The View-Master packet Beep Beep The Road Runner (B538).
Packet Cover
Booklet Cover
From the 16-page booklet:
Little coyotes, I, Wile E. Coyote, have knocked about a good many years, 103 to be exact. In that time I have become somewhat of a genius inventing ways to catch Beep Beep, the Road Runner. Some ideas I found in the Acme Mail-order Catalog; others I fashioned myself from my own ingenuity. Some things were simple, others more complicated. Once I put a time bomb in a log flume. It didn’t blow when Road Runner crossed over; yet when I investigated, it blew, taking every stitch of fur off me. Another time I put dynamite in an egg. Beep Beep’s curiosity almost got him, but—it sent me so high I had to duck to let the moon pass.
Still, we coyotes are dedicated to catching Road Runners, even though they are as fast as the train that reached the station before the sound of its whistle.
Back in the 1960’s I had some whopping ideas. Once I paced the floor waiting for a package from Acme.
Scene 1-1
Road Runner made quite a breeze passing Wile E. Coyote.
From the 16-page booklet:
ELECTRIC SKATE BOARD
THE ACME driver dropped the package on my foot. Although it was flattened like a pancake, I dragged it as I opened the box. My tail swished back and forth in excitement, and first thing I knew, it was caught in the fam. It whirled me around a few times, chewing up my tail badly. That settled it! I’d chew up Road Runner. Smiling slyly, I saw myself sailing down the road to overtake him.
Then I heard the roar of a sports car and the familiar “Beep! Beep!” Road Runner went around that car like the east wind around a farmhouse, and the breeze he made doubled the cactus to the ground.
Scene 1-2
The cactus “needled” Wile E. into catching Beep Beep.
From the 16-page booklet:
THE CACTUS FLIPPED back sending its sharp needles into my pelt. I jumped straight up, howling in pain. Road Runner was so far gone now there was nothing in sight but a cloud of dust. I fumed as I pulled out the needles, and made up my mind I would catch Road Runner if it was the last thing I did.
Raising my head with this thought, I pricked up my ears and wiggled the end of my nose. Carefully lifting the skate board and fan out of the trunk, I started to put my invention together.
Scene 1-3
His latest invention was ready for the chase.
From the 16-page booklet:
BUSY AS A BUMBLEBEE in a barrel of tar, I grabbed the electric drill to bore a hole for the masthead. Put-tut-ut-ut! Pumph! Yeow! The drill had gone through to my foot.
Limping a little, I fastened the sail to the mast. Working fast, my hands were flying. The fan was bolted securely when I heard Road Runner’s “Beep Beep.” Baring my teeth in a fiendish grin, I picked up my mallet, plugged in the fan, and stepped aboard.
Scene 1-4
Wile E. gained on Beep Beep as they raced, but—
From the 16-page booklet:
THE SAILS BILLOWED OUT and sparks flew off the wheels as I picked up speed. Road Runner looked and opened his beak in fright. Then he thrust his long neck forward and ran so fast his feet looked like tumbleweeds in a Texas tornado. Over the hills and around curves we raced. The dust rolled up behind us like ghosts cavorting on Halloween. Soon I was on his hells. I raised the mallet. I’d squash a long squawk out of him and forever stop those beeps.
He turned and grinned at me like a treed possum. I should have been suspicious, but I was so intent on aiming my swing, I didn’t see . . .
Scene 1-5
—he missed the curve and sailed over the canyon!
From the 16-page booklet:
. . . THE CURVE AHEAD, which I missed and shot out over the canyon. The cord ran out and the fan stopped. The sail folded as limp as a potato sack after the last potato’s been fried. I was dropping. Wow! I looked down and became so terrified the hair on my jaws stood straight out. The canyon floor was far, far below, and the ground down there so very, very hard. I wished for a good Texas breeze old-timers said would hold a logging chain in midair, so taut a man could walk on it.
Which reminded me . . .
Scene 1-6
Although Wile E. blew with all his might, he—
From the 16-page booklet:
WASN”T THE WIND OF TEXAS in my lungs? I threw out my chest, took a long, deep breath, and blew. The sails puffed out again. The skate board lifted upward. If I could only hold out till my “ship” landed on the other side. My face turned a raspberry red, then deepened to plum purple as I squeezed the last whiff of breath out of me.
Just when the tip of the skate board touched the other side of the canyon, I strained but un-ungh! . . .
Scene 1-7
—couldn’t hold out and plunged to the canyon floor.
From the 16-page booklet:
. . . MY WIND was gone and I was going—going down. Whi-in-ing! The wind whistled in my ears as they flopped around. Faster and faster I dropped.
Looking up, I saw the canyon walls seem to move together, and looking down, the ground came up to meet me.
Zoo-oo-omph! I hit, and the dust rose like an atomic mushroom. From a coyote-shaped hole, I tried to dodge them, but the skate board hit me between the eyes, and the fan plunged into my midriff. From above Road Runner impishly chirped, “Beep! Beep!”
2 comments:
Had this one. The picture where the coyote gets hit with needles, I always thought he was singing into a microphone. No, that's an electrical plug, not a microphone. Apparently I was a kid with comprehension problems.
That's a cute story. I'll be posting the remaining Road Runner pictures later this year.
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