The Rocket Belt Saga Part Two - Biddy, Biddy, Murder! - The Lowdown on the Plus-up - A Theme Park Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Previously on the Lowdown on the Plus Up.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
The Rocket.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Belt first appeared in early novels, comics, strips
and movie serials as early as1928.
Nazis claimed to have made onein 1943, but being Nazis they
probably lied.
Wendell Moore creates one forBell Aircraft in 1957.
Several people train to fly theRocket Belt and begin flying it
commercially.
Figuring that the pilotsthey've got are really too smart
, they hire the kid who mowsWendell Moore's lawn, bill

(00:44):
Souter Rocket Belt.
Guys fly over the 1964 World'sFair, disneyland in the James
Bond movie Thunderball, which isreally slow and boring, and a
bunch of other places.
A second rocket belt, the TylerRocket Belt, is built and flown
by Souter over the 1984Olympics.
Sometime oil man Larry Stanleytries to steal parts of the
second rocket belt but insurancesalesman Brad Barker threatens

(01:07):
him with a baseball bat and getsthe stuff back.
At some point Pete meets FelixSilla, both cousin it in the
Addams Family and Tweaky in BuckRogers.
Brad Barker decides that heknows how to build his own
rocket belt and even though herecently threatened to beat the
guy up with the baseball bat, heasks Larry Stanley to help him.
It's 1990, and the mostprominent film about jetpacks is

(01:28):
about to come out the Rocketeer.
And now the thrillingconclusion.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
What do?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
you think you think your Rocky Belt's funny.
Huh, like a comedian.
Like you think it's kind offunny what you think belt's
funny.
Huh, like a comedian Like youthink it's kind of funny.
What you think it's funny.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
Like how funny.
Like ha-ha zoom-zoom funny.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Or even better yet, with that rocket belt, you have
enthusiasms, enthusiasm,teamwork.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
Teamiasm.
Teamwork, team, team, team,team.
By the way, that's De Palma,yeah, film nerd, okay.
So anyway, let's talk about theRocketeer.
The Rocketeer was created by acomic artist who is no longer
with us.
His name is Dave Stevens.

(02:25):
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 inthe earliest San Diego Comic-Con
, but his earliest career wasactually doing a lot of inking.
He was a master inker.
He did a lot of work on RussManning's Tarzan newspaper strip
.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
In the 70s he started doing stuff for the Star Wars
newspaper strip.
Yes, there was a Star Warsnewspaper strip, I recall, and
it's as boring as you think it'sgoing to be Not nearly as good
as the Marvel comic with thegiant green rabbit.
Oh, that is awesome stuff.
You know, like that's reallycool.
Jackson, yeah, good old Jackson.
But he also did a lot offanzines, including inking stuff

(03:07):
of Jack Kirby's work.
Yeah, he also did a lot ofAurora feature for Japan's
Sanrio Publishing.
Oh, interesting.
He also is kind of somewhatfamous for all of us 70s and 80s
kids for creating the platesfor, oh, what's it called
Monsters and Musclemen orsomething like that, and it's a

(03:29):
special kit.
There was like this there was afashion toy made by Tomy, yeah,
which you get these littleplates it was called fashion
plates, yeah, and you assemblethe head and then the torso and
the legs.
You can make these differentdresses.
Oh yeah, and he took a blackConte crayon, he would scrape it
on.
You know, it's like a rubbingplate and then you take that
rubbing and then you can colorit in.

(03:50):
My daughter has one of these.
It's a lot of fun.
But I had one that was allmonsters and spacemen and stuff
like that, one of which had arocket pack, a rocket belt
character.
But those were all drawn byDave Stevens way back in the day
.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Dave Stevens was in a long-term relationship, as I
recall, with Scream Queen BrinkStevens.
Yes, he was yeah, who I believehe used as a model when he was
drawing the Rocketeer.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Absolutely.
She's the physical model forBetty.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, the Betty Page.
Yeah, even though Betty Page.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
The pin-up queen herself was the inspiration for
the character Betty, a lot ofthe physical you know.
Whenever she needed a pose itwas Brink, yeah.
But in 77, he was a storyboardartist for Hanna-Barbera yeah,
Including Super Friends, theGodzilla, Power Hour, and he

(04:43):
worked with William Stout andRichard Heskux in doing projects
, a lot of storyboarding andproduction designs for Lucas and
Spielberg, doing Raiders of theLost Ark storyboard work and
concept design.
And he also did a lot ofdesigns for the Thriller video,
Michael Jackson's Thriller,designing a lot of the zombies

(05:05):
and stuff that would be sculptedby Rick Baker.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
That's super interesting.
As a weird aside, Kenny Gibsonflew the Tyler rocket belt for
Michael Jackson's Bad Tour.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
That's awesome, yeah.
Well, there you go.
See, there's connectionseverywhere in history.
Yeah, the Rocketeer was firstpublished in 1982.
Mm-hmm, and it was just kind ofa supplemental little six to
seven page thing.
Yeah, but it was meant as aportmanteau of different
independent artists' work.
It's an anthology series and itwas published by Pacific Comics

(05:41):
and the comic was called StarSlayer.
Okay, and it was just like asupplemental thing.
Sometimes, especially in theindependent circuit, life
happens.
Independent comic artists arenot getting paid huge amounts of
dollars to do an entire comic.
So sometimes— as a former comicbook publisher- I can tell you
this yeah, you have to just kindof keep going, yeah, and

