Slopfest #1 · 1927 · Vienna
The Robot Was a Costume
The first Slopfest had one robot. It was Dr. Kranzl in forty kilos of tin.
Museum status: Currently touring. Nobody knows where.
- Venue
- Café Central, the back room
- Attendance
- 12
- Guest of honour
- Fritz Lang (visited his hometown and critiqued the robot's posture)
- Fun fact
- 1 robot, 0 of them real
What happened
Twelve people met to celebrate machines that did not exist yet. Founder Dr. Otto Kranzl wore a homemade robot suit and was mistaken for a coat stand most of the evening. Fritz Lang, home for a visit, critiqued its posture. The suit's head, the Blechkopf, was raffled as the door prize. The winner returned it within a week, beginning a tradition.
“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”
Elsewhere in 1927
Fritz Lang's Metropolis, featuring the robot Maschinenmensch, premieres in Berlin. Lang was born in Vienna.
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