RED AE 80 with white cord ?

[LoveOldPhones]

I saw this on eBay and i wondered if this hard wired white curly cord was a replacement cord... or if it was something that came with the phone like some of the early WE 500's  have that gray cord.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Red-Monophone-Automatic-Electric-Rotary-Desk-Telephone-Phone-/302250394323

     ?hash=item465f8702d3:g:DY0AAOSwB-1YxbRY

i'm guessing its a replacement cord because the line cord is that thick red cord.  it looks like it might be an early set though.

just wondering.

thanks

[AE_Collector]

No, they didn't come that way from AE. Someone has changed the handset cord.

It is a first generation colored AE80. Sellers are hard to figure out sometimes. Only put 4 pictures in the listing, two of them almost identical to each other and DON'T put a picture of the base where all the information is! Late 50's to early 60's.

Terry

[rdelius]

Red AE sets are hard to find.I live in ex GTE territory and they are difficult to locate.The cords for the earlier sets (chrome plungers,big feethandset cord out the back) were black neophrane painted red

[AE_Collector]

Yes I have a couple of the earliest possible colored 80's that have the black rubber cords painted the color of the phone. They sure have started to disintegrate around here lately. Not sure if it has to do with environmental conditions but I have been surprised to see the rate that they are crumbling. Too bad. But that just seems to be the first year or two and then the thick vinyl cords arrived on the scene.

Terry

[LoveOldPhones]

Yes I have a couple of the earliest possible colored 80's that have the black rubber cords painted the color of the phone. They sure have started to disintegrate around here lately. Not sure if it has to do with environmental conditions but I have been surprised to see the rate that they are crumbling. Too bad. But that just seems to be the first year or two and then the thick vinyl cords arrived on the scene.

Terry

hey thats pretty interesting Terry.  but why didn't they just leave the cord the black rubber ?  that would have been pretty cool.

[AE_Collector]

hey thats pretty interesting Terry.  but why didn't they just leave the cord the black rubber ?  that would have been pretty cool.

In retrospect it would look cool now but back then virtually all phones were black. If someone got a neat new colored red phone they would likely be happier that it was all red rather than still having old boring black cords.

Terry