Is this the party to whom I am speaking?
Number PULEAZE! Part One:
- Thread starter Ultramatic
- Start date
Help Support :
Is this the party to whom I am speaking?
Part One
Finally, a thread all about vintage telephones up to 1989. Advertisements, humor, history, collections, equipment, restoration/repair, technical questions, resources or just plain memories, it's all here. While emphasis is placed on American telephones, vintage telephones from around the world are also most welcomed.
"Hello central???"
[this post was last edited: 11/15/2018-19:01]
Finally, a thread all about vintage telephones up to 1989. Advertisements, humor, history, collections, equipment, restoration/repair, technical questions, resources or just plain memories, it's all here. While emphasis is placed on American telephones, vintage telephones from around the world are also most welcomed.
"Hello central???"
[this post was last edited: 11/15/2018-19:01]
Two, ni-yun, fi-yuv, ni-yun, four, fi-yuv, O.
When I was a Telephone Operator I worked with an Operator who did a spot on impersonation of Ernestine. She would answer calls sometimes as Ernestine if there weren’t any supervisors doing observations. The customers loved it! And we all would just howl with delight! It really helped to brighten the day.
Eddie
Eddie
Stromberg-Carlson 1953
<script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Bell Telephone Story 1965
The Bell System Telephone Story 1976
<script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
toploader55
Well-known member
Another Fantastic Thread.
Thank You Louis. Great Memories from the 50s up.
Thank You Louis. Great Memories from the 50s up.
Hey thanks Eddie! I think this is going to be a fun thread.
My mother worked at a switchboard like Earnestines at Ma Bell's, only much bigger. The supervisors were rotten old hags she said. Made good money but couldnt stand the working conditions. I still have a landline and it always works if the power goes out but my Bell dial desk phone always works. I worked there also and know how those lines, unless broken, will work when there is a power outage with all the backup power they have.
Western Electric 1954
General Telephone 1959
<script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Re: Reply #10
and ALL of these, except the wall phone cost EXTRA! Even the coiled handset cord! I remember telling one of my younger Gen X workers this and she said, “No way”, to which I repied “Way”. Ma Bell charged extra for everything then that wasn’t the standard, Black desk set, with a regular hanset cord. The customer paid the extra charge monthly on their phone bill for some extras and for others I believe it was a one time extra fee at installation of the option.
When I got my first telephone in 1971 my landlady told me to request that the phone be installed in the most difficult place possible for the installer. They had to install your one phone anywhere you wanted. She told me that the installer would most likely offer a longer cord to accomodate the request, and not charge for it. Then you would forever have the long cord credit on your acct.and never have to pay extra for the longer cord, I had a 20 ft.cord for years that I didn’t pay for, and never needed an extension phone.
Eddie[this post was last edited: 11/15/2018-21:28]
and ALL of these, except the wall phone cost EXTRA! Even the coiled handset cord! I remember telling one of my younger Gen X workers this and she said, “No way”, to which I repied “Way”. Ma Bell charged extra for everything then that wasn’t the standard, Black desk set, with a regular hanset cord. The customer paid the extra charge monthly on their phone bill for some extras and for others I believe it was a one time extra fee at installation of the option.
When I got my first telephone in 1971 my landlady told me to request that the phone be installed in the most difficult place possible for the installer. They had to install your one phone anywhere you wanted. She told me that the installer would most likely offer a longer cord to accomodate the request, and not charge for it. Then you would forever have the long cord credit on your acct.and never have to pay extra for the longer cord, I had a 20 ft.cord for years that I didn’t pay for, and never needed an extension phone.
Eddie[this post was last edited: 11/15/2018-21:28]
Southwestern Bell 1980
<script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>This website is a treasure trove of historical AT&T films.
This one showcasing the Bell System display at 1962 Seattle World’s Fair is great. Check out the size of that new "Bell Boy" pager just after the 5 minute mark!
This one showcasing the Bell System display at 1962 Seattle World’s Fair is great. Check out the size of that new "Bell Boy" pager just after the 5 minute mark!
Slightly off topic...
Someone has put old phone to a new use...
