News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

Interesting number card and mask from Atlantic City, NJ

Started by unbeldi, May 22, 2016, 06:25:06 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

unbeldi

I acquired this number card group.

It came as a complete package: card frame, cellulose acetate window, number card and mask, metal retaining plate and retainer spring.
And it also had a black 302 telephone set attached.

I guess the attraction was that
a) the card is from a famous resort I am quite familiar with,
b) the standard black E1164 card also had this ivory mask that covers the black areas of the number card.


While blank ivory masks are typical for ivory sets, I have never seen this kind with  "PLEASE WAIT FOR DIAL TONE" printed in red onto the mask.


Some checking online revealed that the telephonearchive.com number card collection has a similar one.  But it leaves out the "PLEASE". I suppose, they couldn't fit that onto the mask, because that card mask is actually for a three-line inscription card (E1165). This is pictured too.


So my question is, how common are these masks, and were these actually issued by a telephone company?
The BSPs don't show this card.

The mask is not in great shape, and the dial really looks better without it, IMHO.

unbeldi

If you saw this card, what would you try to dial to reach that telephone?

a)  4-5876

b)  A4-5876

c)  AC4-5876




jsowers

Below is one of the few masked cards I've ever gotten. It's from a 1956 dark blue 500 set that the seller found still installed in a bedroom of a house he was renovating and the house and phone dated to the same year. It's from Cicero, Illinois and both mask and number card feature OLympic numbers. The mask is on the number card archive because I sent the scan to Dave, but I don't see the actual card. It has a rectangle of fade due to only part of it being exposed.

As far as where they came from, mine could have been something to do with financing the new house the phone was in, since it's from a savings and loan, but there are many others on the archive from radio stations, ambulance services, dairies and cleaners and they have similar graphics. I have to wonder who installed them. It could be the advertisers did it themselves or somehow they paid the phone company installers to do it, if that's possible. With the color 500 set it's even more difficult since it required a tool and some expertise. I'm not too sure they could be installed by the customers.

They're not very common and most of them seem to be WE and not AE. It would be interesting to find out how these overlays got on the phones.

Oh, and I would try dialing 4-5876 because the city name is just for location purposes since it doesn't have the first two letters capitalized. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s we could dial the last five digits of the seven-digit number as long as the prefix started with the same two numbers or letters.
Jonathan

unbeldi

Using a number card mask for advertising was indeed quite popular I suppose, some companies also handed out number card holder overlays that snapped onto the entire card group and had a window to show the number.

Generally I am more interested in the masks that the telephone company installed.

In this case, I am wondering whether the card mask was originally intended to be installed on an ivory (or otherwise colored) telephone rather than a black one, and if so why it is on this one.  The set seemed rather original as remanufactured in Feb 1960, receiving new cords at that time and a stamp (S260). But the cord had a wall jack biscuit installed, in the style known from telephone collectors. The jack box is dated in 1983, and I suspect the phone could have been once owned by a collector, despite being found at a yard sale this year.

Turns out dialing "4-5876" was correct for the period until at least 1955, likely a little longer even.   Im still missing information about the time period between 1955 and ca. 1962.  At some point after 1955, Atlantic City was assigned office prefixes 282 through 286, ATlantic City 2/3/4/5/6, and this was in place by 1959, as shown by some NJ directories of that year.  When all-number-calling was implemented the prefix changed to 342 to 346, as is evident from post cards of 1963.

I have never seen a number card with AT capitalized for Atlantic CIty, I believe, and I don't think the place ever had any other central office names either, not for 28x- or for 34x-. Apparently, the 28x prefixes were rather short lived, only used for the transition period for DDD until all-number-calling.  The area was split off from area code 201 into 609 in 1958, this complicates the matter a little, but for some time the state implemented office code protection between the two area codes to extend seven-digit in-state dialing for a while–perhaps until 1961 when half-moon area code stickers were distributed state wide.

unbeldi

Here is another number card mask of this variety.
This is a three-line mask.

Interestingly, the seller is also from New Jersey, but the dial is sold by itself.
It is a 1937 4H dial.