Rick Baker and Rick Baker made him up to look like an actual actor from the 40s Okay, who was named Rondo Hatton, aka the Creeper, who suffered from acromegaly.

Speaker 1: 12:36

Which is what?

Speaker 4: 12:37

It's a pituitary disorder in which your hands, your feet and your face continue to grow. Okay, tony Robbins, the public speaker, actually suffers from this as well. He has a lot of drug regimens and stuff in order to slow the progress of this. Yeah, Rondo had a very extreme case of this. Oh, that's a shame, but he decided to capitalize on this because he was very tall and he was very strong. So they decided well, we don't need movie monsters, we don't need to hire Jack Pierce to make Frankenstein. We got a real guy who's really ugly, so we'll just call him the Creeper. So he's in two films where he is the main villain and he's this big ugly dude, the brute man, and enter the Creeper or meet the Creeper, and it's like it's just Rondo.

Speaker 2: 13:25

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 13:25

So Rick Baker made him up to look like Rondo? Yeah, Because Dave Stevens actually based the character of Lothar on Rondo Hatton and he's basically just like how he's drawing Betty Page in all of his comic panels. He's drawing Rondo Hatton in this role. Huh. So it's delightful. And I remember going to WonderCon and meeting Tiny Ron, who was there promoting the Rocketeer, and I asked him you know how's the weather up there? Tee, hee, hee, oh dear. He picked me up by my shoulders, he just grabbed my arms and lifted me up and he goes I don't know, you tell me.

Speaker 1: 14:01

And I realized how strong this guy really was yeah, and maybe you shouldn't mess with him.

Speaker 4: 14:06

Yeah, there are scenes in which he's lifting up Cliff's C-cord. He's like where is the rocket? And he's like slamming Cliff's head into the ceiling. Yeah, he's really lifting him up. Yeah, that's not, he's not a lift, he's really yanking him up and down. Yeah, you're watching the rocketeer. He makes a little cameo out of makeup.

Speaker 4: 14:26

There's a sequence. It's the first time that cliff is really flying the rocket pack. He's just saved his buddy. Yeah, malcolm from um I'm a big fan of this film, I love the rocketeer. So he's saving malcolm from an incident in an airfield and also in the rocket pack goes haywire and he's flying desperately trying to get away from the bad guys and pb's chasing him in in a truck and Cliff flies through this cornfield. You see these two farmers watching all these sheaves of corn flipping up at a rapid pace and one of them goes big gopher and there's this really tall guy standing next to that farmer. That's Tiny Ron, without the makeup on. Huh, okay, so he makes a quick little cameo without Sans makeup. That's great.

Speaker 4: 15:03

And the Rocketeer has some Bay Area ties because obviously a lot of the effects were done in Industrial Light and Magic. Yeah, steve Gawley, who was an effects supervisor for Back to the Future. He was a model maker on a lot of Star Wars movies. I got to work with him on that exact same NASA exhibit oh nice. He helped build space shuttle models and that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4: 15:26

Most of the people who built the models were all old school Guys that built models Don Bees, grant Imahara, a bunch of people actually Nelson Hall, they all built all these models for this NASA exhibit and I was brought in kind of at the last minute and a little bit as an afterthought, yeah, but I became a part of this team and it was really cool hearing all these Hollywood stories during lunch breaks. And one of my favorites and Steve is very, very reclusive. He's a very shy kind of guy but I think that was kind of like the sales point that I know who he was but he taught me how to do weathering on this giant model of a space shuttle.

Speaker 4: 15:58

It was full size. So we're putting blast shields, how to make sewage come out of the ports and stuff to make it look realistic. I learned blast shields, how to make sewage come out of the ports and stuff to make it look realistic. Yeah, I learned how to paint poop from an ILM guy. But one of my favorite stories is the fact that there's a sequence at the end in which the Rocketeer and in this case, jenny, because they didn't want to have to deal with Betty Page's estate, or the fact that it's a Disney movie and you're using a 50s pin-up novel as the main character A 50s fetish pin-up novel.

Speaker 4: 16:27

Yeah. So Jenny, played by the lovely Jennifer Connelly, and Cliff are running away from Lothar on the top of this failing and burning Zeppelin over Hollywood. Yeah, and it's exploding, compartment by compartment. It's like time is running. It's a total cliff over Hollywood. Yeah, and it's exploding compartment by compartment. It's like time is running. It's a total cliffhanger. Yeah, each compartment is exploding in sequence. They filmed that out on an airstrip so that way they could, you know, not be anywhere near, because those explosions were huge, right, right, and they were real. This is not a green screen situation Once. This is not a green screen situation.

Speaker 4: 17:02

Once they reach certain marks that are painted on the top of the Zeppelin. There's an explosive guy who's really blowing stuff up yeah. Now there are some green screen shots, but there are some shots where they're really running away from these exploding envelopes, yeah. But then there are scenes in which the model of the Zeppelin has to look like it's on fire and you can see these explosions going one at a time. Yeah, the explosion is going one at a time. Yeah. There's a great movie called the Producers in which the main character says ah yeah. Well, we have to understand whether this is the quick fuse or the slow fuse. Yes, the problem is they put the quick fuse into the first model of the Zeppelin, oops, and they exploded it on Mare Island, not too far away from where Kelly and I are sitting while we are recording this.