(06:01):
sometimes you need to have somefiller, yeah, and so it was
originally meant as filler.
But nobody remembers StarSlayer that much, except all of
us diehards yeah, but everybodyremembers the Rocketeer, yes,
and Star Slayer was great.
It was, I remember it.
Mike Grell did a great job withit.
But eventually it became itsown anthology and Eclipse Comics
finally took it over andpublished Rocketeer and Airboy

(06:24):
and it just took off because,again, independent publishing is
weird and you have to pay yourbread and butter with
supplementing your work.
They approached Disney andother movie studios with the
idea of the Rocketeer as a filmvery early actually it was only
a couple of years.
There was a guy named SteveMiner, Uh-huh, and he purchased

(06:46):
the film rights in 1983.
So it was only around for ayear.
He said this is a great ideafor a movie, huh, interesting.
Within a year it was alreadythe film rights were already
being, you know, shipped around.
Yeah, but Miner just keptpushing it too far away, too Too
far away from that originalconcept that this is supposed to
be kind of like a movie serial.

(07:07):
It's pulpy.
And so finally, in 1985, daveStevens gave Danny Bilson and
Paul DiMeo kind of a free optionfor the Rocketeer.
He's just like here you take itand you make it work.
Yeah, and they did.
They were attached to it andthey really kind of gave that
flavor of the old serials andthe approach to it Right, that
flavor of the old cereals andthe approach to it Right Over
the course of the productionthey got fired and rehired three
times in the production of theRocketeer Because Disney, the

(07:32):
studio, was like, oh, this isn'tgoing to sell much, it's just
like, oh, and they finally gotturned down by 1986.
You know, they were like we'redone, yeah, and I think part of
that was the failure of Howardthe Duck oh, interesting,
lucas's Howard the Duck, thatalmost bankrupted him.
So they basically felt thatokay, it's 87, 88.

(07:56):
They said the Rocketeers gotsome toy ability factor here.
For sure, this will fit in withall of the craze currently of
Masters of the Universe.
Yeah, we can make actionfigures off of this, let's go
for it.
So Jeffrey Katzenberg, who atthe time was the chairman,
decided to let it go and itbecame a full.
There was going to be atouchstone picture, so there was
going to be a lot more sex andviolence involved.

(08:17):
It would be acceptable withtouchstone, but Katzenberg said
if we're going to sell toys,it's got to be for kids.
Yeah, so let's make it for WaltDisney Studios.
After a long fight, after allthese rewrites and fighting over
the tone of this film, theyfinally got a greenlit in 1990.
Yeah, it's a really interestingstory.
If you've never seen theRocketeer, I really give it a

(08:39):
try.
Yeah it's lovely.
It is a lovely film.
Yeah, there's lots of littleties to history.
There's a character in it,played by Timothy Dalton, called
Neville Sinclair.
Neville Sinclair is a big-timeHollywood actor based off of
Errol Flynn yeah, who is?

Speaker 1 (08:55):
actually in effect— who is a Nazi sympathizer?

Speaker 4 (08:57):
Yeah, but in this case, neville Sinclair is an
actual Nazi spy, right, he's notjust a sympathizer, he's like
no, I am a true-blooded Nazi.
Yeah, and he's trying to gethis hands on the rocket pack.
Yeah, apparently the rocketpack is invented by Hollywood
producer and aeronauticsaficionado, howard Hughes.
Uh-huh, so Howard Hughes is inthis film as well.
Which is plausible, really it'stotally plausible and it's a

(09:20):
delightful little film.
Yeah, and it's a delightfullittle film.
Yeah, it's directed by JoeJohnston, who started off as a
special effects guy.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, I know that name.
For some reason.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
Well, he did a lot of visual effects for a lot of
films at Lucas, doing animationwith Phil Tippett, okay, yeah.
And then eventually he hadother ambitions and he went on
to direct Honey, I Shrunk theKids.
Oh yeah, the Rocketeer, yeah,jumanji.
Uh-huh, jurassic Park 3.
Uh-huh, the Wolfman, hmm, andfinally, captain America, the

(09:53):
first Avenger.
Wow, that's a pretty solidcareer right there.
Yeah, I mean and with a coupleof exceptions, you know, my
favorites, of course, being theRocketeer 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 thisepisode, he won't.
But if he ever does, justunderstand that I really do

(10:16):
enjoy your movies, but hismovies are not necessarily
movies that are going to bat itout of the park, like, say, a
Scorsese film or a Spielbergmovie, sure, but his films get
the job done.
He's the workhorse who knowshow to get it in on time, on
budget and boom, you're ready togo.

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 firstAvenger, is actually my favorite
of the Captain America movies.
There's something beautiful andsimplistic and nostalgic about
it.
I love it and I like thoseother ones too, I do, but
there's just something veryheartfelt 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 theRocketeer that just totally
leak through in Captain Americaand you're like waiting for
Cliff Secourt to make thislittle 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 havethem off in the distance there
trying to sell the pack, totallySomething.
I guess it's because it's not aMarvel property, but anyway,
one of my other favorite littlecameos that's made in the
Rocketeer is the character ofLothar, who's the big lumbering,
hulking figure that is thehenchman of Neville Sinclair.

(11:33):
Yeah, he is played by a guynamed Tiny Ron Taylor.
Well, tiny Ron Taylor is a bigfella like yourself.
He is about your height, he isseven 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 lotof films.

(11:56):
He was in a lot of big monsterroles.
Yeah, you know, it's the samekind of thing as, like Felix
Silla, he's going to be in a lotof dwarf and midget roles and
et cetera, et cetera, littlefairies 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 getskicked in the knee.

