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Harold Watkins - Vancouver area Telephone Collector

Started by AE_Collector, March 07, 2013, 07:58:23 PM

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AE_Collector

A good friend of mine and local telephone collector, Harold Watkins passed away at home this morning at 80 years of age. His health had been failing and he had been in and out of hospital since last October.

Harold had an amazing telephone collection housed in a beautiful old classic home in New Westminster BC just outside of Vancouver. A couple of years ago his house and his telephones were featured in an episode of the TV show "Fringe" filmed in the Vancouver area. It was the episode where they looked up a flight of stairs and the wall was covered in phones. I thought we had discussed it here on CRPF but can't seem to find it. I will try to post some pictures of Harolds collection here soon.

Rest in Peace Harold....

Terry


cihensley@aol.com

Terry:

I am sorry to hear about your friend.

Chuck

Dennis Markham

Terry, my condolences on the loss of your friend.

DavePEI

#3
Terry: was this one of the shots of his collection from  Fringe? I saved this a few years ago when watching the episode.

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

AE_Collector

#4
That is the one Dave! There was also a shot of some candlestick phones on a fireplace mantle in that episode.

Thanks for the condolences guys. It is too bad to lose another phone collector. There aren't really that many of us to begin with.

Terry

G-Man

Hello Terry, please ad my condolences as well. I believe the posting you made to the TCI list back in 2009 (shown below) is what you are trying to recall.

Re: Fringe, Season 2 Telephone related.....   
Posted By:ae_collector
ae_collector  Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:11 am |

I actually meant to post this to the group a couple of weeks ago but never got
to it.

Fringe is filmed in the Greater Vancouver area and we frequently see familiar
sites. One favorite filming location is at Riverview Hospital which was built in the 1920's and is now used more for
film crews than patients. It is located less than a mile from where I live.

The house seen in that episode of Fringe belongs to Harold Watkins and is
located in Queens Park area of New Westminster BC, Canada.

I think Harold is or has been a member of ATCA over the years. Grant Munro,
another ATCA member from this area also had some props in Harold's house for these scenes.
Grant regularly rents items from his collection to the movie business.

He has a great collection of phones some of which are mounted on the wall of the
stairway and can be clearly seen in the scene. Another shot shows some phones on the fireplace mantle.

After the scene inside the house the next scene is immediately out front of his
house for the next minute or so.

Harold didn't say what he made from renting his house to the production company
but they also put him in a nice hotel for at least several days.

Terry Biddlecombe

DavePEI

Quote from: AE_Collector on March 08, 2013, 12:20:02 AM
That is the one Dave! There was also a shot of some candlestick phones on a fireplace mantle in that episode.

Thanks for the condolences guys. It is too bad to lose another phone collector. There aren't really that many of us to begin with.

Terry
Hi Terry:


I thought it was. I am a great one for saving photos without keeping a description. I did have two photos saved from that episode - it is likely the other one I am thinking of was of the candlesticks.

I do have that episode saved on disk somewhere, but not sure where it is at the moment!

Sorry to hear Harold passed away.

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

AE_Collector

Quote from: G-Man on March 08, 2013, 04:13:03 AM
Hello Terry, please ad my condolences as well. I believe the posting you made to the TCI list back in 2009 (shown below) is what you are trying to recall.

Yes that is likely what I recall posting about that episode of Fringe. Good Searching G-Man!

I neglected to mention in my first post that Harold was still a member of ATCA.

I will get some pictures of his phones added here soon.

Terry

Sargeguy

I remember seeing an episode where a number of AE colored wall phones were prominently displayed.  I assume they were Harold's as well?  Another episode of the show featured one of "The Observers'" apartment.  It had a 4-prong jack on the wall.
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

AE_Collector

That was fringe but those aE 90's were rentals from my other friend Grant who regularly rents phones for movies. That topic was discussed here on CRPF.

Terry

Mr. Bones

Terry,

     My condolences on the passing of your friend. It seems to also be a great loss to our collecting world; all the knowledge, experience, and savvy. I wish that I had the pleasure to meet and converse with him.

      Best regards,

Terrence
Sláinte!
   Mr. Bones
      Rubricollis Ferus

teka-bb

I'm sorry to hear of Harold's passing.

Thanks to Terry I've had the pleasure of meeting Harold in person and admiring has beautiful phone collection and house.

=============================================
Regards,

Remco, JKL Museum of Telephony Curator

JKL Museum of Telephony: http://jklmuseum.com/
=============================================
TCI Library: http://www.telephonecollectors.info/
=============================================

DavePEI

#12
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001