Speaker 4: 17:42

Actually, we can pretty much walk there yeah from where Kelly and I are sitting while we are recording this. Actually, we can pretty much walk there. Yeah, we can walk to Mare Island and walk to the very spot where they blew this thing up and they exploded. It in the middle of the night and all the envelopes went off at once. Oh dear, it was like the Death Star exploding. Yeah, ram-o, and everything was gone. It was like they spent all this time making this perfect Zeppelin model, like meticulously gluing it together, putting it together. They learned very quickly All of their planning paid off of like cataloging how they built it as they went. Yeah, because they had to rebuild it. They had to rebuild it within a couple of weeks as opposed to a couple of months and they did it.

Speaker 4: 18:19

So that model that you see in the film is the second model that they did kind of haphazardly, but they got the shot. It was crazy and I went over to Steve Golley's house for a barbecue at one point and he showed me the puppet that they used for the flying sequences. When Cliff is flying around and he salutes Air Force One yeah, he's flying up there. Some of those distant shots it's not actually Billy Campbell on wires, he's actually flying around, it's actually a puppet. Good old rod, puppet style. Oh, that's cool. And so he had it. He had that, so I got to. I'm like I've beholden the Rocketeer.

Speaker 1: 18:56

This is really cool. Well, you got to hold puppet, bill Campbell.

Speaker 4: 18:59

Yeah, and Rocketeer was. I saw that movie. I swear to God, I must have seen that a dozen times in the theater. Yeah, Ticket after ticket. I was so enchanted by the James Horner score. Yeah, I love the effects, I love the flavor of it. I think it captured the pulp, serialized adventure flavor better than the Shadow or the Phantom, which were movies that came out not too long after those films. Yeah, yeah, it had that same kind of jazz that Raiders of the Lost Ark had, only with less of the edge, right, and it was just darn right fun. Yeah, the sad thing is I was kind of alone.

Speaker 1: 19:35

Not a lot of people saw it, or seemingly alone yeah.

Speaker 4: 19:37

Yeah, in the grand scheme of things, because not a lot of people saw it.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 19:40

People saw it. Yeah, and there were plans for Disneyland at this time while they were releasing this film. Yeah, to do a whole new expansion of Tomorrowland, to make it Discovery Bay. Yes, you know, with Tony Baxter making his proposal for Discovery Bay, yeah, and they're kind of chiseling away at it. Well, maybe we could do this. Yeah, maybe we could do this with Discovery Bay and leave the rest of this out. Maybe we could chisel this part in, yeah, and then the Rocketeer came out and it's like, well, now that's gone. Yeah, so you couldn't even get Rocketeer merchandise. They did have some meager merchandise sales. They had a couple of t-shirts, right, I think I bought everything which was like a dozen items of Rocketeer merchandise the read-along record book. They didn't have an action figure folks. They made a bendy, they made a.

Speaker 4: 20:24

Gumby-style bendy of the Rocketeer, because this came out not long after Dick Tracy. So you had Dick Tracy and the Rocketeer coming out.

Speaker 1: 20:31

Isn't this interesting how often this happens with Tomorrowland that there's some property that they're like here we go, here's the hook that we can redo. Tomorrowland with the Rocketeer was obviously one. The movie Tomorrowland was obviously one. The movie Tomorrowland was obviously one. It seems pretty clear to me that the Fantastic Four is about to be one, and just over and over and knock on wood, this is not the case with the Fantastic. Four but over and over the movie doesn't pull it off.

Speaker 4: 20:58

Which is weird because there was a making of behind the scenes like sneak preview of the Rocketeer that was done on the Disney channel.

Speaker 4: 21:04

You could find it on YouTube and I watched it and they make reference to the Rocket man of Disneyland multiple times. That's great, showing the guy. You know rocket packs really do exist, yeah, and they show the footage of here at Disneyland. We have this and you got Bill Campbell going. That's pretty great. Yeah, you know, sorry, bill, but you know it didn't work out well.

Speaker 4: 21:25

And the only thing for the longest time in Disneyland of the Rocketeer was a popcorn machine. Okay, in Tomorrowland, yeah, one of the popcorn carts in Tomorrowland In Disneyland. A lot of the popcorn carts have these little attachments to this little barrel. It's a decorative barrel of somebody turning a popcorn barrel around right in new orleans square. It's one of the grim grinning ghosts in bear country. It's big albert, yeah, and then tomorrowland it's the rocketeer, yeah, pumping away cup. And that was it. Yeah, and much to my chagrin because I and when they had the rocket rods, there was talk like it's gonna look like the rocketeer. You know which would be. It would have been if it wasn't the world's largest planter. Yes, so, yeah, so the Rocketeer. There has been talk for years about doing a sequel. Right, they did do a cartoon series of the.

Speaker 4: 22:15

Rocketeer it was for like a year.

Speaker 1: 22:17

And it actually did pretty well, weirdly yeah.

Speaker 4: 22:20

I was not a fan of it, but it just didn't sing to me. Yeah, yeah, I was not a fan of it, but it just didn't sing to me. And it's not that it was bad, I just didn't care for it, it's just me.

