Bob Welbaum: Technology and the Collector
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Technology and the Collector
First there was Velcro. Then came Post-It notes. To this list of “Whatever did we do before we had these?” inventions, I’d like to add a third: the cell phone.
Now I’m at the point in my life where learning new technologies do not come easily. But this is one gadget I’ve come to realize is indispensable – helped along by some friends who quickly grew tired of me constantly borrowing their phones in theme parks. And as a Disney fanatic, I’ve learned a cell phone has some really unique uses.
I’m sure we’ve all done the taunting “Guess where I am ?” call to someone back home as we’re boarding a “Matterhorn” bobsled, a “Pirates of the Caribbean” boat, or more diabolically, just as we’re starting through “It’s a Small World.” That kind of call comes with the territory.
Personally, I’ve found cell phones very useful when shopping for souvenirs. I always pick up gifts for my neighbor’s kids, and I have discovered through hard experience that their tastes change rapidly, especially when they’re small. It seems like I’m always one iteration behind the latest fad, and have been disappointed several times when my gift selections have been met with indifference rather than the rapt enthusiasm I’d envisioned. Now when I see something I think they’ll like, I can turn on my phone, call and ask them: “I’ve just found _______ in the ______ Shop. If I get it for you, will you promise to play with it/wear it/eat it when I get home?”
I felt I really discovered my phone’s potential at last year’s NFFC Convention, held on July 11-15 at the Crowne Plaza Resort Hotel in Garden Grove, CA. During Sunday’s Show And Sale, the renowned miniatures artist Robert Olszewski was offering some Winnie the Pooh figurines… and on sale no less! My aforementioned neighbor’s daughter has become an avid Winnie the Pooh collector -- and she is old enough that her tastes weren’t going to change by her November birthday. So I bought her one. Then I couldn’t resist calling her (she’s easy to reach; as a teenager, her phone is always on) to say “I just found your birthday present!” And that’s all I told her. She had to wait until November to see my surprise, although it turned out to be a long wait for me, too.
But the real coup was during the club’s “Part of Their World” dinner. This was a special event the day after the convention where the club takes over a restaurant – in this case Ariel’s Grotto in Disney’s California Adventure -- and invites Disney celebrities to join us. Each celebrity draws a table, then has dinner with the club members who happen to be seated there.
As we began, I quickly realized that one of the invited celebrities was June Foray. June is a legendary Hollywood voice artist; her Disney contributions include voicing Grandmother Fa in Mulan, Magica de Spell on Ducktales, and Grammi Gummi on Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears. But her best-know role was as Rocket J. Squirrel on Jay Ward’s The Bullwinkle Show… plus Natasha and Nell for this classic’s other segments.
I had always been a fan of Rocky and Bullwinkle. June had appeared in a panel discussion at an earlier NFFC Convention, and I had sneaked out to the parking lot afterward just to shake her hand.
But then I remembered my younger brother Greg was an even bigger fan, and I immediately thought of another use for my cell phone.
We were running late to begin with; we’d had to wait for the regular restaurant patrons to clear out before we could start. And (of course) June didn’t draw our table. But just after 9 pm local time, the event was opened up and we could visit anyone in the room.
Fortunately, the seat next to her was open, so I sat down, introduced myself, then asked “My brother is a big Rocky and Bullwinkle fan. If I get him on the phone, will you talk to him?” She graciously agreed and I began pushing buttons.
Now picture a room full of Disney personalities and fanatics happily chatting away, and you’ll realize the sound level was about three decibels below that of your typical boiler factory. I have a really cheap phone (but that’s another story) and could barely hear it ring. First I retreated to the only quiet place I could find – the men’s room – until I realized I couldn’t get a signal there. I finally had to tough it out standing in the doorway with a finger in the opposite ear.
My brother and his family happened to be visiting Mom in Florida about a hundred miles north of Tampa, so the time there was just past midnight. The fact that it took awhile for someone to pick up was not a good omen.
Mom finally answered, and as I walked back to June’s table the conversation went something like this:
“Is Greg awake?”
“No, he just went to bed.”
“Well, get him up!”
Mom has never fathomed this collecting mania (please see my July 6, 2005 column), so she naturally assumed something terrible had happened, and I didn’t have time to explain. My brother was understandably confused when he came to the phone and I said – in my most casual voice – “I’m at the club’s collectors’ dinner and June Foray is here. Would you like to speak to her?” That put him in the bewildering position of being suddenly awoken from a sound sleep to be told one of his childhood heroes wanted to speak to him with Mom yelling “Is everything okay?” in the background.
After two rounds of a groggy “I don’t know what to say,” I simply handed the phone to June. “Here’s my brother.”
Unfortunately, she couldn’t hear any better than I could, so she just started talking as Natasha. When she handed the phone back thirty seconds later, she had everyone within earshot in stitches.
“Could you hear that.”
“Yes, I could. Thank you very much.”
“Great! You can go back to sleep. Goodbye.”
My next fear was the following morning Greg would simply assume he’d dreamed the whole thing. So I further imposed upon June for a picture just so I’d have incontrovertible proof. She graciously agreed to this, too. I just hope this event was as much fun for her as it was for us.
Of course, my octogenarian mother, who is not good with new technology either, still doesn’t understand what the fuss was all about. But that’s okay; I’ll explain it to her as soon as she masters Velcro.
Discuss It
-- Bob Welbaum
Bob Welbaum is a longtime Disneyana fan and NFFC member from the Dayton, Ohio area.
-- February 8, 2008
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