Elektro

Elektro is a robot built for the 1938 World's Faire by J.M. Barnett, Jack Weeks Sr., Harold Gorsuch, and other engineers at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. He can walk, talk, smoke a cigarette, everything that being a human requires! He's a really cool example of early robotics and what humans imagined the robots of the future to look like. In 1940 he got a dog!

Links

• Electro - Wikipedia
• ELEKTRO the Westinghouse Robot
• YouTube: Rare Footage of Elektro the Robot and His Dog Sparko (1940s)
• YouTube: [4k, 50fps, Color] 1939 New York World's Fair."The World of Tomorrow" Featuring "Elektro the Robot"

In the 1960's, Elektro starred in the movie "Sex Kittens go to College" which is about what you'd expect. He plays the robot Thinko, an artificial intelligence who is able to predict winning lottery numbers and the winners of betting races, who is the target of criminal activity and ends up breaking down. He's nursed back to health by Dr. Mathilda West, the new proffesor and a 'blonde bombshell' hiding the controversy of her past career as a burlesque dancer. The film is most known for a 9-minute burlesque dream sequence performed for Thinko as he lays sick.

Obviously, the film is rated R, and features some nudity. While its avaliable in-full online, I will leave that up to you to find if you are inclined (and old enough).

I just think the story is hilarious. Once World's Faire star attraction, now starring in cheesy adult films. Oh Elektro what did they do to you?

He has now been safely restored and refurbished and lives on display at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation museum right where he was made.