Speaker 1: 22:27

I haven't seen it. I find it really strange that they made an animated version of a movie that was a bomb 25 years before. That seems odd, but they've done weirder things, so I don't know.

Speaker 4: 22:39

I have a feeling it was greenlit at the same time that Tron Legacy was greenlit probably.

Speaker 1: 22:44

I think there were a lot of people who sort of saw that sweet, sweet Tron money and went, hey, maybe we could do something with this. Maybe we should do Condor man, he's got a rocket pack, the Apple Dumpling Coaster. I'm in.

Speaker 4: 23:01

Yeah, that's the thing they should do, the flying saucer bumper cars in Frontierland as the apple dumpling gang.

Speaker 1: 23:09

Yes, bumper barrels you know, and they could change the primeval world diorama from the train to the baby Story of the Lost Legend diorama.

Speaker 4: 23:23

See, we're in, we're in, and now we know what to do with the people mover, because you enter into the black hole.

Speaker 1: 23:28

And basically I just want a Patrick McGowan audio animatronic somewhere. That's all I want really. Now wait.

Speaker 4: 23:36

Patrick McGowan from Baby, or Patrick McGowan from that Darn Cat, or whatever that was.

Speaker 1: 23:41

Oh, the Three Lives of Thomasina, yeah.

Speaker 4: 23:43

Thomasina, that's right, no.

Speaker 1: 23:44

That Darn Cat or whatever that was. Oh, the Three Lives of Thomasina. Yeah, thomasina, that's right. No, patrick McGowan from Dr Sin, alias the Scarecrow.

Speaker 4: 23:49

Oh, now you're talking, now you are talking.

Speaker 1: 23:52

That's the overlay I'm looking for in the Haunted.

Speaker 2: 23:55

Mansion.

Speaker 4: 24:01

Scarecrow. Scarecrow, I'm sorry. So, yeah. So the Rocketeer a lot of people actually do credit the Rocketeer for getting the comic movie industry a little bit of a boost, in saying you don't need to go with the big titles like Batman or Superman, because Batman was already a big film, the Burton Batman films had come and gone. Yeah, but the Rocketeer A lot of people actually do credit it, saying it told people that comic book movies could still be fun and entertaining and there's a number of factors that why it didn't work. Yeah, but I still think it does age well actually, and I think you really, if you have not seen the Rocketeer, dear listeners, please go and watch it, because it is so worth. It's worth an afternoon of popcorn and soda. Yeah, it really is, it's fun. It is popcorn and soda. Yeah, it really is, it's fun. It is just darn right fun.

Speaker 1: 24:52

It totally is it's light. It's a great popcorn movie. Yeah, you can watch it with your kids, you'll be fine.

Speaker 4: 24:59

Yeah, it's totally kid-friendly. Yeah, it's almost completely kid-friendly. I mean, there's some cleavage jokes, yeah, but that's about it.

Speaker 1: 25:08

Yeah, and you know, we had those when we were kids and look how we turned out.

Speaker 4: 25:14

I don't know if that's a good sales point, but that's okay. So, but what's interesting is that, having seen the Rocketeer over and, over and over again, when Kelly first started proposing this particular episode and started telling me the story of the rocket belt, my eyeballs and my jaw hit the floor. My eyeballs started bugging out of my skull because I went wait, a second. Life imitates art, yeah, in some very strange ways, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:43

So let's pick this story back up. Yeah, right around 1992 is I think we're at. That's when the Rocketeer came out, yep, and I just want to. I'll go back over the characters because they're all about to come into play again.

Speaker 3: 25:57

As we last saw our heroes.

Speaker 1: 26:00

So we have Kenny Gibson, who's the stuntman, who's basically the sole owner of the Tyler Rocket Belt. At this point he's going around flying it all over the place. He was friends with Barker and Larry Stanley. He's had a falling out with Stanley, so has Barker, he's about to have a falling out with Barker. And we have Barker himself, who's an insurance salesman from Illinois. He gets the idea to build his own rocket belt. In spite of threatening Larry Stanley with a baseball bat and beating up one of his oil ranch hands, he convinces Larry Stanley to go in on it with him. And we're about to meet a younger kid Well, I say young, he's like nearing 30 at this point.

Speaker 1: 26:49

When he becomes involved with these guys. He's from Michigan. His name's Joe Wright. Okay, everyone loves this kid Because he's the Wright stuff, yeah. But he moves. Marvel and Wilbur would be so proud.

Speaker 1: 27:04

He moves out to Houston, which is where he meets the two of them, stanley and Barker. He opens up a little car audio shop, takes off. He's doing really well. He kind of becomes friends with Barker and Stanley. At one point Barker invites Joe Wright to go with him to visit Kenny Gibson where they're doing a Rocket Belt show, and Gibson gets a little perturbed because what he notices is that Barker and Wright seem to be taking lots and lots of close-up pictures of the Rocket Belt. He gets really mad. They end up sending Joe Wright home. Barker kind of stays on for a little while and then Barker and Gibson have a falling out Anyway. So at this point Gibson's not talking to him. He doesn't want to have anything to do with any of these guys. Right, right, barker is friends with Joe Wright, larry Stanley's friends with Joe Wright. Friends with Joe Wright, barker and Stanley form a small corporation called ARC, the American Rocket Belt Company. They issue a thousand shares of stock and give it to themselves.