<h1 class="article__title">These antique phones are precious, private Alexa vessels</h1>
Amazon’s Alexa may be in ten thousand different devices now, but they all have one other thing in common: they’re new. So for those of us that prefer old things but still want to be able to set timers and do metric-imperial conversions without pulling out our phones, Grain Design is retrofitting these fabulous old telephones to provide Alexa access with no other hints of modernity. There’s even a privacy angle!
The phones themselves (spotted by a BoingBoing tipster) are genuine antiques, and not even the mass-produced Bell sets you see so often. I personally love the copper-plated model, though I certainly wouldn’t say no to the candlestick.
Dick Whitney, who runs the company, modifies the hardware to make room for an Echo Dot inside. Pick up the phone and speak, and Alexa answers, just like the operators of yore! Except you can ask Alexa anything and it won’t be irritated. Some of the Alexaphones, as he calls them, will include the original audio hardware so you can experience the cognitive dissonance of talking to a virtual assistant and having them answer using a century-old speaker. (I bet it sounds terrible and brilliant.)
I’m also delighted to say that the microphone physically disconnects when the phone is on the hook, though — so Amazon won’t be listening in to your conversations and emailing them to random people.
“The Echo microphones have their connections severed or are removed completely, and the microphone in the handset is connected via the original switches in the base, so it’s only in contact when the handset is picked up,” explained Whitney in an email.
techcrunch.com
Someone has put old phone to a new use...
<h1 class="article__title">These antique phones are precious, private Alexa vessels</h1>
Amazon’s Alexa may be in ten thousand different devices now, but they all have one other thing in common: they’re new. So for those of us that prefer old things but still want to be able to set timers and do metric-imperial conversions without pulling out our phones, Grain Design is retrofitting these fabulous old telephones to provide Alexa access with no other hints of modernity. There’s even a privacy angle!
The phones themselves (spotted by a BoingBoing tipster) are genuine antiques, and not even the mass-produced Bell sets you see so often. I personally love the copper-plated model, though I certainly wouldn’t say no to the candlestick.
Dick Whitney, who runs the company, modifies the hardware to make room for an Echo Dot inside. Pick up the phone and speak, and Alexa answers, just like the operators of yore! Except you can ask Alexa anything and it won’t be irritated. Some of the Alexaphones, as he calls them, will include the original audio hardware so you can experience the cognitive dissonance of talking to a virtual assistant and having them answer using a century-old speaker. (I bet it sounds terrible and brilliant.)
I’m also delighted to say that the microphone physically disconnects when the phone is on the hook, though — so Amazon won’t be listening in to your conversations and emailing them to random people.
“The Echo microphones have their connections severed or are removed completely, and the microphone in the handset is connected via the original switches in the base, so it’s only in contact when the handset is picked up,” explained Whitney in an email.
These antique phones are precious, private Alexa vessels | TechCrunch
Amazon's Alexa may be in ten thousand different devices now, but they all have one other thing in common: they're new. So for those of us that prefer old things but still want to be able to set timers and do metric-imperial conversions without pulling out our phones, Grain Design is retrofitting...
techcrunch.com
Another scarred-for-life Ma Bell veteran here, and Eddie & Tim you are both so right! Stepford hags every last one of them! Once we had heavy rains and it was almost impossible to get to work due to flooding in the area where our building was located, but I made it in. By Noon the parking lot was beginning to flood and the river behind the building was on the verge of spilling over its levee so we were told to go move our cars. We were almost trapped in the building and nobody had the guts to make an executive decision to evacuate. The area manager from 50 miles away had to come down -- at the hags' request, and in the middle of the storm -- to decide. He was pissed off but good, and asked them why in the hell they hadn't already gotten everybody out of there. That's how blinded the hags were, and fearful of using their own judgement, lest customers have to wait longer on hold than the PUC mandated. I never had any respect for them from day one, and on that day they lost any chance of gaining it.
Another story I was told by someone in Operator Services was about a guy who needed a bathroom break. The hag/hags wouldn't let him leave the board, so he stood up and pissed all over it. A true hero, he was.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Those color phones and the sets with special features not only cost extra back then, but they do now, too. The Oxford Gray phone is a super rare color. The "mushroom" lighted dial phones are also highly sought after. Those two-tone phones were just plain fugly IMO.
Eddie, I like your landlord's style. Sticking it to The Phone Company was considered a sport by many. We had a 25' cord on our phone but I know damned well my dad wasn't paying for it. I don't know how that happened. It might have been there already when we moved in back in 1960. Neighbors next door had a long cord too. Their phone was all over the TV room and living room, with the thick black cord snaking across the floor behind it.
