Volume 8 – Working Together v. Working to Part

A little back-history concerning Reddy The Firetruck.

In the mid 1970’s my wife and I lived in Colorado Springs. I worked as Promotions Manager for KRDO TV/Radio. The manager of the station bought a remote controlled, R2D2 type robot (capitalizing on the STAR WARS craze) to use at events to promote the stations. An operator was required and I was it.

So KR-DO and I went to schools, conventions, fairs, etc. I’d mingle in the crowd and covertly run the robot via a joy stick in a bag over my shoulder and a small mic – just like Brad does here with Reddy. The robot would run around, tooting and talking and playing music. I was good with the robot quips and KR-DO was quite a hit. I thought, “Hm. There may be a career here.” My wife and I had been yearning to move back to our roots in California and I’d even interviewed at some TV/Radio stations there. Could I make a business of renting out as a Robot Entertainer? “There’s only one way to find out,” said Anything-Is-Possible-Betty.

We plunked down $7,500 for our very own robot, loaded up a U-Haul and moved to SoCal. Within a few months, I was heavily booked with my new act, Maxwel The Robot. In the 5 years leading up to the birth of LUANN in 1985, my sole income was from gigs for clients such as The California State Fair, Seaport Village, Chase Bank, IBM, Bank of America, The San Diego Zoo and hundreds of others. I even bought a second robot in an attempt to franchise (that didn’t work – too hard to find a good operator).

Today, the original Maxwel lives out his retirement in a comfy crate in my garage. The second robot was donated to a school electronics class.