Speaker 4: 28:27

It's publicly traded, but the stocks aren't in public, so who cares? It's publicly traded, but the stocks aren't in public, so who cares?

Speaker 1: 28:32

They talk Joe Wright into letting them have some space like an office and some workspace in his car audio shop in Houston and they start working on the Rocket Belt 2000.

Speaker 4: 28:47

Oh no, this just sounds like bad news. This is bad news.

Speaker 3: 29:05

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Speaker 1: 30:17

And so they start working on it and they build it. They actually pull it together. They get some help from from a few other people. They they talk to some aeronautic specialists, they bring in a bunch of different people but eventually they get something that pretty much works. It's beautiful, it is supposedly bright red and shiny silver. It looks futuristic and they're like okay, we need to do some tests with this thing, the RB2000, we need to do some tests. And when you need to test a rocket belt, who do you call Bill Souter? Bill Souter?

Speaker 4: 30:55

Once more.

Speaker 1: 30:59

So they call Souter, they get him to come out to Houston and you know they do it with a picture. They're like they show him how gorgeous this thing is and Pete's looking at pictures of it, right?

Speaker 4: 31:08

now. Yeah, yeah, and it's beautiful, it is. It's actually really cool. It's almost like something out of the Micronauts.

Speaker 1: 31:12

Yeah, and Souter just can't help it. He's like I have to go and see. So he gets out there and they tell him they're like hey, we want to name it, will you name it for us? And Souter looks at it for a minute and says Pretty Bird. So he names the RB2000 Pretty Bird. Now, for some of you this may sound a little bit familiar. There is a film based on the story from this point called Pretty Bird. Okay, with Paul Giamatti it's a little tough to find, but it's out there and it's roughly based on this same book that we were talking about earlier. Souter starts testing the thing. Turns out it works pretty well. One of their things was they were trying to put more fuel in so it could fly longer. But of course with more fuel comes more weight, yep, so it doesn't do that much more Right?

Speaker 1: 32:09

22 seconds, yeah, I know and at this point you know later, when asked about it, suter's, like all the hype spread by Barker was just that hype. Barker was a showman, not a scientist. Had we fooled around with the rocket belt, it may well have had a runtime of 28 seconds, but what have you really gained? You've just spent a small fortune reinventing the wheel. You still have a machine that's useless for anything other than shows. And then they asked him why did you call it Pretty Bird? Then he said if nothing else, it was very pretty. Wow, after he does some initial tests, he proves that it works. He goes home and here's the quote from Barker that I love. He said Souter flew home, we finished the belt and from then on there was murder, kidnapping and all kinds of stuff. This is where it gets crazy. Oh my God what.

Speaker 1: 33:18

Barker and Stanley start arguing about who's going to fly the rocket belt. They each want to. Stanley's kind of a heavier guy, but he's been trying to lose weight so he can fly the rocket belt. Stanley's kind of a heavier guy, but he's been trying to lose weight, so he can fly the rocket. The argument ends with Barker pressing a 9mm semi-automatic pistol to Stanley's head. What they finally calm down. He doesn't shoot Stanley. They break it up Later.

Speaker 4: 33:54

Barker comes, his finger getting broken A few days later did he tell him to go get his shine box or something like that? I mean, what is?

Speaker 1: 34:02

good Lord. A few days later they have another argument and Larry Stan and Barker attacks Larry Stanley with a hammer.

Speaker 4: 34:13

Oh.

Speaker 1: 34:13

Right.

Speaker 4: 34:14

Rip-Torn style.

Speaker 1: 34:15

Yeah, and they're in the office. They're in the office of Joe Wright's—.

Speaker 4: 34:19

Norman Mayer calls him up going. Man, I hear you. I'm so sorry, I hear you.

Speaker 1: 34:25

They're in the office at the car audio place. Yeah, they've smashed out the door. Stanley's all right, brace yourself everyone. Stanley has had part of his finger severed off by the hammer attack. He goes. He has stitches in his skull. He has to have part of his finger sewed back on Like he's just covered in blood. What so? At this?

Speaker 4: 34:55

point. I mean I shouldn't be laughing at this sheer amount of mayhem, but this is insane.

Speaker 1: 35:04

So at this point Barker and Stanley are pretty much done.

Speaker 4: 35:09

Yeah, I kind of. He went back. He apologized. They were back in partnership. They opened a flower shop together. It was great.

Speaker 1: 35:17

But they each own half of the Rocket Belt and they're both really, really obsessed with the Rocket Belt. So they kind of break up for a little bit and Barker and Joe Wright, the younger guy who owns the car audio shop, they hire a lawyer and quickly set up another company. They build a company called Duratron oh jeez. And then Duratron quickly purchases all of the American Rocket Belt Company's assets, including the Rocket Belt. Now Stanley knows nothing about this, but some other company's just been formed and bought his Rocket Belt out from under him. Oh my God, at this point there's like lawsuits being filed. At this point there's like lawsuits being filed. Stanley's trying to get the DA to press charges against Barker because Barker attacked him with a hammer. They're kind of hiding the stuff from Stanley. Stanley and Barker and Wright are not. Barker and Wright are talking, but Stanley and them are not.

