Classic Rotary Phones: Repair, Refurbish, Restore Vintage Telephones

What makes antiquing an adventure is the mystery of it, as I never know what sort of crazy stuff I’ll come home with. Well, I’ve surprised myself again. Having recently acquired a model 1243, I’ve been thinking about Stromberg-Carlson quite a bit lately, hoping to learn more about the company and its products. I discovered that they were the premier manufacturer of phones for the independent (read, non-Bell) companies in the earlier years of the 20th Century, their phones proving well suited for the long distances encountered with rural use. I found one of those early phones this past Saturday at an antique mall in Cleburne, Texas. My knowledge of telephones of this vintage is nil, and I almost certainly paid too much, but I just couldn’t leave it behind. I’ve grown accustomed to messing around with old phones, but compared to the others this one is ancient! To use the vernacular of the antique phone hobby, it is a twin-box fiddleback telephone, the term “fiddleback” seemingly applied to any vintage wood phone whose backboard is anything other than straight-sided. [Note: I have been informed by Tom Adams that this backboard style is actually more of a "Gibson Girl" design] Once I got it home a little research was in order, so I scanned through my books and did some ‘net surfing, hoping to find some particulars regarding this early twin-box Stromberg-Carlson. Read the rest of this entry »

Back before the telephone business got high-tech, this was high-tech, a room full of women busily directing calls. The photo shown here was taken at New England Telephone and Telegraph sometime around the turn of the century. (the turn of the last century, not this one!) You can also see another view of the same location. There appears to be some confusion regarding the history of New England Telephone and Telegraph, as attested by the on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia. The entry there claims that company shouldn’t be confused with New England Telephone, and that New England Telephone and Telegraph was in business for only a year. If that were true, then these photos would probably date from 1878, which is doubtful. Very doubtful. Impossible even.

I’ve posted seven more scans in the Vintage Phone Advertisements area, including a couple of General Telephone ads that feature the artwork of Dom Lupo. Dom did a number of advertisements over the years, including a two or three year stint rendering the “giant telephone man” for GTE. He also illustrated numerous books, painted the cover art for the 7th edition of the Boy Scout Handbook and, from 1963 until his retirement, worked exclusively for Golf Magazine and Golf Digest. Born in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1919, he was trained at Boston’s Child Walker School of Design and has been a member of The Society of Illustrators since ‘54. Dom now lives, and paints, in Ramona, California.

$3,800.00 - Western Electric pre-production #1 dial
$898.00 - W.E. model 102
$760.00 - W.E. model 102 w/684 ringer box
$725.00 - W.E. model 202 w/ringer box
$688.99 - “Whisper It” mouthpiece
$650.00 - Gray model 24 “Wanamaker” payphone
$510.00 - Stromberg-Carlson 1243
$399.00 - Automatic Electric type 11-A Monophone
$383.88 - Automatic Electric 183 Space Maker
$349.00 - W.E. model 553 wall phone
$300.00 - W.E. model 500 (nos)

I just love bargains. Not the junk that’s “cheap for a reason”, but genuinely good prices on good stuff. I’ve already carried on in another post about how to find bargains on eBay, but I left out one thing: “Buy It Now”. The best bargains I’ve ever gotten on eBay have come from seeing a Buy It Now just moments after it listed. Such was the case with this dandy Stromberg-Carlson 1243. The Buy It Now was $10 and so was the shipping… sold! So what did my $20 get me? A pretty decent phone, actually. The alloy body is missing paint in the usual places, but the bakelite handset is free from damage (although the receiver cap is pretty pitted), the dial turns and returns as it should, and all the internals are present. I can’t comment on functionality yet, as I’ve yet to replace the well-worn line cord. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I’ve been on an ephemera kick lately, and I’ve just added another gem, The Telephone and How We Use It. This 1951 publication was a tool for educating kids on proper phone use, and could be useful even today. After-all, how many people born after 1980 know how to use a rotary dial?! Each page of the booklet has been scanned and can be browsed individually or, if you prefer, I’ve also made the entire book available in pdf format. Please excuse the size of the pdf (about 10 meg), but I don’t like to scrimp on image quality!

An ever-increasing number of people are discovering, or rediscovering, old phones. I don’t recall seeing any collectible grow in popularity as fast. Why the interest? I think it’s a combination of things. I’m inclined to believe that the “baby boomers”, that loosely-defined generation that followed WWII, are partly to blame. They (we) remember the rotary phone with an undeniable fondness, in spite of a brief infatuation with the “modern” touch-tone phones. Once the novelty had passed, pushing buttons seemed somehow a less satisfying, less organic process than that of a rotary dial, and electronic beeps were a poor substitute for the traditional clicking and whirring. It seems that many are just now remembering this, and finding that the old phones can still be enjoyed and used on a daily basis. Rotary phones were once an integral part of life, tied directly to countless fond memories. If nostalgia enhances ones memories a vintage phone can serve as their affirmation, as they’re every bit as enjoyable as we remembered. Read the rest of this entry »

