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How I found soft 554's

Started by Vern P, February 13, 2010, 04:13:52 PM

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Vern P



I have been asked to tell the story of how I found my soft 554's

Brown 554 with 1956 date.

Back in 1994 when I was just first starting to collect the soft set's. I was to the ATCA Teaneck, NJ show, This was my 1st 'fly in show" and my 1st time to the NY area.

At the show a big NY,NY, collector had a Brown 554 with Brown wood back board. Price about $150, now remember this was in 1994 and I was new to the 'soft' 500 & 554's. I did look at it, but didn't buy it. Later in the day I was talking to the Upstate NY guy that bougth it, as I knew he collected the soft 500's and I had bought some stuff from him. As we loooked at the 554, he said that he had just got this as trade stock, as he was looking for a Brown 500.

Some time later (2years?) I had an ad looking for a Brown 500 and 554 (by this time I was looking for 554's too) and had a 1950 A/B 500 for trade.  I got a call from PA, about the ad. He had got the Brown 554 in a trade from Upstate NY. I told him I knew of the phone and and had seen it.  He wanted to trade this 554 for my 500 A/B. OK, trade made.  I had got 2 of the 500A/B in the load of 800 564's that I paid 50 cent each for.  

Dk. Blue 554 2 line model.

I got a WE 191 3 slot payphone, with the correct insides, from a phone man hear in SLC.  In talking on the phone (remember doing this ?) to a payphone collector about this phone.  He wanted it, I said I would trade, but he had nothing to trade. He knew I was looking for soft 500 & 554's.  A few weeks later he called me back and said that he had found a Dk. Blue 554 (1957) 2 line, and a soft Ivory 554 (1955). Did I want to trade ? Trade made with some $ from me.  In the end, I got the 554's, he got the payphone, and the other guy got the cash.

I didn't know it at the time, but the 554 came out in mid 1954 in Black, later in '54 Ivory joined it. 1955 the other colors were added. When the 554 1st came out in 1954, the cradel was "dull". It was changed to "bright" sometime in 1956 or 57 (need to re-look at my sets)  

Rose Beige 554 (1956),  This is NOS, I paid $350 for ths from another collector. No fun story about this one.
I would like to down grade on this one.

The Red and Green 554's  came from shops in ID, no fun story about these either.

Yellow 554 came from a thift shop in CO.

White 554

White is is really over looked in soft sets, but a clean one is  very hard to find, as they darken very bad.

I was in ID were I have shopped a lot over the years. In a small town with 1 out of the way shop. (she happen to be open this time)
I found a White soft hand set and fat cord. OK, nice, but were is the rest of the phone ?  Over in anthor pile, was the re-mains of a White 554, no dial. OK now were is the dial ? I asked, she said that some one was gonig to make a wood wall phone work with the parts from that phone, but never got it done yet. The dial is over hear in the phone. OK Now I have all the parts, deal made, into the car.  The phone was a nice clean White soft 554.

Light Gray 554

This came from a freinds Mother's kitchen. It was put it when the house was built in 1958.  I traded a new Yellow one, as the kitchen color was changed.
There is still a very clean Pink Princess down in the sewing room. Mom is now 95, and still at home.

Dk Gray 554
I am still looking for a WE model, just last year I got a Dk. Gray Kellogg 554 to fill the spot.  I did make an offer to trade this and to much money for a WE 2 line, (that was found at a yeard sell for $5) but I changed my mind, as I feel the Kellogg is more rare that then a WE.

To much info ???

Vern P


bingster

I always enjoy hearing how people wound up with the phones they have.  Thanks, Vern!
= DARRIN =



bwanna

great stories, vern :) the brown 554 was just meant to be for you.

sometimes i think i enjoy the "hunt" even more than finding a prize. ;) i have 5 pieces of furniture that i purchased new. everything else is either a family piece or a "find".  throw in all my collections...makes my home like the scrapbook of my life.

thanks for sharing!
donna

Phonesrfun

Thanks Vern, those are inspiring stories.  I need to hit those antique stores more when I am out and about.  That is, unless you have arleady cleaned them out.

