Can you spot the oddity?

[bingster]

There's something very unusual about this phone.  Anybody know what it is?

170386005466

[foots]

The hookswitch looks odd to me - like maybe an AE or Kellogg or something.

[jsowers]

It has the early "phone number to nowhere" on it, MAin 0-2368. The forerunner of KL5-2368 and later 555-2368. It was likely a phone company demonstrator model. This is from the same seller as the clear 302 up for bids. That must have been some collection! I have a beige 701 Princess with 555-2368 under a glued-on fingerwheel, with no guts inside. It was also a phone company demo.

[bingster]

It has the early "phone number to nowhere" on it, MAin 0-2368. The forerunner of KL5-2368 and later 555-2368. It was likely a phone company demonstrator model.

Bingo!  They started out with MAin 368, which was followed by MAin 2368, and finally MAin 0-2368, before moving on to KL5/555.  You'll also see old ads from the 1930s with a not-so-imaginative exchange of "EXchange" using the same station numbers.

[Greg G.]

I noticed that too, and was wondering if the number was supposed to start with 626 or 620?  IOW is that an O or a 0?  If I had to pick one, I would say 626 because the operator 0 is more rounded.  My second guess was the coiled cloth handset cord, it's the first I've seen one.

[Dennis Markham]

That explains the high bid price for that phone with 3 days left to go.  I was commenting about this phone to a friend the other day.  I noticed the MAIN dial card and commented on it, wondering where I had seen that before.  I had no clue about the number.  Thank you Bingster and Jonathan for educating us on that one.

[bingster]

Yep, this one was on my radar screen for a while, but I guess other people have figured out the number card, too, hence the price.  Although, given the fact that the phone wasn't intended to be put in service (and doesn't appear to have seen any), that may be driving the price, too.  It's absolutely pristine.

[Dennis Markham]

It is very nice.  Only one cork pad missing from the bottom and that handset cord is very nice.  It appears to be silk.  A nice Continental.  I wonder what dial is inside.  I got a nice green one last winter with a #4 dial and an original matching dial card mask.  It was just over $100 and grew up right here in the Detroit area.

[Dan/Panther]

Thanks for the education, I would never have caught that one.
D/P
Good thing to know however.

[jiggerman]

It has the early "phone number to nowhere" on it, MAin 0-2368. The forerunner of KL5-2368 and later 555-2368. It was likely a phone company demonstrator model. This is from the same seller as the clear 302 up for bids. That must have been some collection! I have a beige 701 Princess with 555-2368 under a glued-on fingerwheel, with no guts inside. It was also a phone company demo.

Jsowers,
               If you ever watched the movie  "Ghostbusters"....... " who you going to call " the telephone # is 555-2368. Jiggerman

[HobieSport]

If you ever watched the movie  "Ghostbusters"....... " who you going to call " the telephone # is 555-2368.

Makes sense that they would use a "phone number to nowhere" in movies. One hears stories about some made up (yet real) phone number used in movies or popular song and then some poor soul gets a thousand phone calls asking to speak to some celebrity or something...

[jsowers]

Jsowers,
               If you ever watched the movie  "Ghostbusters"....... " who you going to call " the telephone # is 555-2368. Jiggerman

Jiggerman, speaking of ghosts and it's almost October, I've often wondered if maybe they buried Jane Barbe (the lady who recorded all those phone announcements) with a phone that rings when you dial 311-555-2368. And then it makes those three tones and Jane comes back from the dead and tells us it's not a working number or a number no longer in use. Actually Ghostbusters is one movie I haven't seen, but I did see all the advertising for it and I've heard the theme song.

Jane is alive and well on my local time and temperature, (336-CHestnut 3-2351) but for probably only a year longer because my telco just sold out, and she says the name of the company right before the time.