I kept a landline (with our same 1960 phone number) when we moved recently. I was really disappointed to find out that, because AT&T has abandoned copper in favor of fiber in our neighborhood, the dialtone passes through the fiber gateway on the premises, and if the power goes out, so does our landline. That is precisely why I wanted a landline -- because it would still work when everything else didn't. The installers told me not to even waste my time trying to get it converted to copper POTS service. How far the mighty have fallen.
Here's a shot of one of my most prized phones: a 1950 model 500 that saw very little use. Although introduced in 1949, those first 500s produced were only test models and had to be returned to Bell Labs. Very few of them exist. The 1950 500s are fairly rare as well, as deployment was both selective and spotty due to certain components being in short supply attributable (supposedly) to production or other roll-out issues. One thing that sets early 500s apart from those produced in 1952 and later is the painted alphanumerics on the dial plate, which were protected by a fitted clear plastic cover. In 1952 Western Electric began using a soft plastic injection mold process for the numbers and letters instead of paint. That I even managed to come across a 1950 500 (at a thrift store in 1981) on the west coast is amazing. Pacific Telephone was Ma Bell's ugly stepchild and was the last to get anything new. How a 500 made its way to the Bay Area in 1950 is a real mystery.
I have much older phones, but they're actually not as rare as the 1950 500. While the straight cord is age-appropriate, I opted to put a far more manageable coiled cord on it, as it sat on my desk as my daily driver for a number of years. It will be pulled out again once I've done some wiring work to add a couple of jacks. I love the feel of a heavy bakelite type G-1 handset, its superior e(a)rgonomics, and the solid sound it makes when replaced on its cradle.
It has been suggested that the model 500 is the mother of all industrial designs from the 20th century, and I have to agree.
Another story I was told by someone in Operator Services was about a guy who needed a bathroom break. The hag/hags wouldn't let him leave the board, so he stood up and pissed all over it. A true hero, he was.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Those color phones and the sets with special features not only cost extra back then, but they do now, too. The Oxford Gray phone is a super rare color. The "mushroom" lighted dial phones are also highly sought after. Those two-tone phones were just plain fugly IMO.
Eddie, I like your landlord's style. Sticking it to The Phone Company was considered a sport by many. We had a 25' cord on our phone but I know damned well my dad wasn't paying for it. I don't know how that happened. It might have been there already when we moved in back in 1960. Neighbors next door had a long cord too. Their phone was all over the TV room and living room, with the thick black cord snaking across the floor behind it.
I kept a landline (with our same 1960 phone number) when we moved recently. I was really disappointed to find out that, because AT&T has abandoned copper in favor of fiber in our neighborhood, the dialtone passes through the fiber gateway on the premises, and if the power goes out, so does our landline. That is precisely why I wanted a landline -- because it would still work when everything else didn't. The installers told me not to even waste my time trying to get it converted to copper POTS service. How far the mighty have fallen.
Here's a shot of one of my most prized phones: a 1950 model 500 that saw very little use. Although introduced in 1949, those first 500s produced were only test models and had to be returned to Bell Labs. Very few of them exist. The 1950 500s are fairly rare as well, as deployment was both selective and spotty due to certain components being in short supply attributable (supposedly) to production or other roll-out issues. One thing that sets early 500s apart from those produced in 1952 and later is the painted alphanumerics on the dial plate, which were protected by a fitted clear plastic cover. In 1952 Western Electric began using a soft plastic injection mold process for the numbers and letters instead of paint. That I even managed to come across a 1950 500 (at a thrift store in 1981) on the west coast is amazing. Pacific Telephone was Ma Bell's ugly stepchild and was the last to get anything new. How a 500 made its way to the Bay Area in 1950 is a real mystery.
I have much older phones, but they're actually not as rare as the 1950 500. While the straight cord is age-appropriate, I opted to put a far more manageable coiled cord on it, as it sat on my desk as my daily driver for a number of years. It will be pulled out again once I've done some wiring work to add a couple of jacks. I love the feel of a heavy bakelite type G-1 handset, its superior e(a)rgonomics, and the solid sound it makes when replaced on its cradle.