Speaker 1: 36:31

They get Souter back out to fly some more tests. Suter says the RB2000 had a mind of its own. It weighed over 140 pounds fueled and was not easy to carry. The corset was uncomfortable. The controls were difficult to move with finesse it was more like flying a truck with a steering problem. At this point he does this. He sees what's going on with his company and Suter actually retires for good. He's like. I am done. I don't want to have anything to do with these insane people.

Speaker 4: 37:06

Oh really, it's better this time. I swear, why do you have that hammer?

Speaker 1: 37:15

So at this point Stanley's trying to sue to get the rocket belt and other assets back from this new company, duratron. It's just a mess, and at some point Barker— you call Optimus Prime like Autobots.

Speaker 4: 37:31

Let's roll out and save it from Durotron.

Speaker 1: 37:36

At some point Barker and the Rocket Belt 2000 disappear. They just disappear off the face of the earth At that point. So Larry Stanley's back talking to Joe Wright. Again. They make a deal Stanley will drop him out of this lawsuit that he's got to get his stuff back from Duratron Because, remember, joe Wright was convinced to be part of Duratron. It's like I will let you off the hook on this thing. They'll know where Barker is. He thinks that Wright knows where the rocket belt is, though. So Stanley says I'll let you off the hook and I will give you $10,000 if you will tell me where the rocket belt is, god. So Wright's like okay, I'll do it, I will do it, all right.

Speaker 1: 38:27

So they're hammering out an agreement. They're going to get everything signed with a lawyer and stuff make a deal. Yeah, they're about to sign the agreement and Wright just doesn't show up. So they're not sure what's going on. Stanley and his lawyers are calling. They're like where are you? You're supposed to be signing this stuff. And Wright's like no, it's okay, I'll come do it, I'll come do it, I'll come do it. I just couldn't do it right now. And they're like something's wrong. When they talk to him, they're like something is horribly, horribly wrong with this guy. He seems terrified. Oh no, within days, joe Wright is brutally murdered in his home, brutally, whoa, and I'm going to spare people the description of this. Read the book, it's worth it. There is an entire other story about Joe Wright that is heartbreaking and I don't think it's really appropriate for.

Speaker 4: 39:22

No, that's fine. Yeah, read the book.

Speaker 1: 39:25

Read the book. Wow. A few weeks later Brad Barker is arrested on suspicion of murder. They ultimately release him. They can't find anything that connects him to the Joe Wright murder and he may or may not have done it it's hard to say. Barker's then arrested again for taking Larry Stanley's Winchester rifle from the car audio place where he had stored it. He gets let go again. There's a civil suit. That's about the Duratron thing. Barker just doesn't show up. The judge, because Barker didn't show up, finds Barker and the old Duratron thing guilty and he awards Larry Stanley damages of $10 million.

Speaker 4: 40:20

Wow, wow $10 million. Wow, wow, wow. So it finally actually pays off. But we had to go through all of this to actually make it profitable.

Speaker 1: 40:36

But it doesn't? Oh no, because they can't find Barker. Oh no, so you know, barker didn't show up for the court, which is part of the reason that it was such a severe crisis. Finding was because Barker wasn't there to fight it. Oh my God, barker was working in Arkansas with a company called the Williams Tool Company to build something called the Personal Flying Device. The Personal Flying Device was a hovercraft shaped like a beer can. Was a hovercraft shaped like a beer can?

Speaker 4: 41:16

I have seen pictures of this thing. Yeah, it never worked. They never got it off the ground.

Speaker 1: 41:21

No, but they wanted to use it to advertise beer at like sporting events.

Speaker 4: 41:25

Yeah, that makes total sense. You got Budman. I mean, come on.

Speaker 1: 41:30

He never got it off the ground. Eventually the guy that's his partner it stops funding it. He seizes all of the assets, including the non-functioning hovercraft beer can, and Barker decides well, that's my work, I want that beer can back. I want that beer can back. So what Barker does is he meets up with an old buddy of his, tom Wade, and they dress all in black, they sneak to the Williams Tool Company place at night dressed in black, with walkie-talkies, and Barker sneaks in through an air vent from the outside into the warehouse where the giant beer can thing is kept. But but Tom Wade has gotten cold feet along the way and already called the sheriff. What, dude, what? So Barker comes out of the air vent, lands flat on the ground, all of the lights in the room turn on and he's surrounded by like 10 deputies pointing guns at his head.

Speaker 2: 42:47

Oh, my God.

Speaker 1: 42:59

He is, you know, obviously arrested. And that's not even the craziest part. We're about to get to the craziest part. Oh my God, barker's released on $100,000 bail. He manages to get it together somehow, right? Oh, he gets it from a bail bondsman. Okay, he gets a call from this guy who's a stuntman named Chris Wenzel. Chris Wenzel says hey, I know you've done some stunt work. He did some with Kenny Gibson. Yeah, and you've done some aeronautics work. Could you come out to Hollywood and work with me to film the controlled crash of an airliner that we're doing?

