A bored housewife, her “chromium butler,” and a condescending workman from Ray’s Robot Repair star in Leave It to Roll-Oh (1940), a film short originally shown at the New York World’s Fair of 1939-40. Roll-Oh answers the door, vacuums the rug (with his foot), and makes dinner, among other domestic chores, thus freeing the housewife to … read magazines? Don’t miss the repairman’s impressive use of techno-babble to confound a presumably ignorant female client, a scenario that’s not exactly extinct in today’s world. Wish she’d use that button marked “Scram!”
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Roll-Oh the Household Robot Solves All Domestic Problems in 1940
By
Lynn Peril
Reading time 1 minute
