Robotic Miss Honeywell exposed at Adelaide computer conference

In August 1969 Miss Honeywell was presented as a marvel of modern technology but it soon became clear the whole exercise was a public relations stunt.

“Robot” Miss Honeywell at the University of Adelaide's Elder Hall, August 13 1969.

A bizarre and hilarious series of articles appeared in The Advertiser during August 1969 about the visit by girl robot, Miss Honeywell, to the fourth Australian Computer Conference in Elder Hall at the University of Adelaide.

She was presented as a marvel of modern technology but it soon became clear that the whole exercise was a public relations stunt.

An article in The Advertiser on Miss Honeywell’s visit to the University of Adelaide’s Elder Hall, 1969.

Miss Honeywell’s manager and PR man Gene Evans said that controversy seemed to follow her about.

In US cities where she had been displayed, people could not make their minds up about whether she was a robot or not.

An unnamed staff reporter took great delight in exposing the “hoax” by lunging at her during the performance and squeezing her hand, finding: “instead of metal … flesh!”

“Warm, feminine flesh encased in a black glove, which was girlishly and hastily withdrawn from my clasp,” the (likely male) reporter wrote.

“A second later I was pounced on by the security guards as the crowd either laughed or muttered ‘hoax’.”

He also commented on the fullness of her thighs and the fall of her dress in the flesh, as opposed to the “inactivated” double kept in the cabinet.

Miss Honeywell even met the Lord Mayor (Mr Porter) and presented him with a large wall thermometer.

“I’m perfectly satisfied it’s a robot,” Mr Porter said.

“The hand wasn’t wet or clammy as other girls’ hands I’ve shaken.”

A staff reporter exposes the “hoax” of Miss Honeywell.

Originally published as Robotic Miss Honeywell exposed at Adelaide computer conference