Wednesday, August 15, 2018

The Story of Mr. World, narrated by Lowell Thomas Jr.


This is the record sleeve for Volume 1 of The Story of Mr. World, which was produced in 1962 by Replogle Globes, a Chicago company that was founded in 1930 and, fighting the good fight against the Flat Earthers, remains a significant manufacturer of globes today.

The Story of Mr. World is a 33-1/3 RPM record that was narrated by Lowell Thomas Jr., who was writing about Forbidden Tibet when we last met him here on Papergreat. His tale is apparently so enchanting that Dad grabbed his pipe and wandered over to listen for a few minutes.

According to the information on the back of the record sleeve, The Story of Mr. World is a "new adventure in learning!" Here's an excerpt:
"Listen to this dramatic 15-minute sound-and-story narrative, and you'll discover more excitement in a globe than you ever dreamed of. ... As entertaining as it is educational, you hear the sounds of the earth — rain, ocean surf, hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes — thrill to the roar of jets, the fiery blastoff of spaceships streaking skyward! Now — for the first time — a world globe becomes a living, talking wonderland of knowledge — fascinating to all ages! All through their school years, children will play it again and again as a constant aid in the study and use of the globe."


This record wasn't, I believe, sold alone. It would have come with the purchase of a Replogle globe, one that was intended for home educational use. Here's an advertisement I found on a November 1966 page of The Des Moines Register.

Tue, Nov 15, 1966 – 8 · The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, Iowa) · Newspapers.com

I don't typically embed YouTube videos, but here, for the sake of completeness and for the curious, are Thinkbolt's YouTube videos featuring Volume 1 and Volume 2 of The Story of Mr. World. Pull Dad away from his bills, extinguish his pipe, and have a listen!



1 comment:

  1. Any relation to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Replogle? (What I knew the name Reploge from).

    ReplyDelete