It has been suggested that the model 500 is the mother of all industrial designs from the 20th century, and I have to agree.
Oh Yes Ralph
Mother Bell could be heartless. Once I was at the CAMA board (Centralized Automated Message Accounting) and I had to take a “Special”, so I put my flag up to be relieved. All 40 positions at the board were full and the lights were standing indicating that about 10,000 cusotmers were waiting for their numbers to be keyed so their calls could be connected. The ATOM (Assistant Traffic Office Manager) Agnes Liversage reached over my shoulder and threw my flag down on the board and said I didn’t need to go, I had a break in 30 mins. Well, it just so happened that a Union Steward, Ruth Estrada was sitting next to me. She covered her mouthpiece and asked me if I really needed to go? I said yes, so Ruth put my flag back up, and told Agnes that I was going to be relieved, and when I got back so was everyone else, one by one, or she would call a “wildcat”. So every other operator at the board put up their flags too in solidarity,and one by one we all got our specials.
Another time, a forest fire was raging near my Mom’s home. I couldn’t get through by dialing to see if she was OK. I was working in theToll office on a cord board then. While at the board I put a call through for a customer to one of our neighbors by double trunking it, and made a successful connection.. So, I asked the supervior on duty if I could please place a 30 sec. call home by double trunking it and bill it to my home number? She said, no, I could call from the lounge on my break. Well, I thought F you and F Ma Bell, and I put it through anyway and “deadheaded”it by not billing it to my number. And I didn’t feel the least bit guilty either.
And on another occasion, a older operator named Lillian had a heart attack at the board,and an ambulance was called to take her to the hospital. She was out for two weeks. Lillian had over 20 years of service with Ma, but when she returned to work, the ATOM called her into the office, and advised her that her attendance was unacceptable and forced her to sign a document the acknowledged that if she had another occurance of absence within a given period of time, she would be terminated. She asked Ruth, the Union Steward if she had to sign this? And Ruth told her, “Yes, if she wanted to keep her job.” So Lillian said, “Then what you are telling me is that we all work for a bunch of assholes”, and Ruth said, “Unfortunately, yes”. So Lillian signed it.
I never before or since worked in a more oppressive enviornment!
Eddie
Mother Bell could be heartless. Once I was at the CAMA board (Centralized Automated Message Accounting) and I had to take a “Special”, so I put my flag up to be relieved. All 40 positions at the board were full and the lights were standing indicating that about 10,000 cusotmers were waiting for their numbers to be keyed so their calls could be connected. The ATOM (Assistant Traffic Office Manager) Agnes Liversage reached over my shoulder and threw my flag down on the board and said I didn’t need to go, I had a break in 30 mins. Well, it just so happened that a Union Steward, Ruth Estrada was sitting next to me. She covered her mouthpiece and asked me if I really needed to go? I said yes, so Ruth put my flag back up, and told Agnes that I was going to be relieved, and when I got back so was everyone else, one by one, or she would call a “wildcat”. So every other operator at the board put up their flags too in solidarity,and one by one we all got our specials.
Another time, a forest fire was raging near my Mom’s home. I couldn’t get through by dialing to see if she was OK. I was working in theToll office on a cord board then. While at the board I put a call through for a customer to one of our neighbors by double trunking it, and made a successful connection.. So, I asked the supervior on duty if I could please place a 30 sec. call home by double trunking it and bill it to my home number? She said, no, I could call from the lounge on my break. Well, I thought F you and F Ma Bell, and I put it through anyway and “deadheaded”it by not billing it to my number. And I didn’t feel the least bit guilty either.
And on another occasion, a older operator named Lillian had a heart attack at the board,and an ambulance was called to take her to the hospital. She was out for two weeks. Lillian had over 20 years of service with Ma, but when she returned to work, the ATOM called her into the office, and advised her that her attendance was unacceptable and forced her to sign a document the acknowledged that if she had another occurance of absence within a given period of time, she would be terminated. She asked Ruth, the Union Steward if she had to sign this? And Ruth told her, “Yes, if she wanted to keep her job.” So Lillian said, “Then what you are telling me is that we all work for a bunch of assholes”, and Ruth said, “Unfortunately, yes”. So Lillian signed it.
I never before or since worked in a more oppressive enviornment!
Eddie
Eddie --
A-MEN!
A-MEN!
