Red Skelton: The Neanderthal Man, Ancient Greek Flyer, Medieval Flyer, Winged Bicycle Rider, Winged Car Rider, Jet Pack Tester, Ornithopter Pilot, Passenger in Airport
Quotes
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[first lines]
The Neanderthal Man : [watches a gull flying over a beach]
Narrator : Ever since man started to think, he's wanted to fly. But flying was strictly for the birds.
The Neanderthal Man : [flapping his arms enthusiastically, he leaps from a sandy bluff and falls onto the beach below]
Narrator : And continued to be so for thousands of years.
[in ancient Greece, a man wearing makeshift wings is forced at swordpoint off a temple roof]
Narrator : Man, eternally optimistic, kept trying.
[a man in medieval times, also in man-made wings, jumps from a cliff, after which a variety of failed experimental flying machines from the late 1800s are depicted]
Narrator : Encouraged by his many successes, man kept trying. Through his genius and his inventiveness, he managed to get his machines off the ground - and sometimes, he brought them down again.
[Count Emilio Ponticelli is seen starting his flying machine]
Narrator : All over the world, early pioneers were making flying history. And in Italy, Count Emilio Ponticelli made what many people claim was the first long-distance flight.
[the screen widens, as Ponticelli is seen crashing about 100 feet after taking off]
Narrator : There was no doubt about it; by nineteen hundred and ten, flying had become the rage - man had conquered the air, and people everywhere were all agog about those magnificent men in their flying machines.
