Posted on 01/16/2021 6:35:26 AM PST by Alas Babylon!
A 1940 educational short by Bell Telephone to show customers that were recieving new dial phones how to use the new device, and why they were getting these new sets.
's ...
I want a cellphone with a pulse dial on it. ;)
EDgewater7-2154.
I’m sticking with the crank telephone.
Hhmmm...ours was Ulrich 2-????...can’t remember last 4 digits. How things have changed.
Prescott #-####
You got it.
It was how they/we used to answer if asked from the operator.
What number you calling from? Davis 2409.
I never knew why really..
But the first three numbers was, and still are-324. That is actually our first telephone number. AND at that time, there was just three on the line-a party line. Auntie ***** get off the line, this is between me and so and so.
“Did you also know that it’s not a good idea to strip the wire insulation with your teeth as the phone rings?”
ROF!
Nor is it a good idea to get grabbed by a two banger John Deere magneto.
Yes. It was TUlip 2 (then the last four numbers) in one neighborhood of my youth. Those names were easy to remember.
Here us a later one, “Operator;” (1969) a 14 minute film directed by Neil Cox https://youtu.be/bAC4MvP_C-I -— Enjoyable film.
The prefixes around here used to indicate what part of town that a number was from. They names standing for prefixes were used around here even after they started adding more digits. The first two letters corresponded to the numbers that the prefix stood for.
Greenfield5-2333 = 475-2333
Skyline7-9444 = 759-9444
All of Washington had the same area code, 206 until 1957 when Eastern Washington was split into 509. It was not until 1995 that they split 206 again by adding 360 for "outlying areas". Then in 1997 they split 206 again into 253 for Tacoma, and 425 for Everett and the East Side of King County. In 2017 564 was added to supplement the number pools which were again being exhausted in Western Washington can be for anyone normally in 206, 253, 360, or 425. Area codes do not mean what they used to just as prefixes no longer refer to a specific location.
Interestingly enough you used to have to look up the prefix around here to make sure that you were not making a long distance call. A friend of mine lived 5 miles away, but his number was long distance, while another firend was 20 miles away and his number was still local. And if you dialed wrong you had to call the operator to make sure that you would not be charged
WE6-1212
“I also remember when Bell quit charging for extra extensions...”
People today forget or never knew how expensive phone service used to be. A common way to get around the charges was to call yourself person-to-person collect to let your parents know that you made it safely to college or wherever.
I remember my dad asking for a second phone line into our house in 1972. Illinois Bell told him that no one would ever need a second line into a house. Took him months to get it done.
L
The Johnny Popper had a big, external flywheel on it. If I remember correctly, we opened those two little cylinder valves on the side to keep the pressure down enough to start it. We used our hands to spin the flywheel to get it firing. Fire would spit out of the two valves on the side, and we’d flip those shut. Then *pop* *pop* *pop*!
“BR-549”
In reality that was not a phone number, but an inside farmer’s joke.
My favorite Pennsylvania number, ever.
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