The Alphabet Conspiracy

The Bell Science TV specials that feature Frank Baxter as "Mr. Research" have certainly etched themselves in a great many Baby Boomer and Generation Xer minds, being a regular part of the US public (and private) school curriculum well into the 1980s. To the cinema enthusiast, they have plenty of interesting credits and can conveniently be split into two "phases". The first four were produced and directed by Frank Capra on a somewhat modest scale, with just an "imagination screen" where most of the action takes place, and are a trifle more preachy and "religious" in tone. The later four came from Warner Bros. (with its in-house animators and directors like Owen Crump) and, despite their more straight-forward and "secular" approach, boast over-the-top art direction and production sets that only a major Burbank studio can provide.

It is obvious which batch THE ALPHABET CONSPIRACY belongs to. Frank Baxter, the ever smiling bald host, takes homework-ridden Judy into a dream-like fantasy-land full of over-sized books and assorted props that the WB set department must have loved working on. Hans Conried provides high comedy as the Mad Hatter in a spoof of Lewis Carroll, as he attempts to destroy the alphabet and "words" in general. (Both he and Frank Baxter were veteran voices of "old time" radio: check out "CBS Radio Workshop: Joe Miller's Joke Book" from 11/4/56 for a half-hour program which sounds just like an "audio" Bell Science show.) What results is a history and study of human speech and dialect, starting with baby talk and including such novelty subjects as whistling calls in the Canary Islands. Great use of Warner's stock footage (from its many live-action short subjects in addition to outside sources) and funny animation from the Friz Freleng unit (done in between Bugs Bunny cartoons) adds to the light-hearted lecturing.

What makes all of these shows so endearing is Baxter's enthusiasm for the material he presents, as well as his attempts to "fit in" with the current generation. Case in point is his hilarious attempts to speak "beat jive" to Shorty Rogers, the jazzy "dig it" hip-cat. (We could easily picture him attempting hip-hop lingo had this been made in the eighties.) Most importantly, he never talks down to his audience, but "shares" with them the Big Bright Wonderful World he's exploring.

Fans of this series often have mixed opinions of THE ALPHABET CONSPIRACY, because it is the most over-produced of the bunch, with the material being a bit too "sugar-coated" and less "in-depth" than the others. Apparently there was some criticism back in 1959, since the following production THREAD OF LIFE was made in a much more low-key manner (with people on TV monitors conversing with Baxter). THAT one proved too "dry", so they returned to the Over-The-Top treatment (but with some moderation) in ABOUT TIME.

I fondly remember "The Alphabet Conspiracy" as part of what we called the Bell Telephone Science series. Like many Baby Boomers who went to parochial schools, we had little in the way of instructional material in the '50s and '60s. We looked forward to the manager of the local Bell office bringing in a canister with the latest installment in the series. It also meant we got out of class for an hour while watching the latest film.

Bell Telephone (which at the time was the nation's ONLY real phone company and had an office in most every small town) produced a series on various topics, most of it related so science. In many of the episodes an uncle-like professor, Dr. Frank Baxter, did the hosting. Sometimes he was assisted by actor Richard Carlson ("Creature From the Black Lagoon" and "I Led Three Lives") in explaining science to young people.

I remember the shows as being full of animation, packed with information and hosted by Baxter, who, in his own leisurely way, made us forget we were actually learning while watching.

At the time I was too young to realize that Daws Butler (famous as the voice of nearly all the voices from the "Yogi Bear Show" and his monumental work with Stan Freberg) was one of the animation voices on "The Alphabet Conspiracy."

For many of us, Dr. Frank Baxter was as comfortable part of our childhood as were Walt Disney and Buffalo Bob.