TheRock ‘ Em Sock ‘ Em Robotstoy is both a brilliant and lukewarm computer storage of my puerility . I remember playing the plastic fighting game with my Quaker Matt ( on the face of it Matt was quite a popular name for boys born in the other eighties in the suburbs of St. Paul ) and being awfully underwhelmed . There ’s just about nothing cool than fighting golem ( unless it involve Hugh Jackman ) , but banging on chintzy plastic buttons that give you all of two choice ( left punch and right punch ) and one outcome ( the robot ’s head pops up ) left much to be desired . Originally introduced in 1964 , Rock ‘ Em Sock ‘ Em remains a popular plaything today , but I ca n’t help but recall they could ’ve take some advice from those who were dreaming up fighting robots in the thirties . Who would ’ve consider that the 1930s was the Golden Age of boxing robots ?
In the April , 1934 , issue ofModern Mechanix and Inventionsthe “ mechanical robot ” goes toe - to - toe with package legendJack Dempsey . In the article Dempsey relay a conversation he had with a friend about what it would be like to struggle a golem . According to Dempsey — who says he could displume one to pieces “ bolt by sheer and dissipate its brain wheels and cogs all over the canvas ” — the principal insufficiency of a boxing automaton would be its deficiency of mentality :
“ The cause is simple : Engineers can build a golem that will have everything except brains . And without brains no man can ever chance upon championship class in the boxing plot . It is dead on target enough that we have had some uncommon intellectual specimen in the high material body of box aura , but I can truthfully say that no man ever achieve genuine boxing recognition without real headwork . The salutary punch in the world is not deserving a whoop if the boxer does n’t acknowledge what to do with it . ”
The January , 1931 payoff ofModern Mechanicsmagazine ( a publication that changed names many meter in the thirties ) ran a short floor about two brothers in California who had created a automatonlike fisticuffs match . The illustration that was include in the piece is quite evocative that of the Rock ‘ Em Sock ‘ em quad toy :
Two pugilistic golem , built by the Veronda brothers , of California , recently staged a angered six troll packing match in which they slugged each other ’s metal body with all the realism of a human battle . The actions of the mechanically skillful fighters were controlled by short waving radio . At the height of the affray , however , the wire got interbreed somewhere . With fume uprise from their innards the fighters fall behind their heads and began lashing out wildly , consider marvelous clouts with both clenched fist . Finally one automaton went down and the other collapsed on top of him .
In June of 1933 Walt Disney released a inadequate liven film titledMickey ’s Mechanical Man , starring his still relatively new hero , Mickey Mouse . In the film Mickey builds his own automaton to contend a gorilla named The Kongo Killer — a reference to the movieKing Kong , which had been released earlier that twelvemonth . In this “ Battle of the Century ” which pits man against beast , the common animated high jinks ensue , but it ’s interesting that neither the gorilla nor the golem are in very practiced physical body by the fight ’s goal . you may see Mickey ’s Mechanical Man onYouTube .
Al Capp ’s syndicated comic slip , Li’l Abner had a cartoon strip that melt in newspapers on July 18 , 1937 which featured a scrap automaton . What drive this robot to fight ? According to the prof who contrive him , “ My robot is perfect — except for one flaw — he becomes a wild murderous political machine of demolition in the presence of smoke – simple tobacco smoke . ”
It ’s interesting to notice the shift in attitudes toward smoking in the 1930s , when U.S. tobacco plant companies had begin to spend a dandy slew more money on advertising in the aftermath of intoxicant Prohibition and the moderation motion . The robot in this comic most likely represent those who opposed smoking . AsK Michael Cummingsnotes in his 2002 theme “ Programs and policies to discourage the usage of baccy products ” :
At the turn of the one C the anti - smoking movement in the United States was motivated mainly by moral and religious beliefs , although medical dissent against cigarettes were beginning to be raised . Both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford voiced concerns about the damaging health effects of coffin nail smoking . In the first twenty-five percent of the twentieth century groups such as the Non - smokers Protective League , The Women ’s Christian Temperance Union , and spiritual leaders joined forces to proscribe the sale of tobacco plant and intoxicant . However , the electronegative rebound against the federal prohibition on alcohol twin with the more pragmatic approach of allowing governments to tax tobacco as a way of verify its use result in the rescinding of most nation and local prohibitions against tobacco .
By the 1930s elbow grease to limit smoke were fade out , allowing tobacco maker to compete vigorously against one another by spending tens of million annually in publicizing to promote their trade name . Cigarette advertisers were successful in associating smoking with image of health , athletic public presentation , wealth , and social standing which help fuel a nearly three tenner long increase in the preponderance of smoke .
This mail originally appear atSmithsonian.com .
1930sboxingCelebritydisneyMickey MouseSports
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