(12:16):
Oh, yeah, so that's Tiny Ron.
Huh, he plays Lothar, andLothar is—the makeup was done by
Rick Baker and Rick Baker madehim up to look like an actual
actor from the 40s Okay, who wasnamed Rondo Hatton, aka the
Creeper, who suffered fromacromegaly.

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 continueto grow.
Okay, tony Robbins, the publicspeaker, actually suffers from
this as well.
He has a lot of drug regimensand stuff in order to slow the
progress of this.
Yeah, Rondo had a very extremecase of this.
Oh, that's a shame, but hedecided to capitalize on this

(13:00):
because he was very tall and hewas very strong.
So they decided well, we don'tneed movie monsters, we don't
need to hire Jack Pierce to makeFrankenstein.
We got a real guy who's reallyugly, so we'll just call him the
Creeper.
So he's in two films where heis the main villain and he's
this big ugly dude, the bruteman, and enter the Creeper or

(13:21):
meet the Creeper, and it's likeit'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 Stevensactually based the character of
Lothar on Rondo Hatton and he'sbasically just like how he's
drawing Betty Page in all of hiscomic panels.
He's drawing Rondo Hatton inthis role.
Huh.
So it's delightful.
And I remember going toWonderCon and meeting Tiny Ron,

(13:46):
who was there promoting theRocketeer, 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'tknow, you tell me.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
And I realized how strong this guy really was yeah,
and maybe you shouldn't messwith 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'shead into the ceiling.
Yeah, he's really lifting himup.
Yeah, that's not, he's not alift, he's really yanking him up
and down.
Yeah, you're watching therocketeer.
He makes a little cameo out ofmakeup.
There's a sequence.

(14:26):
It's the first time that cliffis really flying the rocket pack
.
He's just saved his buddy.
Yeah, malcolm from um I'm a bigfan of this film, I love the
rocketeer.
So he's saving malcolm from anincident in an airfield and also
in the rocket pack goes haywireand he's flying desperately
trying to get away from the badguys and pb's chasing him in in
a truck and Cliff flies throughthis cornfield.
You see these two farmerswatching all these sheaves of

(14:47):
corn flipping up at a rapid paceand one of them goes big gopher
and there's this really tallguy standing next to that farmer
.
That's Tiny Ron, without themakeup on.
Huh, okay, so he makes a quicklittle cameo without Sans makeup
.
That's great.
And the Rocketeer has some BayArea ties because obviously a

(15:07):
lot of the effects were done inIndustrial Light and Magic.
Yeah, steve Gawley, who was aneffects supervisor for Back to
the Future.
He was a model maker on a lotof Star Wars movies.
I got to work with him on thatexact same NASA exhibit oh nice.
He helped build space shuttlemodels and that kind of stuff.
Most of the people who built themodels were all old school Guys

(15:28):
that built models Don Bees,grant Imahara, a bunch of people
actually Nelson Hall, they allbuilt all these models for this
NASA exhibit and I was broughtin kind of at the last minute
and a little bit as anafterthought, yeah, but I became
a part of this team and it wasreally cool hearing all these
Hollywood stories during lunchbreaks.
And one of my favorites andSteve is very, very reclusive.
He's a very shy kind of guy butI think that was kind of like

(15:52):
the sales point that I know whohe was but he taught me how to
do weathering on this giantmodel of a space shuttle.
It was full size.
So we're putting blast shields,how to make sewage come out of
the ports and stuff to make itlook realistic.
I learned blast shields, how tomake sewage come out of the
ports and stuff to make it lookrealistic.
Yeah, I learned how to paintpoop from an ILM guy.
But one of my favorite storiesis the fact that there's a

(16:16):
sequence at the end in which theRocketeer and in this case,
jenny, because they didn't wantto have to deal with Betty
Page's estate, or the fact thatit's a Disney movie and you're
using a 50s pin-up novel as themain character A 50s fetish
pin-up novel.
Yeah.
So Jenny, played by the lovelyJennifer Connelly, and Cliff are
running away from Lothar on thetop of this failing and burning

(16:39):
Zeppelin over Hollywood.
Yeah, and it's exploding,compartment by compartment.
It's like time is running.
It's a total cliff overHollywood.
Yeah, and it's explodingcompartment by compartment.
It's like time is running.
It's a total cliffhanger.
Yeah, each compartment isexploding in sequence.
They filmed that out on anairstrip so that way they could,
you know, not be anywhere near,because those explosions were
huge, right, right, and theywere real.
This is not a green screensituation Once.

(17:01):
This is not a green screensituation.
Once they reach certain marksthat are painted on the top of
the Zeppelin.
There's an explosive guy who'sreally blowing stuff up yeah.
Now there are some green screenshots, but there are some shots
where they're really runningaway from these exploding
envelopes, yeah.
But then there are scenes inwhich the model of the Zeppelin
has to look like it's on fireand you can see these explosions
going one at a time.
Yeah, the explosion is goingone at a time.

(17:22):
Yeah.
There's a great movie calledthe Producers in which the main
character says ah yeah.
Well, we have to understandwhether this is the quick fuse
or the slow fuse.
Yes, the problem is they putthe quick fuse into the first
model of the Zeppelin, oops, andthey exploded it on Mare Island
, not too far away from whereKelly and I are sitting while we
are recording this.

