The Children's Corner: Episode 4102

Broadcast Date: 1955

After welcoming the viewers with the Why Hi Song, Josie asks Daniel if he knows what nylon is made of. He doesn’t, so Josie explains the recipe of making nylon out of “coal and water and air” which she has read in “Diane’s chemistry book.” Daniel fails to understand her lengthy scientific explanation, but “bear[s] with it.”

Daniel then notices that the telephone on Josie’s counter (which is usually a rotary telephone) has been swapped for an old candlestick telephone. Josie is skeptical that it even works (as it doesn't even have a cord) but Daniel tries it and hears a faint message from "A.G. Bell." Daniel thinks that it must be Alexander Graham Bell from the past. Daniel tells him that it is now 1955 and Josie assures him that he need not worry about the success of the telephone in the future. Daniel then makes out that Mr. Bell’s full name is actually Alexander Graham Bell V (implying that he is only a descendant of the famous inventor). Josie is disappointed that they have not actually found a way to go back in time, but she and Daniel still enjoy talking about where they would go back in time if they could.

Josie tries the telephone again and reaches the operator whom she asks to connect her to “the king”. Rather than King Friday, she gets someone speaking a different language, so she decides to just go visit King Friday in person.

At the castle, King Friday shares that his valet (the person who helps him dress) has left town, but proudly shows off his attempt at dressing himself. Josie points out that his Tame Tiger button is on his back… and his entire robe is in fact backwards. Embarrassed, King Friday rushes inside and rectifies the robe and Josie promises not to tell a soul about it (brushing over the fact that they may or may not be on television at the moment).

Still puzzled about what happened to her telephone, Josie begins reading the patent numbers on it, before transitioning to the Attic. In the Attic, Phil and Rhoda have agreed that it is time to send Baby Dendron to school, but despite many “up-to-date, progressive” elements there is unfortunately no school in the Attic. Fretting about their “little slip of a plant” going through life uneducated, they decide to call an emergency meeting of The Attic Cultural Movement Society.

Still confused about her phone, Josie learns that it was Lady Elaine Fairchilde who switched out the telephone for the older model. Lady Elaine suggests that the phone can be used only for calls to wherever she is currently located. The regular telephone was taken so Lady Elaine could make long distance calls at someone else's cost. Josie hopes to have her usual phone back by her next visit as she concludes by singing Good Morning, God.

Screenshots

Appearing In This Episode

In order of appearance

• Josie Carey
• Daniel Striped Tiger
• King Friday XIII
• King Friday's Valet [mentioned only]
• Phil O. Dendron
• Rhoda Dendron
• Foo Foo Fish
• Bill Bookworm
• Gramma Phone
• Dick T. Phone [mentioned only]
• Lady Elaine Fairchilde

Cast

• Josie Carey
• Fred Rogers

Locations

• Josie’s counter
• Cuckoo Clock
• Castle (Calendarland)
• Schoolhouse [seen but not visited]
• Oak Tree [seen but not visited]
• Attic
• Eiffel Tower

Songs

• Why Hi Song
• Good Morning, God
• So Long Song

Notes

• Of the surviving Children’s Corner footage, this is the first to have a more “three-dimensional” set. Prior to this, the set background was a flat painted backdrop with holes in it for the puppets. This upgraded set has some textures and dimensional elements added, though it is still primarily just a backdrop compared to the later Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
• As usual, Josie, Daniel, and the rest of the puppets are wearing Tame Tiger buttons.
• Josie suggests that she would like to go back to the time of the Ancient Greeks if she could, but Daniel thinks that they didn’t like tigers too much then.
• King Friday mentions that he is near-sighted (the likely reason for his not realizing his robe was on backwards)
• When Josie asks King Friday if he knows of any kings that speak German or Swedish that might have been who she spoke to on the telephone, he suggests King Canute, but Josie doesn’t think so. In history, King Canute was the king of England, Denmark, and then Norway in the 11th century AD.
• Transitioning to the Attic, Josie says “let’s visit our friends in It’s a Small World”. While it is unclear exactly what this reference means based on the surviving footage, it could be referring to the “small world” within the Attic or “small world” of the Children’s Corner neighbors that Josie and Fred created [as shown in the map on the insheet of the 1954 book Our Small World]. It is clear however that there was some connection between this phrase “It’s a small world” and The Children’s Corner, particularly the Attic segments. Josie always uses this phrase when transitioning to the Attic and the 1954 Children’s Corner book is entitled Our Small World. Fred later named his for profit production company Small World Enterprises, before founding the nonprofit Family Communications, Inc. It should be made clear that Josie and Fred were using the phrase “It’s a small world” regularly a decade before the Disney park ride and song of that name were created, and it was a phrase in public use (for example it was the title of a 1935 movie) long before Fred and Josie used it, let alone Disney.
• When Rhoda has the idea to enlist the help of the rest of the Attic with the school dilemma, she says she feels “like Horace Mann.” Horace Mann was a 19th century American politician often called the “Father of American Education” or “Father of the Common School” due to his strong commitment to promoting public education.
• Previous emergency meetings of The Attic Cultural Movement Society have been called to address when Ino A. Horse was sitting in the middle of the Attic “blocking all progress to and from Gramma Phone” (resulting in traffic regulations) and when Lawrene Light loved cabbage so much he was fixing every day and they couldn’t get the window open to the point that “the air in the Attic wasn’t fit to breathe” (resulting in a vote that cooked cabbage can only be eaten once a month).
• Gramma Phone shares that when she was a girl, she attended the Polyphonic School of Volume Control where she met her her "departed" husband, Dick T. Phone. Dick T. Phone is not deceased but simply "departed in Chicago."

Episode Credits

The Children's Corner
Created by Josie Carey and Fred Rogers
Technical Supervision: Larry Flavin
Directed by James Miller
Produced by Fred Rogers
From WQED -- First in community television