My Imperial, with possible connection to J.P. Getty

[guitar1580]

Sometime around the mid 1990s I went out to central PA, around 2 hrs from home, to look at a used Harley Davidson.  I had just started getting interested in collecting dial phones, and only had a few W/E 500s and a marble phone from Germany which had all been given to me.  I did not know the different model numbers yet, didn't have the Dooner books yet, knew nothing of the Imperial, and had probably only seen a candlestick on the Andy Griffith show ... I was truly green.

So, I had just been laid off from a 13 year stint in middle management at a coal company, and was back in college.  Oddly enough, the friendly ole chap selling the bike was retired from Bell Telephone in Los Angeles, and he collected coal mine artifacts, so we got a laugh about both collecting items from where the other once worked.  He did  have a home office fixed up beautifully with many great old coal company items, kinda like some of you guys' phone rooms.

So I offered to try to get him some items from my friends at the coal company, especially if he had any phone items to trade.  He said that he used to, and had gotten rid of everything  except 2  W/E candlesticks, which he then showed me on display in another room.  I was in awe.  Already bitten by the phone bug, I tried everything to get one of those beauts, and he was not coming off of them to save his life.  I hounded him relentlessly, probably moreso than I haggled about the Harley.

The next day, I was there again to pay for & pick up the bike, and I tried again to deal him out of one of the sticks, to no avail.  After a while, he said he thought he had a phone that he would give me, if he could find it.  After searching the basement for a while, he came up with a box which contained the 1956 Imperial, with a newer style subset/ringer, the kind with the black plastic cover.  He told me that he had removed it from the mansion of J P Getty, Texaco oil tycoon, when he worked in LA, and replaced some phones at the residence.  Everything was fairly dirty, and the handset paint is fairly scratched up, but I've replaced it with a nicer one for display purposes.

I'd never try to sell it as Getty's phone without documentation, etc., and mostly because I never intend on selling it, but I do believe the fellow's story.  He was an older fellow who seemed fair and honest, and he had nothing to gain by lying, since he wasn't trying to sell the phone to me for money, and I had already purchased the motorcycle.  The area code on the dial card is correct for LA.  Plus, if he was going to make up a story for a single guy buying a Harley, I suppose it would more likely be Racquel Welch's or Angie Dickenson's phone, why Getty?

Anyway, she's one of my favorite phones.  Hope you all enjoy.

Josh P

[bingster]

It's a beautiful example, Josh. 

[baldopeacock]

It sure is nice.   Looks like the plating is in excellent condition, too.    Great find with a nice back story to go with it.