To prove it, he pulls out a record and cranks up a rousing version of Alexander's Ragtime Band. On the wall is a picture of Barbara Bush reading Where the Wild Things Are. If you want a crash course in the development of the motion picture, you can head to the Gallery which contains an exhibit showing how a film is made. A Zoetrope, a round drum with vertical slits, can be spun revealing a figure in action, much like our flip books. In fact, Weston Woods gives its young visitors small flip books to demonstrate animation.
Photos show what animators do, and actual cels in various stages of completion are on display.
In the studio, the original doughnut machine from Homer Price, one of Weston Woods' few live action films, can still be pressed into action for promotions or children's visits. The studio also contains many vintage sound and sight machines. There are more than 50 projectors including a large 35 mm projector from a commercial theater. A 19th-century phonograph which uses cylinders instead of records to create the music and the first video disc recorder are also part of the collection. Schindel has a few of those players too as well as the forerunner of the tape player, a machine that records on thin wire made by Webster of Chicago.