Donald Duck’s uncle was partly based on Wernher von Braun

唐老鸭的叔叔部分原型来自沃纳·冯·布劳恩

Did you know that the first character that Walt Disney created to specifically appear on television was inspired, in part, by early Space Age rocket scientists? On this day 65 years ago (September 24, 1961), Disney introduced the “renowned scientist, lecturer, psychologist [and] world traveler,” Ludwig Von Drake. 你知道吗？华特·迪士尼为电视节目专门创作的第一个角色，其灵感部分来源于太空时代早期的火箭科学家。65年前的今天（1961年9月24日），迪士尼推出了这位“著名的科学家、讲师、心理学家兼世界旅行家”——路德维希·冯·德雷克（Ludwig Von Drake）。

A member of the Duck family (he is the “brilliant and eccentric” uncle of Donald Duck), Von Drake was “the outstanding genius of the century” (per Disney himself) who helped to explain scientific principles and technological concepts to the millions of people who tuned in every Sunday to watch Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color on NBC. 作为唐老鸭家族的一员（他是唐老鸭那位“才华横溢又古怪”的叔叔），冯·德雷克被迪士尼本人誉为“世纪杰出天才”。他负责向每周日收看NBC《华特·迪士尼色彩缤纷的世界》节目的数百万观众解释科学原理和技术概念。

A few years later, after expertly (but often absent-mindedly) addressing topics such as how color television works, the health benefits of exercising, and the history of aviation, Von Drake dove into the topic for which he said he wrote the book on, in the February 10, 1963, episode “Inside Outer Space.” 几年后，在专业地（但经常心不在焉地）探讨了彩色电视原理、运动的健康益处以及航空史等话题后，冯·德雷克在1963年2月10日播出的《外太空之内》（Inside Outer Space）一集中，深入探讨了他自称“写过相关著作”的主题。

“You people out there are going to see stars you have never seen before… when you go traveling in outer space. In fact, there are going to be a lot of things out there you don’t know about, but don’t let it bother you, ’cause all of the answers is [sic] right in here,” Von Drake says at the beginning of the animated segment. “I call my guidebook Inside Outer Space because everything known about outer space is on the inside. Which reminds me, the way things are going, you better get your copy right away before it becomes obsolete,” he says. “And prices go up.” “你们这些观众在去外太空旅行时，将会看到从未见过的星星。事实上，外太空有很多你们不知道的事情，但别担心，因为所有的答案都在这里，”冯·德雷克在动画片段的开头说道。“我把我的指南称为《外太空之内》，因为关于外太空的一切已知信息都在这本书里。这提醒了我，照目前的情况看，你们最好尽快买一本，免得它过时了，”他说，“而且价格还会上涨。”

As it turns out, Von Drake was not wrong—well, maybe not about the cost of his book, but about the part about being obsolete. The show reused animation from earlier Disneyland TV episodes, “Man and the Moon,” “Man in Space,” and “Mars and Beyond,” which first aired on December 4, 1957, two months after the launch of the world’s first artificial satellite. 事实证明，冯·德雷克并没有说错——好吧，也许关于书价的部分不一定，但关于“过时”的预言是对的。该节目重用了早期迪士尼电视节目《人与月球》、《人在太空》和《火星及更远的地方》中的动画片段，这些节目最早于1957年12月4日播出，即世界上第一颗人造卫星发射两个月后。

Produced well before the first human lifted off for space, the shows were speculative and even fantastical at times, especially when compared to what we know about spaceflight today. By the time “Inside Outer Space” premiered four years later, two Soviet cosmonauts had orbited Earth, and two American astronauts had completed suborbital missions, milestones that go unmentioned by Von Drake. 这些节目制作于人类首次进入太空之前，内容带有推测性甚至幻想色彩，尤其是与我们今天对航天飞行的了解相比。当四年后《外太空之内》首播时，已有两名苏联宇航员绕地球飞行，两名美国宇航员完成了亚轨道飞行，而这些里程碑事件冯·德雷克却只字未提。

To ensure they were presenting accurate (for then) information, Disney and director/animator Ward Kimball consulted with and brought on air German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, physicist Heinz Haber, and science writer Willy Ley, whose individual work to popularize the idea of space exploration has since been credited with giving NASA a foothold in the public’s perception of the space race. 为了确保提供（当时看来）准确的信息，迪士尼与导演兼动画师沃德·金博尔咨询并邀请了德国火箭科学家沃纳·冯·布劳恩、物理学家海因茨·哈伯和科普作家威利·雷参与节目。他们各自在普及太空探索理念方面的工作，后来被认为帮助NASA在公众对太空竞赛的认知中站稳了脚跟。

Von Braun, Haber, and Ley are also said to have influenced Disney, writer Bill Berg, and animator Milt Kahl when they decided on Von Drake’s name and character. With an Austrian accent provided by Paul Frees (as World War II was still fresh in people’s minds), Von Drake drew from Haber and Ley’s breadth of knowledge and von Braun’s expertise and personality. The latter also contributed to giving Ludwig his full name, as Disney let on in his remarks introducing the host of “Inside Outer Space.” 据说，冯·布劳恩、哈伯和雷在迪士尼、编剧比尔·伯格和动画师米尔特·卡尔构思冯·德雷克的姓名和角色时也产生了影响。在保罗·弗里斯配音的奥地利口音（当时二战记忆尚新）加持下，冯·德雷克汲取了哈伯和雷的广博知识，以及冯·布劳恩的专业素养和个性。后者还促成了路德维希全名的诞生，正如迪士尼在介绍《外太空之内》主持人时所透露的那样： “The world-famous authority on outer space, Professor Wernher von … I mean … Ludwig Von Drake,” Disney said. “世界著名的外太空权威，沃纳·冯……我是说……路德维希·冯·德雷克教授，”迪士尼说道。