Thomas Edison's Talking Doll Will Be Displayed At Smithsonian

Transcript

ARUN RATH, HOST:

One man's cute is another man's creepy. Take talking dolls - a lot of people find them adorable. I feel more like that Telly Savals character in that old "Twilight Zone" episode.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TWILIGHT ZONE")

TRACY STRATFORD: (As Christie Streator) She's alive, Daddy, and her name is Talky Tina.

JUNE FORAY: (As Talky Tina) My name is Talky Tina, and I love you very much.

TELL SAVALAS: (As Erich Streator) Will you shut that thing off?

FORAY: (As Talky Tina) My name is Talky Tina, and I'm going to kill you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RATH: Well, you might be surprised or disturbed to learn that the talking doll was invented by Thomas Edison. His company produced a few thousand dolls back in 1890. And for some reason, they were a big flop. I wonder why?

(SOUNDBITE OF TALKING DOLL)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As talking doll) Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.

RATH: (Disgusted) That's what kids heard when they turned the crank on the back of the Edison Talking Doll.

PETER LIEBHOLD: Because the recording levels were very low, they had to speak loudly. And by speaking loudly, what I really mean is they screamed. So hearing a screeching voice of a woman screaming, the nursery rhyme was upsetting to children rather than comforting.

RATH: That's Peter Liebhold. He's one of the curators of an upcoming Smithsonian exhibit called American Enterprise, and the Edison Talking Doll will be one of his main attractions. Even though the doll was a commercial failure for Thomas Edison, it was still pretty awesome for its time.

LIEBHOLD: Oh, the Talking Doll is beyond awesome. This is one of the first times that people have recorded voices. In 1877, Thomas Edison invents the notion of recorded sound. There was not a lot of commercial exploitation of the process. Talking dolls in 1890 was a very early opportunity for people to hear a device speaking to them.

RATH: After Edison gave up on the idea, these dolls sat silent for decades. But as NPR's Neda Ulaby reports, thanks to recent audio restoration work, their voices are being heard once again.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: And you may never unhear this glassy-eyed cherub shrieking out a child's prayer.

(SOUNDBITE OF TALKING DOLL)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As doll) As I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

ULABY: That's most likely one of Edison's female factory workers imitating a little girl, or so says Jerry Fabris. He curates sound recordings at Thomas Edison National Historical Park. Fabris says Edison was, for the first time, trying to market the then brand-new wax-cylinder phonograph for people to use at home. He thought the best vehicle would be a doll.

JERRY FABRIS: About two feet tall - it would have wooden arms and legs.

ULABY: Encased in its metal body was a miniature phonograph, spring-activated by a crank sticking out of the doll's back. Edison knew the sound quality was raw, so he had the dolls recite recognizable verses, like "Hickory Dickory Dock."

(SOUNDBITE OF TALKING DOLL)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As doll) Hickory, dickory, dock. The mouse ran up the clock.

ULABY: Were these pleasant to listen to back in 1890?

FABRIS: No, I don't think so. Edison himself thought they were unpleasant.

ULABY: So did everyone else. The dolls flopped in the market, not because people thought they were creepy, but because they were expensive - about $200 in today's money. And people thought the dolls were not lifelike enough. They wanted moving mouths and the dolls' voices to be understandable. Edison stopped making the talking dolls after about a month.

FABRIS: After the business failed, he referred to them as little monsters.

ULABY: Which raises a larger question - why do we find talking dolls so scary?

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CHILD'S PLAY")

BRAD DOURIF: (As Chucky) Hi, I'm Chucky. Want to play?

CATHERINE HICKS: (As Karen Barclay) (Screaming).

ULABY: A talking toy belongs in an unsettling middle space, says horror scholar Caetlin Benson-Allott. It's human, but not that human.

CAETLIN BENSON-ALLOTT: Where it's both familiar and different, and we don't kind of understand if it's entirely dead or entirely alive.

ULABY: It's what Sigmund Freud called the uncanny, she says, and we can feel it as a subconscious holdover from childhood when we pretend our dolls are real. Even as knowing grown-ups, it's that lurking apprehension, she says.

BENSON-ALLOTT: That that doll is actually alive and watching me.

ULABY: Benson-Allott says we've probably freaked ourselves out with dolls for as long as we've used dolls - in rituals and in play. When we give anything power, she says, from a talking doll to technology, there's a sense - even a fear - that that power might turn back on us.

(SOUNDBITE OF TALKING DOLL)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As doll) Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above...

ULABY: Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

RATH: And if your travels should take you through Washington, D.C. this summer, you can check out one of those Thomas Edison dolls at the Smithsonian's American Enterprise exhibit. It'll feature mostly success stories, but curator Peter Liebhold wanted to include one of Edison's failures, too.

LIEBHOLD: For the notion of invention, innovation, failure is really important concept in the United States, that risk-taking is something that makes the notion of getting to the next level possible. And the United States is very good about accepting failure. People don't remember you for your failures and do remember you for successes.

RATH: The exhibit opens July 1 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.