(17:42):
Actually, we can pretty muchwalk there yeah from where Kelly
and I are sitting while we arerecording this.
Actually, we can pretty muchwalk there.
Yeah, we can walk to MareIsland and walk to the very spot
where they blew this thing upand they exploded.
It in the middle of the nightand all the envelopes went off
at once.
Oh dear, it was like the DeathStar exploding.
Yeah, ram-o, and everything wasgone.
It was like they spent all thistime making this perfect

(18:02):
Zeppelin model, likemeticulously gluing it together,
putting it together.
They learned very quickly Allof their planning paid off of
like cataloging how they builtit as they went.
Yeah, because they had torebuild it.
They had to rebuild it within acouple of weeks as opposed to a
couple of months and they didit.
So that model that you see inthe film is the second model
that they did kind ofhaphazardly, but they got the

(18:25):
shot.
It was crazy and I went over toSteve Golley's house for a
barbecue at one point and heshowed me the puppet that they
used for the flying sequences.
When Cliff is flying around andhe salutes Air Force One yeah,
he's flying up there.
Some of those distant shotsit's not actually Billy Campbell

(18:45):
on wires, he's actually flyingaround, 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 theRocketeer.

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 haveseen that a dozen times in the
theater.
Yeah, Ticket after ticket.
I was so enchanted by the JamesHorner score.
Yeah, I love the effects, Ilove the flavor of it.
I think it captured the pulp,serialized adventure flavor
better than the Shadow or thePhantom, which were movies that

(19:21):
came out not too long afterthose films.
Yeah, yeah, it had that samekind of jazz that Raiders of the
Lost Ark had, only with less ofthe edge, right, and it was
just darn right fun.
Yeah, the sad thing is I waskind 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 forDisneyland at this time while
they were releasing this film.
Yeah, to do a whole newexpansion of Tomorrowland, to
make it Discovery Bay.
Yes, you know, with Tony Baxtermaking his proposal for
Discovery Bay, yeah, and they'rekind of chiseling away at it.
Well, maybe we could do this.
Yeah, maybe we could do thiswith Discovery Bay and leave the
rest of this out.

(20:01):
Maybe we could chisel this partin, yeah, and then the
Rocketeer came out and it's like, well, now that's gone.
Yeah, so you couldn't even getRocketeer merchandise.
They did have some meagermerchandise sales.
They had a couple of t-shirts,right, I think I bought
everything which was like adozen items of Rocketeer
merchandise the read-alongrecord book.
They didn't have an actionfigure folks.

(20:21):
They made a bendy, they made a.
Gumby-style bendy of theRocketeer, because this came out
not long after Dick Tracy.
So you had Dick Tracy and theRocketeer coming out.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Isn't this interesting how often this
happens with Tomorrowland thatthere's some property that
they're like here we go, here'sthe hook that we can redo.
Tomorrowland with the Rocketeerwas obviously one.
The movie Tomorrowland wasobviously one.
The movie Tomorrowland wasobviously one.
It seems pretty clear to methat the Fantastic Four is about
to be one, and just over andover and knock on wood, this is

(20:54):
not the case with the Fantastic.
Four but over and over themovie doesn't pull it off.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Which is weird because there was a making of
behind the scenes like sneakpreview of the Rocketeer that
was done on the Disney channel.
You could find it on YouTube andI watched it and they make
reference to the Rocket man ofDisneyland multiple times.
That's great, showing the guy.
You know rocket packs really doexist, yeah, and they show the
footage of here at Disneyland.
We have this and you got BillCampbell going.
That's pretty great.

(21:19):
Yeah, you know, sorry, bill,but you know it didn't work out
well.
And the only thing for thelongest time in Disneyland of
the Rocketeer was a popcornmachine.
Okay, in Tomorrowland, yeah,one of the popcorn carts in
Tomorrowland In Disneyland.
A lot of the popcorn carts havethese little attachments to

(21:41):
this little barrel.
It's a decorative barrel ofsomebody turning a popcorn
barrel around right in neworleans square.
It's one of the grim grinningghosts in bear country.
It's big albert, yeah, and thentomorrowland it's the rocketeer
, yeah, pumping away cup.
And that was it.
Yeah, and much to my chagrinbecause I and when they had the
rocket rods, there was talk likeit's gonna look like the
rocketeer.

(22:01):
You know which would be.
It would have been if it wasn'tthe world's largest planter.
Yes, so, yeah, so the Rocketeer.
There has been talk for yearsabout doing a sequel.
Right, they did do a cartoonseries of the.
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 ofit, but it just didn't sing to
me.
And it's not that it was bad, Ijust didn't care for it, it's
just me.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
I haven't seen it.
I find it really strange thatthey made an animated version of
a movie that was a bomb 25years before.
That seems odd, but they'vedone 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 greenlitprobably.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
I think there were a lot of people who sort of saw
that sweet, sweet Tron money andwent, 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 inFrontierland as the apple
dumpling gang.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yes, bumper barrels you know, and they could change
the primeval world diorama fromthe 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, becauseyou 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 thatwas.

