Modern Inventions 1937

Inside the Museum of Modern Marvels, a gleaming showcase of futuristic electronic gadgets and clever inventions, Donald Duck, Clarence Nash steps in with wide-eyed curiosity. He slips a coin into the admission box, lets it dangle on a string, and yank it back out as the doors whoosh shut behind him.

Right away, he encounters the Robot Butler, Billy Bletcher, a gleaming gold robot cyclops whose job is to greet guests and collect hats, yet it has a mischievous flaw: it eagerly nabs hats whether you want it to or not. Donald protests as the Butler snatches his hat, but the quick-witted trickster tosses out a magic act and conjures a top hat of his own.

The tour of marvels continues with a robot hitchhiker exhibit that raises a mechanical thumb for a ride when Donald imitates a passing ambulance. The hitcher misreads the cue and, in a playful punishment for fooling it, pokes him in the eyes as if to say, “try that again.” The Robot Butler reappears and claims his top hat, yet Donald responds with another flourish of illusion, producing a bicorne instead.

A bundle-wrapping machine catches his eye, and a sign that says not to touch it does little to deter him. He pulls the lever, and in a comically rapid sequence he finds himself wrapped in cellophane with a red ribbon. After a triumphant wiggle to free himself, the Butler swoops in and takes his newly produced bicorne. The magician’s hat trick returns, yielding a kepi, which only seems to taunt the Butler as it launches a chase.

Desperation leads Donald to hide inside a robotic baby carriage, the Robot Baby Carriage, Adriana Caselotti, where he swaps his kepi for a bonnet. The carriage treats him like a precious bundle, cooing and offering a milk bottle that squirts milk straight into his face. He tries to escape, but the carriage retaliates with a puppet toy that thwacks him, more milk sprays out, a diaper is slapped on him, and tickling ensues. Finally freed, he emerges only to find the Butler already there, snatching his bonnet with a sly beaming grin.

A magic trick yields another bowler hat, and the search for a new perch pushes Donald to a robotic barber chair, the Robot Barber Chair, Cliff Edwards, activated with a quick coin. The chair tilts him upside-down, polishes his tail, and gives his head a shine worthy of a showroom. When he lands, he slides the bowler hat onto his freshly gleaming head with pride, only to have the Butler return and claim that hat once more.

The frustration boils over in a final, explosive tantrum. The hat-stealing spectacle closes with Donald’s act of defiance against the hat-loving automaton, a chaotic but playful testament to the whimsical dangers and delights found inside the Museum of Modern Marvels.