1966 WE 500 in pink arrives

[McHeath]

Well my birthday present from the missus arrived, and it's pretty sweet.  All the dates match to Jan/Feb of 1966.  Even the line cord in pink is dated 66'.  I'll put up some pics later tonight when I get a chance. 

The bottom is black, major surprising as I thought that in 65' they stopped painting the bottoms.  It's dated 2/66.  Anyone else seen a 1966 WE 500 with a black bottom?

[HobieSport]

We await the pictures with baited breath, Oh Heathen One.

[McHeath]

Okay due to the overwhelming and shockingly high demand, or not, here are some pics of the pinkie.

First pic is just general shot of the phone on the cutting block island in the kitchen.  The handset cord is the weakest link, with some disfigurement and some color loss at the handset end.  I may try the cooking/freezing method on it and see if I can reform it.  The fingerwheel also has some cracking near the numbers 1 and 2 at the edge. 

The color is like bubble gum, nice and crisp.

[McHeath]

Next up is the base.  I'm really pleased that the bottom is black, I did not know it would be black when I bought it so this is a big bonus to me.  Guessing that the Bell System simply used up all the painted bases from 1965 into 1966 and when they ran out then they started using the cad plated ones.  Note there is some rust on the foot rivets. 

[HobieSport]

She's quite purty, Heath, and the cord looks to be an easy fix.

[McHeath]

And lastly here are the guts.  You can see all the various key dates, love that the transmitter is dated 2/14/66.  Nice and clean all.  She was about 90 bucks, so it was not as cheap as I'd wish for, but I'm very pleased and it looks great on the desk.  

[Dennis Markham]

Heath, you have yourself a very nice original forty-three old telephone!  It really does look nice and that handset cord isn't that bad either.  Very nice!

[Tonyrotary]

Wow, even at 90 bucks still a decent deal considering the shape it is in.

[Dan/Panther]

Heath;
I hate to admit it, but I find myself waiting, for my pink phone to get its turn on my desk, as I rotate them.  For some reason EVERYONE likes the pink phone, and baby blue phone, exept Bill Cahill of course.

I have to admit, I'm partial to the pastel colors and black. Only because the solid colors aren't the shade I expect them to be, for example the red phone is more blood or maroon than red, to me Red is Coca Cola red. Green is avocado green where it should be kelly green. Sromberg Carlson, and ITT got it right, but not WE500's. Why did W.E. seem to use non mainstream colors ?
D/P

[HobieSport]

I have to admit, I'm partial to the pastel colors and black.

I'm the same way. For the WE colors the only ones I like are the pink and baby blue (and I like the yellow, too).  Otherwise, just give me black.

[Dan/Panther]

I really would like to know the reasoning behind some of the color choices. I guess avocada green would have been acceptable in the 70's, but it came out long before then, and Coca Cola, is almost as old as the phone itself, and besides firetrucks and Santa Claus, defines Red. As far as Green, How much more green can you get than Irish...Yellow, ever have a hotdog....???and  Brown, ever take a S.....Never mind...
D/P

[HobieSport]

Exactly, D/P.  How hard can it be? Actually the brown WEs remind me more of Hershey bars.

[Dan/Panther]

Matt;
As far Brown.
I was going to write Snickers.....
D/P

[Sargeguy]

Nice one!  That looks like one I was bidding on.  I had to settle for the consolation prize:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190302407855

[McHeath]

Nice 554! 

This pink phone is growing on me pretty fast and I can see it ending up a serious favorite.  I also like the baby blue and the turquoise as well, but that avocado green is not really all that exciting.  The lime green and flaming orange look interesting, they were Stromberg and ITT I think.  No idea why WE picked the colors they did, that seminar report of the release of the model 500 said that they were researching colors to use and were going to try for a contemporary blend of colors.

I also got for my birthday a 1954 WE 500, it was only 15 bucks total, and the reason I wanted it was the straight handset cord.  Planning to put that cord on my prize 1951 model 500 to try to make it look as early as possible.  This straight cord is in great shape, just dirty, as was the phone, I think it lived in a garage it's whole life as it had mud dabbers in the shell and all sorts of beetle cases dropped inside.  Ewww.  It also was broken in shipping, I ask the guy to wrap the handset separately and he did, but he just put the whole thing in a box of peanuts.  Arrgh!  And it was an all date matching phone as well, looked like no one had ever touched it.