Interesting film about the very first proto communication satellite, which was really just a massive balloon. It was put up to test bouncing signals off of it to the opposite side of the country. The idea of geosynchronous satellites seemed far in the future at the time, though the first was launched just a few years later. I'm sure they'd be shocked by the number of satellites in orbit around the Earth now. Makes one wonder what technology seems so far into the future now that will be commonplace 61 years from now.

Geostationary satellites parked in orbit 22,300 miles (35,900 km) above the earth were launched a few years later, not "far in the future." Actually, the Syncom2 satellite was developed by Hughes Aircraft during that time and was then launched three years later after this development, in 1963.

The horn-antenna they feature here to reduce static was used a few years later in the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Horn_Antenna-in_Holmdel,_New_Jersey.jpeg

amazing!

I wonder if the McKennon here is related to the late Dal McKennon, unfortunately better known as Filmation camp voices but also the voice of Gumby, which like so many other productions of the era shared the same stock music [see Dodsworth's comment below mine.]

Fairbanks loved the Capitol Hi-Q library and despite the claim of an original score, it is used here.

The scene at 8:54 and on uses C-52A Mechanical Underscore, which is used in other Fairbanks movies. It is on Hi-Q reel L-18. There's another "Mechanical" bed during the Bombay sequence, and C-42A is heard at 1:28.

This Bell Labs documentary of the Echo Project is interesting. The narrator says that geosynchronous satellite communications is in the "far distant future", yet only 4 years later, the Syncom III satellite was used to broadcast the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympic Games live to the U.S. I don't know how much money was spent on the Echo project, but it's a little difficult to understand why the project was undertaken in the first place since it was perfectly obvious the technology had no practical value and all-electronic geosynchronous
satellites were already being developed. I can actually remember, as a little kid, standing in the backyard to see this balloon satellite pass overhead. It was about as bright as a medium star
and far easier to see than Sputnik had been.

The major advantage of the past is that it seemed to face such a bright future. Oh, those good old days in which mankind was working for the good of mankind, so that eventually, New York could talk to Bombay (note: not the other way round, according to the scheme depicting the stream of communication).

A fascinating film depicting the beginning of something we now take for granted: Satellite Communications. This film shows that the entire system, including geosynchronous satellites, was already planned out in the early 60's, but as the narrator says, that was for the far distant future. Now we live in that distant future, and Echo was the first step. An enormous mylar balloon in orbit, Echo enabled scientists to bounce radio waves off its silvery surface. According to the book Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon, it also provided reference points used by the military to target nuclear missiles on the USSR during the Cold War.

Echo 1 reentered and burned up on May 24, 1968.

For scenes from this, and many of Fairbanks' other government shorts when you watch one of his Sci-Fi films, like "The Bamboo Saucer." An early partner with Jay Ward (they worked on Crusader Rabbit until Fairbanks went bankrupt and NBC took Ward and his properties as part of the foreclosure) Fairbanks (Jerry) Productions limped along floating between shorts and B movies.

This film show in a wonderful way how fast 'sience fiction' could become true. It shows the first attempt to establish a phone call via satellite. Enjoyed showing it to students to look into the past of mass communication.

This film, made by Bell Labs, documents the first satellite telephone transmissions, using a satellite balloon named Echo. Considering how ubiquitous satellite communications are today, this is rather quaint to watch. It's pretty straightforward and well-made, with some mstable moments. President Eisenhower's recorded message, back with "America the Beautiful" is schmaltzy as all get-out. Overall the film is a mildly interesting bit of history.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.

The Big Bounce outlines America's first trial run at basically satellite conversations. We follow the trials of the Bell Corperation's first satellite project.
Instead of being boring and scientific mumbo-jumbo like, the film packs a lot of suspense and drama into the film, the narration packs quite a punch and keeps us enthralled about whether the experiment will work or not. Mind you, the acting isn't the greatest from the scientists, but who cares? This is a taut little thriller, and deserves to be watched. Great soundtrack too!

I wonder whether, when making this movie, the scientists and film-makers involved had any idea that only a few short decades later I'd be watching their movie from thousands of miles away at a cost of a couple of cents of Internet time, and that, far from just three, there'd be so many geostationary satellites that we'd be having a hard time fitting more into the orbit without risk of collisions. Vital as this 'high-tech' research was in the development of communication technology, it all seems somehow so quaint today...