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 ofThomasina.
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 ofpeople actually do credit the
Rocketeer for getting the comicmovie industry a little bit of a
boost, in saying you don't needto go with the big titles like
Batman or Superman, becauseBatman was already a big film,

(24:21):
the Burton Batman films had comeand gone.
Yeah, but the Rocketeer A lotof people actually do credit it,
saying it told people thatcomic book movies could still be
fun and entertaining andthere's a number of factors that
why it didn't work.
Yeah, but I still think it doesage well actually, and I think
you really, if you have not seenthe Rocketeer, dear listeners,

(24:43):
please go and watch it, becauseit is so worth.
It's worth an afternoon ofpopcorn 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 withyour kids, you'll be fine.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
Yeah, it's totally kid-friendly.
Yeah, it's almost completelykid-friendly.
I mean, there's some cleavagejokes, 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 isthat, having seen the Rocketeer
over and, over and over again,when Kelly first started
proposing this particularepisode and started telling me
the story of the rocket belt, myeyeballs and my jaw hit the

(25:35):
floor.
My eyeballs started bugging outof my skull because I went wait
, a second.
Life imitates art, yeah, insome very strange ways, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
So let's pick this story back up.
Yeah, right around 1992 is Ithink we're at.
That's when the Rocketeer cameout, yep, and I just want to.
I'll go back over thecharacters 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 ownerof the Tyler Rocket Belt.
At this point he's going aroundflying it all over the place.
He was friends with Barker andLarry Stanley.
He's had a falling out withStanley, so has Barker, he's
about to have a falling out withBarker.
And we have Barker himself,who's an insurance salesman from

(26:24):
Illinois.
He gets the idea to build hisown rocket belt.
In spite of threatening LarryStanley with a baseball bat and
beating up one of his oil ranchhands, he convinces Larry
Stanley to go in on it with him.
And we're about to meet ayounger kid Well, I say young,

(26:46):
he's like nearing 30 at thispoint.
When he becomes involved withthese guys.
He's from Michigan.
His name's Joe Wright.
Okay, everyone loves this kidBecause he's the Wright stuff,
yeah.
But he moves.
Marvel and Wilbur would be soproud.
He moves out to Houston, whichis where he meets the two of

(27:08):
them, stanley and Barker.
He opens up a little car audioshop, takes off.
He's doing really well.
He kind of becomes friends withBarker and Stanley.
At one point Barker invites JoeWright to go with him to visit
Kenny Gibson where they're doinga Rocket Belt show, and Gibson

(27:34):
gets a little perturbed becausewhat he notices is that Barker
and Wright seem to be takinglots and lots of close-up
pictures of the Rocket Belt.
He gets really mad.
They end up sending Joe Wrighthome.
Barker kind of stays on for alittle while and then Barker and

(27:55):
Gibson have a falling outAnyway.
So at this point Gibson's nottalking to him.
He doesn't want to haveanything to do with any of these
guys.
Right, right, barker is friendswith Joe Wright, larry
Stanley's friends with JoeWright.
Friends with Joe Wright, barkerand Stanley form a small

(28:19):
corporation called ARC, theAmerican Rocket Belt Company.
They issue a thousand shares ofstock 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 thestocks 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 someworkspace in his car audio shop
in Houston and they startworking 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):
Oh man, to the Disneyland Resort this May 3rd
and 4th 2025.
Spend the weekend with some ofyour favorite podcasters, along
with other listeners as we enjoythe Disneyland Resort.
As a special treat this year,we're having a special Saturday
night dining event featuring TVdinners inside Howard Johnson's

(29:27):
spectacular tribute toDisneyland's former Monsanto
Plastics House of the Future theHouse of the Retro Future Suite
.
After dinner, Peter Overstreetand Kelly McCubbin from the
Lowdown on the Plus Up podcastwill be recording a special
episode of their show live frominside the House of the Retro

(29:49):
Future Suite.
That's May 3rd and 4th 2025 atthe Disneyland Resort.
Visit friendsofthemagiccom formore information.

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 afew other people.
They they talk to someaeronautic specialists, they
bring in a bunch of differentpeople but eventually they get
something that pretty much works.
It's beautiful, it issupposedly bright red and shiny
silver.
It looks futuristic and they'relike okay, we need to do some

(30:43):
tests with this thing, theRB2000, we need to do some tests
.
And when you need to test arocket 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 itwith a picture.
They're like they show him howgorgeous 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 outof 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 theytell him they're like hey, we
want to name it, will you nameit for us?
And Souter looks at it for aminute and says Pretty Bird.
So he names the RB2000 PrettyBird.
Now, for some of you this maysound a little bit familiar.

(31:35):
There is a film based on thestory from this point called
Pretty Bird.
Okay, with Paul Giamatti it's alittle tough to find, but it's
out there and it's roughly basedon 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 theywere trying to put more fuel in

(31:59):
so it could fly longer.
But of course with more fuelcomes more weight, yep, so it
doesn't do that much more Right?
22 seconds, yeah, I know and atthis point you know later, when
asked about it, suter's, likeall the hype spread by Barker
was just that hype.
Barker was a showman, not ascientist.

(32:21):
Had we fooled around with therocket belt, it may well have
had a runtime of 28 seconds, butwhat have you really gained?
You've just spent a smallfortune reinventing the wheel.
You still have a machine that'suseless for anything other than
shows.
And then they asked him why didyou call it Pretty Bird?
Then he said if nothing else,it was very pretty.

(32:42):
Wow, after he does some initialtests, he proves that it works.
He goes home and here's thequote from Barker that I love.
He said Souter flew home, wefinished the belt and from then

(33:03):
on there was murder, kidnappingand all kinds of stuff.
This is where it gets crazy.
Oh my God what.
Barker and Stanley start arguingabout who's going to fly the
rocket belt.
They each want to.

(33:24):
Stanley's kind of a heavier guy, but he's been trying to lose
weight so he can fly the rocketbelt.
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 Barkerpressing 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 gethis shine box or something like
that?
I mean, what is?