Speaker 4: 43:41

Okay, this does not sound good.

Speaker 1: 43:45

No, so Barker calls his bail bondsman and says I'm leaving Arkansas briefly to go do this job in California. Okay, he flies to Hollywood. He's met by Wenzel. Wenzel takes him out for a meal. Wenzel takes him on a boat. Wenzel owns a boat. He takes him out on his boat for a little while, yeah. Then they head back to North Hollywood where Wenzel has a house. He gets there for a little while, yeah. Then they head back to North Hollywood where Wenzel has a house. Mm-hmm, he gets there.

Speaker 1: 44:15

Wenzel introduces Barker to these four men and says these are the four guys you're going to be working with. Barker goes great, seems like they're nice guys, right, they walk inside, they sit at a kitchen table, they chat for a little bit. Everything's really friendly, mm bed, everything's really friendly. Then Wenzel pulled out a gun and pointed it straight at Barker's head. Within seconds, the convivial meeting between co-workers has been transformed into a terrifying violent encounter. But why? I'm quoting from the Rocket Belt. Okay, okay, but why? Barker was sure he had not said or done anything to upset these men. So why was he being held down on the kitchen floor with a firearm pressed to his head? Wenzel stood over Barker brandishing the gun. Where's the rocket belt? He demanded.

Speaker 4: 45:11

Wenzel played by Tiny Ron. What what? Ha ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha.

Speaker 1: 45:15

Wenzel played by Tiny Ron. Yeah, wait what? Wenzel takes Barker, he ties him up, he interrogates him for hours. He's like where's the rocket belt? Oh my, what happened to Joe Wright? Whoa? So remember Barker had been arrested for murder for Joe Reich? Yeah, he was let go. Yeah, and he just keeps asking him, he keeps asking him, he keeps asking him. Finally he says, okay, you don't want to talk. He puts him in a box, screws it shut with a drill.

Speaker 4: 45:48

Ironically, it was a beer shipping, but go ahead. Still ironically, it was a beer shipping, but go ahead.

Speaker 1: 45:54

Barker is trapped in this box for seven days. Oh my God, right. Occasionally they would open it up, bring him out. Where's the rocket belt? What happened with Joe Wright? He wouldn't answer. They put him back in the box. Occasionally they'd give him like a cup of soup or a piece of pizza or something. That's all he had. Wow, and Barker, when he was asked about this a little bit later, said I knew that no matter what happened, like no matter what I said, they were going to kill me. Yeah, like. So I wasn't being brave by not saying anything. I knew it was the only way that I could stay alive, right?

Speaker 1: 46:40

So after about seven days he starts to discover that the handcuffs that they're using are starting to slip a little. Uh-huh. And he's like okay, I got to wait for my chance. So at some point he's pulled out, he's being interrogated again. He's kind of left on the floor, handcuffed to something. They leave the room, they leave him in there. He pops the handcuffs, flies out the window and runs for freedom. Wow, it is so crazy. So he runs. Someone is like a good Samaritan, sees him running Like the guy's been in a box. He's a mess. Yeah, yeah. And they help him. They bring him to a phone at a diner where he calls the FBI. The FBI shows up. The FBI is like okay, you okay, are you, mr Parker? He's like yes, and they're like we want you to show us the place. So they start driving back to where the place was and they see Wenzel in the car behind him and the FBI just swarm and they arrest Wenzel.

Speaker 4: 47:58

I was about to say. They get to the house and there's James Mason. I have no idea what he's talking about.

Speaker 1: 48:05

Oh my.

Speaker 4: 48:06

Wow.

Speaker 2: 48:08

Wow.

Speaker 1: 48:09

Wenzel ends up being sentenced to prison for six years. Larry Stanley, who they discovered along the way had hired Wenzel, Aha Okay Was sentenced to life plus ten years Wow.

Speaker 4: 48:27

Yeah, Wow. So the being that he's going to get reincarnated from is already screwed 10 years out of their life.

Speaker 1: 48:39

So he. Now they end up shortening Larry Stanley's sentence because part of the reason they sentenced him so long was that he refused to admit that he'd done anything wrong, even though, along the way, during the interrogation, barker had seen him. Oh yeah, he knew he was there, yeah.

Speaker 4: 48:55

He's the one who bought the pizza. Yeah yeah, he might have chopped off my finger, but he deserved some sort of pizza.

Speaker 1: 49:03

So at this point, stanley's in jail, wenzel's in jail, but there's still the Duratron suit going on, which Larry Stanley's family is now handling. Barker thinks, hey, haven't I been through enough? Can this just be over? But it is not over. What? Oh my gosh. Barker attempts to have the previous settlement with the Rocket Belt overturned. Yeah, so he can just have legal possession of the Rocket Belt overturned. Yeah, so he can just have legal possession of the Rocket Belt. Keep in mind no one has seen the Rocket Belt in almost 10 years. At this point, no one knows where the hell it is.

