Classic Rotary Phones: Repair, Refurbish, Restore Vintage Telephones

Now we’re going way back with a photo of El Paso, Texas taken in 1903. A relatively new technology, telephone service still necessitated plenty of poles, crossbars and wires. Notice the Bell sign hung above the entrance to Kline’s Mexican & Indian Curio Company. (I’d sure like to step back in time and visit that place!) Lots of interesting details in this photo, more of which can be seen in the big version. For still more detail, if you have a high-speed connection, you may want to see the huge, and I mean huge, version. But be warned, it’s around 12 meg!

This one has that suitable for framing look, doesn’t it? Merry Christmas all!

This is probably my favorite cover of all. My copy of the magazine is in horrible condition, so I had to do some serious Photoshop work to restore a semblance of its former glory. (you can see what I started with here) Forum visitors will no doubt recognize the phone, as I used the image as a template for some of the Charter Member avatars and signatures.

I have several telephone industry publications with great Christmas cover art, and would like to share some of them over the next couple of days. Merry Christmas!

From the archives of the Library of Congress comes this interesting peek into Santa’s Workshop, circa 1906. This image is said to have been one side of a stereo card, but the clear view of the photo studio at the top shows this to be a preliminary image, not a final one. Given the aspect ratio used on vintage stereo cards, and the fact that they were arched across the top, I can definitely seeing how this photo could have worked in that capacity.
I’ve already touched on the popularity of Santa-with-telephone images, and this one features both an oak wall phone and a nice, shiny candlestick. Sure seems like Santa would have a more impressive Christmas tree…
Here’s the phones in a close-up.

Boy, wouldn’t that be something, to get a phone call from Santa Claus himself? In spite of what this vintage postcard might imply, I find it hard to believe that he’d have time to do much of this. After-all, the guy busts his tail making his deliveries, so once he’s done I’m sure that making follow-up calls is the furthest thing from his mind. Once he’s had a couple days of sleep Santa’s probably thinking about nothing but pointing that sleigh towards Tahiti. And then there’s that whole long-distance charge thing. Of course I suppose he could call collect…

Around 100 years ago it was common to see depictions of Santa using a telephone, this 1907 postcard being a good example. This will be old news to the vintage postcard buffs out there, but I only recently discovered that some postcards used to be made of leather. Yep, leather postcards were fairly common for 3 or 4 years, but that came to an end in 1909 when the postal service prohibited their use. (supposedly because they jammed up the new sorting machinery) I’ve also included a photo of the back of the card.

Have I mentioned before how much I admire the art used on the covers of the magazine, Southwestern Telephone News? Well, it was excellent, and typically illustrated the essence of the season. This cover art on this Winter 1938-39 edition was done by Kenneth Jones, an artist that, unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find any information on. It is very much to his credit that he was able to represent a beautiful snowy landscape and actually make the telephone poles/wires an attractive part of it!

I put a lot of thought into creating an excuse for posting this image. She is, after-all, speaking on what appears to be a Western Electric 302, so surely I could spin a telephone-related story around it. Well, I’ve given up, and chosen to present this illustration for what it is: a stunning example of comic-cheesecake-telephone art. Yea, that’s it!!!
Our young lady, Cindy’s the name, is shown here as seen on the cover of her own self-titled comic book. First published by Marvel Comics in 1947, this cover art is from issue #37, which I believe is from November of 1949. Cindy Comics represents what are sometimes called “good girl” comics, a genre that was similar to romance comics. Apparently “good girls” can wear clothes 2 sizes too small and tease the bejesus out of the neighborhood boys, but must not be criminals, as that would throw them into the “bad girl” category. As I understand it, Cindy was originally called Kooky Komics, and was renamed Cindy Smith Comics a couple of issues following this one. Boy, I sure went off topic this time…