Speaker 1 (34:02):
good Lord.
A few days later they haveanother argument and Larry Stan
and Barker attacks Larry Stanleywith 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 JoeWright'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 thedoor.
Stanley's all right, braceyourself everyone.
Stanley has had part of hisfinger severed off by the hammer
attack.
He goes.
He has stitches in his skull.
He has to have part of hisfinger sewed back on Like he's

(34:49):
just covered in blood.
What so?
At this?

Speaker 4 (34:55):
point.
I mean I shouldn't be laughingat 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 shoptogether.
It was great.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
But they each own half of the Rocket Belt and
they're both really, reallyobsessed with the Rocket Belt.
So they kind of break up for alittle bit and Barker and Joe
Wright, the younger guy who ownsthe car audio shop, they hire a
lawyer and quickly set upanother company.

(35:38):
They build a company calledDuratron oh jeez.
And then Duratron quicklypurchases all of the American
Rocket Belt Company's assets,including the Rocket Belt.
Now Stanley knows nothing aboutthis, but some other company's

(35:59):
just been formed and bought hisRocket Belt out from under him.
Oh my God, at this pointthere's like lawsuits being
filed.
At this point there's likelawsuits being filed.
Stanley's trying to get the DAto press charges against Barker
because Barker attacked him witha hammer.
They're kind of hiding thestuff from Stanley.

(36:21):
Stanley and Barker and Wrightare not.
Barker and Wright are talking,but Stanley and them are not.
They get Souter back out to flysome more tests.
Suter says the RB2000 had amind of its own.
It weighed over 140 poundsfueled and was not easy to carry

(36:43):
.
The corset was uncomfortable.
The controls were difficult tomove with finesse it was more
like flying a truck with asteering problem.
At this point he does this.
He sees what's going on withhis company and Suter actually
retires for good.
He's like.

(37:03):
I am done.
I don't want to have anythingto do with these insane people.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
Oh really, it's better this time.
I swear, why do you have thathammer?

Speaker 1 (37:15):
So at this point Stanley's trying to sue to get
the rocket belt and other assetsback from this new company,
duratron.
It's just a mess, and at somepoint 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 theface of the earth At that point.
So Larry Stanley's back talkingto Joe Wright.
Again.
They make a deal Stanley willdrop him out of this lawsuit
that he's got to get his stuffback from Duratron Because,
remember, joe Wright wasconvinced to be part of Duratron

(37:57):
.
It's like I will let you offthe hook on this thing.
They'll know where Barker is.
He thinks that Wright knowswhere the rocket belt is, though
.
So Stanley says I'll let youoff the hook and I will give you
$10,000 if you will tell mewhere the rocket belt is, god.

(38:20):
So Wright's like okay, I'll doit, I will do it, all right.
So they're hammering out anagreement.
They're going to get everythingsigned with a lawyer and stuff
make a deal.
Yeah, they're about to sign theagreement and Wright just
doesn't show up.
So they're not sure what'sgoing on.
Stanley and his lawyers arecalling.

(38:43):
They're like where are you?
You're supposed to be signingthis 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'swrong.
When they talk to him, they'relike something is horribly,
horribly wrong with this guy.
He seems terrified.
Oh no, within days, joe Wrightis brutally murdered in his home

(39:05):
, brutally, whoa, and I'm goingto spare people the description
of this.
Read the book, it's worth it.
There is an entire other storyabout Joe Wright that is
heartbreaking and I don't thinkit'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 Barkeris arrested on suspicion of
murder.
They ultimately release him.
They can't find anything thatconnects him to the Joe Wright
murder and he may or may nothave done it it's hard to say.
Barker's then arrested againfor taking Larry Stanley's

(39:47):
Winchester rifle from the caraudio 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 Barkerdidn't show up, finds Barker and

(40:08):
the old Duratron thing guiltyand 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 ofthis to actually make it
profitable.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
But it doesn't?
Oh no, because they can't findBarker.
Oh no, so you know, barkerdidn't show up for the court,
which is part of the reason thatit was such a severe crisis.
Finding was because Barkerwasn't there to fight it.
Oh my God, barker was workingin Arkansas with a company

(40:57):
called the Williams Tool Companyto build something called the
Personal Flying Device.
The Personal Flying Device wasa hovercraft shaped like a beer
can.
Was a hovercraft shaped like abeer can?

Speaker 4 (41:16):
I have seen pictures of this thing.
Yeah, it never worked.
They never got it off theground.

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 hispartner it stops funding it.
He seizes all of the assets,including the non-functioning
hovercraft beer can, and Barkerdecides well, that's my work, I
want that beer can back.

(41:50):
I want that beer can back.
So what Barker does is he meetsup with an old buddy of his,
tom Wade, and they dress all inblack, they sneak to the
Williams Tool Company place atnight dressed in black, with
walkie-talkies, and Barkersneaks in through an air vent

(42:16):
from the outside into thewarehouse where the giant beer
can thing is kept.
But but Tom Wade has gottencold feet along the way and
already called the sheriff.
What, dude, what?
So Barker comes out of the airvent, lands flat on the ground,

(42:38):
all of the lights in the roomturn on and he's surrounded by
like 10 deputies pointing gunsat his head.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
He is, you know, obviously arrested.
And that's not even thecraziest part.
We're about to get to thecraziest part.
Oh my God, barker's released on$100,000 bail.
He manages to get it togethersomehow, right?
Oh, he gets it from a bailbondsman.
Okay, he gets a call from thisguy who's a stuntman named Chris
Wenzel.