Speaker 4: 49:43

Coen brothers, please make a movie of this, yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:46

The judge won't overturn it. Yeah, so ostensibly he still owes the family $10 million. I guess, oh my gosh. And the ostensibly he still owes the family $10 million, I guess, oh my gosh. And the judge is like you have to bring the rocket belt into court. We need to see it, Okay, or I'm going to charge you with contempt.

Speaker 2: 50:03

Right.

Speaker 1: 50:04

On July 19th 2004,. Barker shows up to the contempt proceedings. Doesn't bring the rocket belt. The judge is like, okay, look, one more chance, you are going to go to jail, man, bring the rocket belt. August 13th, barker shows up with a big box filled with weird parts. No, rocket belt. The judge reschedules it again. He is sent to jail indefinitely. I mean, there's no, it's just contempt. So there's no sentence.

Speaker 4: 50:36

So he's still there.

Speaker 1: 50:38

Nope, oh. Okay, after six months they finally let Barker go. Okay, still no one has seen the rocket belt. Oh my God, joe Wright's murder never solved. Larry Stanley was eventually released from prison. He doesn't know where the rocket belt is, and this is where the story ends.

Speaker 1: 51:04

I know this has been a long trek, but the quote I want to end it with is one from Bill Souter, and he says Joe Wright was one of the kindest, most generous people I ever knew, said Souter. I cannot think of one bad thing to say about him, nor can I think of one good thing to say about Brad Barker. As for Larry Stanley, what a loser. Wow. Barker and Stanley were obsessed and blinded by the notion that they were both going to learn how to fly and to become rich and famous, and that's all they cared about being rich and famous. So much so that now Joe is dead and none of them is rich or famous. If anything, they are infamous. As for me, it was the dumbest thing I ever got involved in, the dumbest. I do not normally grant interviews on the subject, and that will be all I will ever tell you about that sad chapter. Wow, that is the story of the Rocket Belt.

Speaker 4: 52:09

Wow, wow. This just blows me away's like crazy, right. It's like arguing over who invented the you know speedboat stunt show for theme parks. Yes, like I'm the guy.

Speaker 1: 52:24

It's like there's nothing to profit off of this, guys right, and I mean they never got it to work for more than 20, 25 seconds. I know it was useless, oh my God. I mean, obviously Kenny Gibson was making some money doing these shows from time to time, but he wasn't getting rich.

Speaker 4: 52:43

No, oh my, that's insanity. Yeah, so the next time you're watching a show at Disneyland, folks just understand that there's some serious backstory of what you're watching. Yeah, Like stuff happens behind the scenes.

Speaker 1: 53:00

He was locked in a box for seven days.

Speaker 4: 53:04

See, I think I may have my plus up.

Speaker 1: 53:07

Oh, do you? I think we might be at that point.

Speaker 4: 53:10

Yeah, so I think this is the point of our show now, now that Kelly has regaled us with this amazing story here, so here's my plus-up People will arrive at Tomorrowland, yes, and they will be put in a box for seven days and ritually beaten until where's the Rocketeer sequel? Where's that going to happen? I don't know how. Okay, kidding aside, yes, I don't know what my plus up with this would be.

Speaker 4: 53:41

I know, I have to go back in time and tell them, guys, this isn't worth it. It's not worth it. This isn't exactly a plus up, seriously, and I don't know if I really want to see, you know, another guy in a jetpack over Disneyland, you know, knowing all this, now, right, yeah, it makes me like it even less.

Speaker 4: 53:58

It seems a lot less cool, right, it's like I don't know if I like this now, but I will say, for a genuine plus-up, I would actually like to see them pay homage to the Rocketeer a little bit more at the park with some sort of attraction. They could easily reskin a roller coaster like the Tron coaster in Shanghai and turn it so that way you are bent forward, but you're all Rocketeers, yeah, and it's a Rocketeer roller coaster, yeah, that would be cool. And that's about as far as I go with my plus up on this one, because anything beyond this is just like it's just dumb. Yeah, you're like this whole thing is just so crazy that I don't know how you can plus this up except going just ignore it and let's do something with the Rocketeer.

Speaker 1: 54:48

Just don't, folks, don't get mixed up with the Rocket Belt. Just don't, yeah, just don't, folks, don't get mixed up with the rocket belt.

Speaker 4: 54:53

Just don't. Yeah, just don't. It is a cul-de-sac. Yeah, it is the ultimate symbol of male fragility that men will kill and kidnap over 20 seconds of pleasure.

Speaker 1: 55:02

It's just. I mean, doesn't it just sum up post-war America in so many ways? It's just like there's so much, there's ambition, there's wonder, there's possibility, and it descends into just obsession and greed and this A cameo with William H Macy.

Speaker 4: 55:20

A cameo with William H Macy.

Speaker 1: 55:22

And just so much tragedy that it's stupid and funny. It is Like that's America.

Speaker 4: 55:29

I haven't laughed this hard during one of our shows in a long time. Like my stomach actually hurts a little bit because it's just so. It's obscenely awful, yeah, like when you really think about it, this is awful. Oh, it's terrible, this is terrifyingly bad. But I've known people like this, having grown up in Silicon Valley. You meet people who are this obsessed with this type of thing where they go, this obsessed with this type of thing where they go. This is going to be the thing, yeah, and everybody's looking at him going. No, it's not Right, it really isn't. No, it's going to be the thing. I'm guaranteed. I'm willing to kill over. This is how much I go. You have problems.