“ROCHESTER N.Y. - Independent telephone company customers of Stromberg-Carlson Co. won’t have to hold the line on these phones. They are being turned out twice as fast now to keep pace with the rate of orders. Employee Emily Donaruma holds three of the phones, first to be made for civilian use since Pearl Harbor.    9/19/45″

This human interest photo/caption captures the spirit of the times, when the U.S. forged ahead to meet the demand for products that had been scarce during wartime. The photo was transmitted by Acme News Pictures (later to become United Press International) and picked up by the Cleveland Press. A seldom-seen view inside the Rochester facility, it shows what are most likely Stromberg-Carlson model 1222/1223’s, but could possibly be 1243’s. Boy, what I wouldn’t give to have just one row of those brand-spankin’ new S-C’s!
It makes me crazy when I see great vintage photos on the internet presented in postage stamp size. Old photos capture a moment of history, so shouldn’t they be preserved with fidelity? I’ve included a much larger version of the photo as well as a scan of the back.

The reverse of this photograph is marked, “Johnny Kilbane as sporting editor of the Press, March 20, 1912″, “the Press” being the Cleveland Press. Apparently busy sports editors, even in those early days, required two phones! Kilbane (1889-1957) is a boxing legend, holding the featherweight title for eleven consecutive years, from 1912-1923. Why this photo was taken isn’t clear, but could have simply been a gimmick staged by the Press to showcase Cleveland’s favorite son. Photo from Special Collections, Cleveland State University Library.

You may recall a couple of my previous posts that included issues of Telephone Lines, a publication of Southwestern Bell. At some point the name changed to Telephone Talk, and I’ve acquired a gaggle of the four-page brochures, enough to warrant their own web pages. Telephone Talk was just a little booklet that Bell tossed in with customer’s bills, but old phone enthusiasts/historians will find they’re worth a look. These issues are primarily from 1958 and ‘59, and chock-full of interesting text and great illustrations. The simple two-color drawings remind me a little of the Chance and Community Chest cards in the board game, Monopoly.
Now I don’t want to over-state this, but I’ve worked really hard to scan these issues. It took me all day to accomplish this daunting task, making two web pages that hold over eighty scans! My mouse hand is cramping badly and the scanner is billowing smoke… so humor me will ya? Take a look at Southwestern Bell’s Telephone Talk.

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In case you haven’t checked in a while, I’ve posted a number of new scans to the Telephone Advertisements area, and even added a second page. The previous ads were biased heavily towards Western Electric, but this time around I’ve added a number from Bell Telephone that promote their long-distance service. And for you Automatic Electric fans, there’s a General Telephone ad that you’re bound to enjoy. From 1962, it’s a promo for their answer to Western Electric’s Princess Phone, the amazing Starlite!

Automatic Electric’s Model 40 is a fine example of art-deco design, a desirable, if not particularly rare, telephone. A colored AE 40 however, is something special, particularly when it’s been restored to the level of excellence seen on this example. The phone itself is “Old Ivory” with gold trims, and has a most recent patent date of 1948. Before Jorge Amely began work on the phone its condition could best be described as fair, nothing more. Jorge, an electrical engineer, has been restoring vintage phones for less than two years, but you wouldn’t guess it by looking at his work. He places the blame for his phone addiction squarely on the shoulders of long-time friend Dennis Markham, another expert at telephone restoration. And make no mistake, in spite of his limited time with the hobby, Jorge deserves the title of expert. Immersing himself in his new passion, he joined Telephone Collectors International and has already completed a number of beautiful restorations, including a North Electric 7H6 and a number of WE model 500s. Read the rest of this entry »

I just had to share another issue of Telephone Lines, the pamphlet that Southwestern Bell placed in customer’s monthly statements. Here’s the pages from the May 1955 edition: Page one, Pages two and three, and Page 4.

1. Old phones work during power outages.
2. Your AE40 is never outside the service area.
3. No roaming charges.
4. Incoming calls don’t play the Star Wars theme.
5. I’ve never had to listen to a kid with a rotary phone giving a shout-out to his “peeps” at the mall.
6. Rotary phones are too big to loose.
7. Ever been cut off in traffic by someone talking into an F1 handset?
8. You aren’t expected to fit a model 500 in your ear for that trendy hands-free look.
9. Your children can’t figure out how to use a rotary phone.
10. There’s no greater satisfaction than slamming down a five-pound handset on a telemarketer.

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Southwestern Bell Telephone used to insert a small pamphlet along with each subscriber’s monthly bill called Telephone Lines. Besides some neat line drawings, they included all sorts of phone company news, household tips and interesting anecdotes, often as not leading to a sales pitch for additional phones or services. Presented here in its entirety is the December 1956 edition: Page one, Pages two and three, and Page four.