(43:19):
Chris Wenzel says hey, I knowyou've done some stunt work.
He did some with Kenny Gibson.
Yeah, and you've done someaeronautics work.
Could you come out to Hollywoodand work with me to film the
controlled crash of an airlinerthat 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 godo 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.

(44:06):
He takes him out on his boatfor a little while, yeah.
Then they head back to NorthHollywood where Wenzel has a
house.
He gets there for a littlewhile, yeah.
Then they head back to NorthHollywood where Wenzel has a
house.
Mm-hmm, he gets there.
Wenzel introduces Barker tothese four men and says these
are the four guys you're goingto be working with.
Barker goes great, seems likethey're nice guys, right, they
walk inside, they sit at akitchen table, they chat for a

(44:27):
little bit.
Everything's really friendly,mm bed, everything's really
friendly.
Then Wenzel pulled out a gunand pointed it straight at
Barker's head.
Within seconds, the convivialmeeting between co-workers has
been transformed into aterrifying violent encounter.
But why?
I'm quoting from the RocketBelt.

(44:48):
Okay, okay, but why?
Barker was sure he had not saidor done anything to upset these
men.
So why was he being held downon the kitchen floor with a
firearm pressed to his head?
Wenzel stood over Barkerbrandishing 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 tieshim up, he interrogates him for
hours.
He's like where's the rocketbelt?
Oh my, what happened to JoeWright?
Whoa?
So remember Barker had beenarrested for murder for Joe
Reich?
Yeah, he was let go.
Yeah, and he just keeps askinghim, he keeps asking him, he

(45:37):
keeps asking him.
Finally he says, okay, youdon't want to talk.
He puts him in a box, screws itshut with a drill.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
Ironically, it was a beer shipping, but go ahead.
Still ironically, it was a beershipping, but go ahead.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Barker is trapped in this box for seven days.
Oh my God, right.
Occasionally they would open itup, 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 himlike a cup of soup or a piece of

(46:17):
pizza or something.
That's all he had.
Wow, and Barker, when he wasasked about this a little bit
later, said I knew that nomatter what happened, like no
matter what I said, they weregoing to kill me.
Yeah, like.
So I wasn't being brave by notsaying anything.
I knew it was the only way thatI could stay alive, right?

(46:40):
So after about seven days hestarts to discover that the
handcuffs that they're using arestarting to slip a little.
Uh-huh.
And he's like okay, I got towait for my chance.
So at some point he's pulledout, he's being interrogated
again.
He's kind of left on the floor,handcuffed to something.

(47:02):
They leave the room, they leavehim in there.
He pops the handcuffs, fliesout the window and runs for
freedom.
Wow, it is so crazy.
So he runs.
Someone is like a goodSamaritan, sees him running Like
the guy's been in a box.
He's a mess.

(47:24):
Yeah, yeah.
And they help him.
They bring him to a phone at adiner 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 likewe want you to show us the
place.
So they start driving back towhere the place was and they see

(47:46):
Wenzel in the car behind himand the FBI just swarm and they
arrest Wenzel.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
I was about to say.
They get to the house andthere's James Mason.
I have no idea what he'stalking 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 theydiscovered along the way had
hired Wenzel, Aha Okay Wassentenced to life plus ten years
Wow.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
Yeah, Wow.
So the being that he's going toget reincarnated from is
already screwed 10 years out oftheir life.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
So he.
Now they end up shorteningLarry Stanley's sentence because
part of the reason theysentenced him so long was that
he refused to admit that he'ddone anything wrong, even though
, along the way, during theinterrogation, 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 havechopped 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 theDuratron suit going on, which
Larry Stanley's family is nowhandling.
Barker thinks, hey, haven't Ibeen through enough?
Can this just be over?
But it is not over.
What?
Oh my gosh.

(49:24):
Barker attempts to have theprevious settlement with the
Rocket Belt overturned.
Yeah, so he can just have legalpossession of the Rocket Belt
overturned.
Yeah, so he can just have legalpossession of the Rocket Belt.
Keep in mind no one has seenthe Rocket Belt in almost 10
years.
At this point, no one knowswhere 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 stillowes the family $10 million.
I guess, oh my gosh.
And the ostensibly he stillowes the family $10 million, I
guess, oh my gosh.
And the judge is like you haveto bring the rocket belt into
court.
We need to see it, Okay, or I'mgoing to charge you with
contempt.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Right.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
On July 19th 2004,.
Barker shows up to the contemptproceedings.
Doesn't bring the rocket belt.
The judge is like, okay, look,one more chance, you are going
to go to jail, man, bring therocket belt.
August 13th, barker shows upwith a big box filled with weird
parts.