Speaker 1: 56:05

Physics say it's not going to work.

Speaker 4: 56:07

Yeah, this is really not going to be a thing, don't really. Google Glass. It's got to be a thing. Where's the Google Glass?

Speaker 1: 56:16

Yeah right, Put you in a box for seven days, it's just yeah, like it's hard to even imagine this level of obsession, right, yeah, Like there's so—.

Speaker 4: 56:28

For diminishing returns yeah, like this is mental illness at this point. Oh, it absolutely is. Yeah, this is mental illness at this point. Oh, it absolutely is yeah.

Speaker 1: 56:33

Part of the story, what makes it so fascinating? None of except for poor Joe Wright. And there is a whole lot more to that story, and please do go read the book. Oh yes, absolutely. None of these people are nice people Like Bill Souter's great, he seems like a good guy Bill Souter seems.

Speaker 4: 56:48

yeah, he's on the outside going. All I wanted to do was fly.

Speaker 1: 56:52

But Barker and Stanley are just. You're just like what are you guys doing to yourselves? You're idiots.

Speaker 4: 56:59

I know.

Speaker 1: 57:00

You're absolute morons. It's insanity, yeah, and it's hard to speak to that sort of obsession, like why did you even care that much? Let me explain something to you. Like why did you even?

Speaker 4: 57:14

care that much. Let me explain something to you. I have a rocket pack and I have a long fuel line over to your rocket pack and I put my fuel line in your rocket pack.

Speaker 3: 57:34

I steal your rocket pack.

Speaker 1: 57:43

I steal it up. You know that's exactly right it is. It's that level of insanity.

Speaker 4: 57:53

There will be blood, but there will be rockets. Daniel Day-Lewis will play Barker in the film of this. It's just like.

Speaker 1: 58:02

You didn't think about Tomorrowland at that point, like, oh, we're going to show this futuristic rocket pack thing Around the time. Isaac Asimov said we're about 10 years away from home rocket packs. Like no, you're not. Yeah, this is never going to happen.

Speaker 4: 58:17

People will travel around in pneumatic people tubes. Wait a second. Hold on there. What I never said people would be eating prunes in the future. What kind of thing are these people pulling? What are they pulling here?

Speaker 1: 58:32

Here's what I'll say for my bless up here. Okay Is, if we are looking at a demonstration of transportation of the future, just reopen the damn people mover.

Speaker 4: 58:53

And make it the Rocketeer people movie.

Speaker 1: 58:55

Yes that's fine. That's fine. Yeah, like you know, like through the world of the Rocketeer tunnel.

Speaker 4: 59:01

Yeah, it's just movie and it's just a giant IMAX screen surrounding the track. We're fine with this. We're totally okay with this. All of us tired old Gen Xers are totally okay with this. Okay, we're fine. We were fine with the bendy action figures Right.

Speaker 3: 59:22

We thought they were cool, they were awesome.

Speaker 4: 59:27

They worked as great pencil erasers.

Speaker 1: 59:29

Okay, this is just exhausting the future is exhausting in the fake future doubly so that's our next t-shirt.

Speaker 4: 59:38

By the way, the future is exhausting in the fake future doubly so that is our next shirt with a picture of the rocket guy flying right through the O of doubly. So yeah, All right, With that. Again, I want to encourage people the rocket belt cap.

Speaker 1: 59:52

So, yeah, all right With that. Again, I want to encourage people. The Rocket Belt Caper by Paul Brown Really really well worth it and if you can find a copy, pretty Bird.

Speaker 4: 1:00:03

Yes, Pretty.

Speaker 1: 1:00:03

Bird, which actually focuses a little bit more on the Joe Wright story, which is a tragic and sad story.

Speaker 4: 1:00:10

Yeah, yeah, no, I'm glad that they immortalized him in a good way. Yeah, so that's good. Well, anyway, so I'm Peter Overstreet.

Speaker 1: 1:00:18

And I'm Kelly Rocketbelt McCubbin.

Speaker 4: 1:00:21

You've been listening to.

Speaker 1: 1:00:22

The Lowdown on the Plus Up. If you have, please tell your friends where you found us, and if you haven't, we can pretend this never happened and need not speak of it again. For a lot more thoughts on theme parks and related stuff, check out my writing for BoardWalkTimes at BoardWalkTimesnet. Feel free to reach out to Pete and I on our Lowdown on the Plus Up Facebook group or send us a message directly at comments at lowdown-plus-upcom. We really want to hear about how you'd plus these attractions up and read some of your ideas on the show. Our theme music is Goblin Tinker Soldier Spy by Kevin MacLeod at incompetechcom. We'll have a new episode out real soon.

Speaker 2: 1:02:02

Why? Because we like you.

Speaker 3: 1:02:10

Disneyland's second decade is appropriately inaugurated as a jet-propelled man blasts off from Tomorrowland.

Speaker 4: 1:02:20

Ever since man has watched birds in flight, he has had a desire to fly like this ©.

Speaker 2: 1:02:27

BF-WATCH TV 2021.