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Commemorative and Presentation Telephones

Started by paul-f, February 14, 2016, 08:55:31 PM

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paul-f

There's a new page on my site for Commemorative and Presentation Telephones.

It collects photos and brief descriptions of phones in my collection, from on-line auctions and others discussed here and in other phone-related groups.

It's under construction.  Comments and additions are always welcome.

  http://www.paul-f.com/Commemorative.html

A recent addition includes detailed photos of a phone commemorating the one millionth phone installed in Chicago -- an interesting paystation.  The AT&T Archives recently provided details of the plaque and instruction card.
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Jim Stettler

That is very cool Paul. I have the 25,000th  telephone installed by Oakridge telephone in 1967 their 25th year. It is a key telephone in silver that supposedly came from a nuclear power plant. I will try to get you some photos at some point.
Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

paul-f

Thanks Jim.

It's interesting to see the events that were thought worthy of commemoration. 

Now that I'm sensitized to them, I'm seeing text references in quite a few articles. Finding photos or the actual phones may be quite a challenge.

Retirement gifts are a subset of Presentation Telephones that should be fairly numerous. I have a gold painted butt set with a photo of the recipient on the number card that will eventually be posted.
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HarrySmith

Very cool payphone. I love the clear handset!
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

Jim Stettler

Many years ago at a Kansas telephone show I handled a gold (dark, not shiny) trimline with a medallion on the back of the handset. It was 1-in-a-1,000,000,000  telephone produced by Western Electric. The medallion had the name of the employee who it was awarded to.
The phone was being offered for trade for a Blake transmitter (at that time a Blake transmitter was worth around $500.00). I never did get the chance to ask the seller if he would sell it outright. By the end of the show it had traded hands.

Jim S.
The 1-in-a-1,000,000 commemorative sets that were given to WE employees were marked WE vs Bell System, and they became the employees property. You had to get a supervisor to put your name in to get on the list. These were shiny gold telephones. They did not have a nameplate, but they were heavily dated. (this info came from a high ranking We executive). His Final Project for WE was the 1984 Olympics in LA. 
I did end up with one of the official phones and several WE Olympic faceplates for the official phones as well as a few spare handsets. I also got a 1984 Olympic payphone vault door.  This was part of the $8,000 collection that I sometimes post about.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

paul-f

Interesting Jim.

Were there any photos from the show that included that gold phone?

Thanks for reminding me of the commemorative paystation vault doors.  I have some photos in my photo archive to add to the list, and am sure there are many more out there.
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Jim Stettler

Quote from: paul-f on February 15, 2016, 10:52:55 PM
Interesting Jim.

Were there any photos from the show that included that gold phone?

Thanks for reminding me of the commemorative paystation vault doors.  I have some photos in my photo archive to add to the list, and am sure there are many more out there.
Not that I am aware of. This was an ATCA (Abilene ,KS) show pre-list server.  Someone might have some personal photos. Nothing that made either newsletter.
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I did have a copper d-1 that was a retirement set. There is a photo of it on 1 or both listserver picture places. The handset was copper plated as well. The cord was a cheap plastic handset cord w/o conductors and it didn't have elements. The dial center  was an installer emblem. I suspect the retiree stated that he would never work on a phone again, so the gave him a nice retirement set that need some work as a joke.

I traded it to  Jon Kolger for a clear fat boy. There is a photo of the Fat boy  on page 138 of Dooners Yellow book. "Telephones Antique to Modern". I don't know if the page # is the same on the 2nd edition.


I think 1984 was the 1st year for Olympic commemorative vault doors. ISTR the Atlanta Olympics  had them as well.
Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

SUnset2

I'm a new member of the forum, but I thought I'd chime in.  This is an AE Starlite with a plate commemorating the 250,000th telephone installed by the West Coast Telephone Company (GTE).  It looks like it may have had another plate on the handset, which got removed.  I probably picked this up at a garage sale several years ago.

AE_Collector

#8
That's Cool!

I would guess that the handset sticker was either one of those stick on shoulder rests or the usual Funeral Home type sticker. A plate wouldn't work out very well on the handset especially an AE handset with the raised seam down the middle. Also, presumably a second plate would have been the same size as the first which this isn't/wasn't. The existing plate looks perfect in size for the location on the Starlite.

Welcome to the forum by the way!

Terry

WEBellSystemChristian

It's amazing that GTE had only installed their 250,000 telephone by 1965 (is that the date on the bottom?). Very cool example!

Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

AE_Collector

Yes the first two digits are the month and the year that phone was made. Third digit isnt the day.

It isn't GTE's 250,000 phone but the 250,000 phone installed by a local independant telco.

Terry

paul-f

Quote from: SUnset2 on February 16, 2016, 02:04:46 AM
I'm a new member of the forum, but I thought I'd chime in.  This is an AE Starlite with a plate commemorating the 250,000th telephone installed by the West Coast Telephone Company (GTE).  It looks like it may have had another plate on the handset, which got removed.  I probably picked this up at a garage sale several years ago.

Thanks for sharing, Paul.

It's curious that the plaque does not include the date the milestone was reached. Hopefully that will turn up with some research.

We're looking forward to seeing other treasures from your collection!
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Jim Stettler

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on February 16, 2016, 12:32:44 PM
It's amazing that GTE had only installed their 250,000 telephone by 1965 (is that the date on the bottom?). Very cool example!



I think it is the 250,000  telephone  installed by West Coast Telephone ( in GTE territory)
JMO,
Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

WEBellSystemChristian

Quote from: Jim S. on February 16, 2016, 01:35:57 PM
Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on February 16, 2016, 12:32:44 PM
It's amazing that GTE had only installed their 250,000 telephone by 1965 (is that the date on the bottom?). Very cool example!



I think it is the 250,000  telephone  installed by West Coast Telephone ( in GTE territory)
JMO,
Jim S.
I missed that part. It's actually pretty impressive on that scale because of Bell's sheer size on all fronts of the US; that GTE had that much business on the west coast.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

oldguy

Does anybody know if the museum of science & industry is still around in Chicago? I remember going there as a kid. It was very cool.
Gary