(50:24):
No, rocket belt.
The judge reschedules it again.
He is sent to jail indefinitely.
I mean, there's no, it's justcontempt.
So there's no sentence.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
So he's still there.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Nope, oh.
Okay, after six months theyfinally let Barker go.
Okay, still no one has seen therocket belt.
Oh my God, joe Wright's murdernever solved.
Larry Stanley was eventuallyreleased from prison.
He doesn't know where therocket belt is, and this is

(51:02):
where the story ends.
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 generouspeople I ever knew, said Souter.
I cannot think of one bad thingto say about him, nor can I

(51:22):
think of one good thing to sayabout Brad Barker.
As for Larry Stanley, what aloser.
Wow.
Barker and Stanley wereobsessed and blinded by the
notion that they were both goingto learn how to fly and to
become rich and famous, andthat's all they cared about
being rich and famous.
So much so that now Joe is deadand none of them is rich or

(51:47):
famous.
If anything, they are infamous.
As for me, it was the dumbestthing I ever got involved in,
the dumbest.
I do not normally grantinterviews on the subject, and
that will be all I will evertell you about that sad chapter.
Wow, that is the story of theRocket Belt.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
Wow, wow.
This just blows me away's likecrazy, right.
It's like arguing over whoinvented 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 theynever got it to work for more
than 20, 25 seconds.
I know it was useless, oh myGod.
I mean, obviously Kenny Gibsonwas 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'rewatching a show at Disneyland,
folks just understand thatthere's some serious backstory
of what you're watching.
Yeah, Like stuff happens behindthe 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 thatpoint.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
Yeah, so I think this is the point of our show now,
now that Kelly has regaled uswith this amazing story here, so
here's my plus-up People willarrive at Tomorrowland, yes, and
they will be put in a box forseven days and ritually beaten
until where's the Rocketeersequel?
Where's that going to happen?

(53:33):
I don't know how.
Okay, kidding aside, yes, Idon't know what my plus up with
this would be.
I know, I have to go back intime 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, knowingall this, now, right, yeah, it

(53:57):
makes me like it even less.
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 payhomage to the Rocketeer a little
bit more at the park with somesort of attraction.
They could easily reskin aroller coaster like the Tron
coaster in Shanghai and turn itso that way you are bent forward

(54:20):
, but you're all Rocketeers,yeah, and it's a Rocketeer
roller coaster, yeah, that wouldbe cool.
And that's about as far as I gowith my plus up on this one,
because anything beyond this isjust like it's just dumb.
Yeah, you're like this wholething is just so crazy that I

(54:41):
don't know how you can plus thisup except going just ignore it
and let's do something with theRocketeer.

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 symbolof male fragility that men will
kill and kidnap over 20 secondsof pleasure.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
It's just.
I mean, doesn't it just sum uppost-war America in so many ways
?
It's just like there's so much,there's ambition, there's
wonder, there's possibility, andit descends into just obsession
and greed and this A cameo withWilliam 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 hurtsa 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 isterrifyingly bad.
But I've known people like this, having grown up in Silicon
Valley.
You meet people who are thisobsessed with this type of thing

(55:52):
where they go, this obsessedwith 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 reallyisn'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 toeven imagine this level of
obsession, right, yeah, Likethere'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 atthis point.
Oh, it absolutely is yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Part of the story, what makes it so fascinating?
None of except for poor JoeWright.
And there is a whole lot moreto that story, and please do go
read the book.
Oh yes, absolutely.
None of these people are nicepeople Like Bill Souter's great,
he seems like a good guy BillSouter 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 youguys 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'shard to speak to that sort of
obsession, like why did you evencare 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 havea long fuel line over to your
rocket pack and I put my fuelline 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 rightit is.
It's that level of insanity.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
There will be blood, but there will be rockets.
Daniel Day-Lewis will playBarker 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 showthis futuristic rocket pack
thing Around the time.
Isaac Asimov said we're about10 years away from home rocket
packs.
Like no, you're not.
Yeah, this is never going tohappen.

Speaker 4 (58:17):
People will travel around in pneumatic people tubes
.
Wait a second.
Hold on there.
What I never said people wouldbe eating prunes in the future.
What kind of thing are thesepeople 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 ademonstration of transportation
of the future, just reopen thedamn 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, likethrough 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 Xersare totally okay with this.
Okay, we're fine.
We were fine with the bendyaction 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 futuredoubly 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 ournext shirt with a picture of the
rocket guy flying right throughthe O of doubly.
So yeah, All right, With that.
Again, I want to encouragepeople the rocket belt cap.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
So, yeah, all right With that.
Again, I want to encouragepeople.
The Rocket Belt Caper by PaulBrown Really really well worth
it and if you can find a copy,pretty Bird.

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
Yes, Pretty.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Bird, which actually focuses a little bit more on the
Joe Wright story, which is atragic and sad story.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
Yeah, yeah, no, I'm glad that they immortalized him
in a good way.
Yeah, so that's good.
Well, anyway, so I'm PeterOverstreet.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
And I'm Kelly Rocketbelt McCubbin.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
You've been listening to.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
The Lowdown on the Plus Up.
If you have, please tell yourfriends where you found us, and

(01:00:45):
if you haven't, we can pretendthis never happened and need not
speak of it again.
For a lot more thoughts ontheme parks and related stuff,
check out my writing forBoardWalkTimes at
BoardWalkTimesnet.
Feel free to reach out to Peteand I on our Lowdown on the Plus
Up Facebook group or send us amessage directly at comments at
lowdown-plus-upcom.

(01:01:07):
We really want to hear abouthow you'd plus these attractions
up and read some of your ideason the show.
Our theme music is GoblinTinker Soldier Spy by Kevin
MacLeod at incompetechcom.
We'll have a new episode outreal soon.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Why?
Because we like you.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Disneyland's second decade is appropriately
inaugurated as a jet-propelledman blasts off from Tomorrowland
.

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
Ever since man has watched birds in flight, he has
had a desire to fly like this ©.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
BF-WATCH TV 2021.

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The Rocket Belt Saga Part Two - Biddy, Biddy, Murder!

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Rocket Belt Saga Part Two - Biddy, Biddy, Murder!