Phones Needed

[LarryInMichigan]

Perhaps one of our members in southeastern Michigan can help out here:
http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/atq/1942808226.html ( dead link 04-19-21 )

Larry

[AE_Collector]

They may need a technical consultant as well. They show British and North American models and just a guess but Bright Oronge probably wasn't representative of phones from the 50's / 60's era.

I have the GPO Green 332(?) but can't see myself donating it for the school play!

Terry

[gpo706]

I'll take care of your green 332 - honest!

Na, and dont send a brown 746, I still haven't got one...

[HarrySmith]

I would have to agree on the need for a tech consultant. Bye-Bye Birdie was set in the rural South during the 50's if I recall correctly so I don't think European or orange phones would fit!

[LarryInMichigan]

It sounds like an AE40 or 80 might be more appropriate.  This school is almost in Dennis's neighborhood, so maybe he can help.

Larry

[gpo706]

Harry you'de be surprised - I was when it read the thread about "Madmen" it all looked fine to my eyes!

Although obviously not a bad as a cheap documetary I seen which had a Luftwaffe HQ with all the desks festooned with GPO sets, now thats what I call great salesmanship for British industry!

Made me wonder what happened if they had a fault send some bloke over with reel of cable and a linesman set from London?

[HarrySmith]

I think for that play wood wall phones would be appropriate and maybe 102 & 202's on a desk here & there. They would need a Gray Paystation in the General Store for sure!

[paul-f]

The stage play tended to use wooden prop handsets for the telephone numbers.  Although the play had been out for many years, many remember most vividly the phones used in the 1963 movie -- 500s and Princess sets.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sPU3ymk2ms

However, in those days most young fellows had other things than phones to think about during the movie.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t3cBTb3xPc&feature=related
  http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2226913561/

[Dennis Markham]

It must be a popular play with the high schools.  I got several requests at Vintage Rotary Phones looking for handsets.  I finally got involved with one teacher who e-mailed me from Illinois or Indiana.  I sent him a box stuffed with about twenty handsets with cords to use for their Bye Bye Birdie play.  I only asked that he send them back when finished. 

So I cleaned them all up (yes, I even polished them)....taped up the spade tip ends on the handset cords that were exposed and shipped them out.  A month or two later they came back.  The cords were a little stretched but they were happy.

The teacher sent me a couple shots from the play. 

[Jester]

The local high school did that one for their Senior play a couple years ago.  One of my wife's coworkers had a kid in it as an extra that needed a phone as a prop.  I was asked several weeks ahead of final rehearsals about it, but hadn't heard another word until I come home one night & my wife tells me the kid needed one that day, so she came home picked one off the shelf!!  I calmed down enough to find out she let him have my black No. 1 Uniphone--then I hit the ceiling again!!  It turns out the kid wasn't too dumb--he questioned his mom about the phone when she brought it to him.  He told her it looked too expensive to be a prop.  So, he went on the internet, looked it up--& scared himself!!  He only used it for one rehearsal before I could switch it out, & he said he was miserable.  He treated my prize with kid gloves & refused to let ANYONE touch it!  He was completely relieved when i switched it out for a beater 500 with ABS cover & handset with a 7D dial & metal fingerwheel.  The wife learned, too--Wait For Me!!

[gpo706]

jester thats a remarkable story, if I was that kid I would have got my screwdriver out and started exploring.

Mind you had no internet when I was a kid.

What a smart child, he was probably petrified when he realised what he had borrowed.

[Greg G.]

However, in those days most young fellows had other things than phones to think about during the movie.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t3cBTb3xPc&feature=related

Oh gwawd, I HATE that clip of Ann Margret's screeching! 

[paul-f]

I had the sound turned off.

[Kenny C]

was that a color 5302 or was it the way it was sitting on the desk?