Thomas Watson, assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, is shown here with a reproduction of the first telephone. The photograph was taken in 1926, the 50th anniversary of the telephone, the patent for which having been filed on March 7, 1876. It was three days later, on March 10th, that Watson became the first person to hear a voice transmitted by telephone. Having spilled acid on his hand, Bell is purported to have cried out “Watson, come here! I want to see you!,” a quotation that has been repeated in several versions, each with a variation on the “I want to see you” part. Unfortunately, Watson had to celebrate the telephone’s first half-century without the man who uttered those famous words, Mr. Bell having died on August 2, 1922.
This photo is sure to have been widely published, having been distributed by the wire services to publishers across the country. By examining the back of the photo we can see that this is a wire service copy, and includes the sort of data typically found on such photos. Dated 3-7-1926, it includes the following description of the photo:

THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TELEPHONE

New York…..Fifty years ago today, March 7th, a patent was granted to Alexander Graham Bell, one of the greatest advances in the scientific world in the 19th century…Above left is shown Alexander Graham Bell as he appeared in 1876, at the time the patents were granted him. At the right is shown Thomas A. Watson, who heard the first words spoken over the telephone by Dr. Bell. Mr. Watson still resides in Boston. Bell’s first words over the phone were “come here Watson, I want you”..

Sales stick better than orders. Those immortal words appear in the April 1931 issue of Southwestern Telephone News, and are a prelude to a fairly comprehensive treatise on new customers and the retention thereof. I’ve got to say that this article brings back certain unpleasant memories for me, recollections of all the over-analyzed sales training that I was subjected to during nearly 25 years in the newspaper business. Southwestern Bell employees were undoubtedly hammered with this sort of thing, but I have to admit that there’s some good information here, along with a measure of motivational propaganda, of course. For you, the vintage telephone collector/historian, the article might prove illuminating as it reveals, indirectly, the secret to Bell’s success… they provided a valuable service to the customer.

Two pages of the article are presented here in the form of jpg images. The article was continued, but that page is missing from my copy of the magazine.
Page 1
Page 2

I know that some of you, those truly fascinated by obscure history, have been tied up in knots over my previous post regarding the hypnotist, “LEE”. Who was this guy who, over 100 years ago, was hypnotizing people across telephone lines? Now the story can be told. (or at least another piece of it)
While this may not have been his real name, the full name used by our hypnotist was Sylvain A. Lee. I made this discovery upon locating a second poster, the fabulous art-nouveau lithograph shown at left. I also found that, besides his performing on stage, Lee was the author of at least one book, The Practice of Hypnotic Suggestion, in 1901.
Newspapers from the era have also been helpful, with more than one having made reference to Lee. (notice that I’ve dispensed with the all-caps now that Mr. Sylvain and I are better acquainted) A brief notice of a 3-night engagement in the April 30, 1896 edition of The Oswego Daily Palladium called Lee, “The greatest hypnotist of modern times.” Four years later, from the August 20th, 1900 edition of The San Francisco Call comes this description of an opening night:   More… »

This 1908 photograph shows the hub of the N.Y.C. Police Department, the “Information Bureau.” Even the early years of the telephone, the invention quickly proved itself to be an indispensable tool in law enforcement.

A lot of things can change in forty years or so, as these two photos illustrate. The first one, probably taken around 1965, shows my dad playing with our dachshund in the family room, or “den,” as we called it. (still do) The second picture was taken a few weeks ago, and is a close-up of the built-in desk shown in the first photo. As seen in the first pic (sorry for the poor focus), our primary phone was a trusty Western Electric 554, a phone that never, never should have been taken out of service. But then again, not much about the room is as it was then, with the linoleum replaced by carpet, the wood paneling painted white, etc.
I decided that it only made sense to put a 554 back over the desk, but not another white one, as it wouldn’t show up against the paneling. I thought about a number of colors, but ended up choosing black… a black model 354. The Western Electric model 554 had already replaced the 354 by 1960 when the house was built, so one might say that a 554 would have been the logical choice. But when my friend Dennis Markham told me that he was restoring a black 354, and that he might be interested in a trade for one of my North Electric Galions, I couldn’t resist. The W.E. model 302 was the phone that first attracted me to the hobby, so its wall-phone cousin, the 354, had a natural appeal. The trade was made, and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. The 1952 vintage model 354 seems pretty content too, even in a newfangled 1960 home.