This week-end I went to an antique store in Waitsburg, WA because a week earlier I saw a black 500 with a metal finger wheel in what seemed to be fair condition.  They were closed last week, and it was dark so I could not see through the window the price, or much else about it.  I drove back yesterday, and found that he wanted $35 for it and when I picked it up, it was very light with no ringer in it.  Also, the body had a very poor crazed paint-job on it and it also had the round rubber feet.  I passed on it, but asked if he had any other phones.  I did wind up getting a white rotary AE Starlight for much cheaper, and it was complete, and in much better condition.

-Bill Geurts

-Bill G

jsowers

Vern, thanks for posting this. I agree that the thrill is in the hunt, and you started hunting these phones far earlier than most of us. A picture of all the soft plastic 554s would be great to see, dust and all. All of mine came from eBay and it was thrilling up to a point to find some of them, but nothing like finding them in "the wild" so to speak. My dark gray 554 was so covered in stickers and black dirt that it was hard to tell for sure it was dark gray. I think the seller thought it was green. It was very faded. Something else definitely not thrilling is how 554 housings seem to crack in shipping or from sellers who don't know how to remove them. So finding them still installed is great.

Quote from: Vern P on February 13, 2010, 04:13:52 PM
I didn't know it at the time, but the 554 came out in mid 1954 in Black, later in '54 Ivory joined it. 1955 the other colors were added. When the 554 1st came out in 1954, the cradel was "dull". It was changed to "bright" sometime in 1956 or 57 (need to re-look at my sets)

I have a small issue with the statement above. Do you have anything to prove those phones came out in 1954? I'd love to see it. Paul Fassbender says the 554 A/B was announced in 1955 in black and ivory. I think maybe the timeline is black and ivory came out in 1955 and the other colors followed in 1956. Also the black 554 first came with a black switchhook. Do you have one of those? I do agree that the switchhook changed to bright around 1957. Here is an entire forum thread about that topic...

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1568.0

Here is the link to the 500-554 info on Paul's site. The 554 is about halfway down the page, and it's a very large page.

http://www.paul-f.com/we500typ.htm

Thanks again for posting your experiences. It gives us all hope that the phones are still out there. I also want to share a picture I found of my Great Aunt Sallie using a soft plastic ivory 554, about 1956 or 57, in her newly redone kitchen. Unfortunately I never knew her. She died in April, 1959.
Jonathan

Dennis Markham

Nice photo of your Great Aunt and her Model 554, Jonathan.  Looks like White, maybe Yellow, Ivory?

jsowers

I'm thinking it's ivory, since she passed away a little over a year after white was introduced, but I suppose it could be white because she died very suddenly. She certainly looks happy and healthy here. She was a very good cook, from all reports. Uncle Murray, her husband, was the one who built the shelves and cabinets.
Jonathan

Jim Stettler



Quote from: Vern P on February 13, 2010, 04:13:52 PM
I didn't know it at the time, but the 554 came out in mid 1954 in Black, later in '54 Ivory joined it. 1955 the other colors were added. When the 554 1st came out in 1954, the cradel was "dull". It was changed to "bright" sometime in 1956 or 57 (need to re-look at my sets)

I have a small issue with the statement above. Do you have anything to prove those phones came out in 1954? I'd love to see it. Paul Fassbender says the 554 A/B was announced in 1955 in black and ivory. I think maybe the timeline is black and ivory came out in 1955 and the other colors followed in 1956. Also the black 554 first came with a black switchhook. Do you have one of those? I do agree that the switchhook changed to bright around 1957.
[/quote]

According to BSP  C32.559 Issue 1 Feb 1955 AT&T Standard "Telephone Sets 554,556 and 558 types, description and uses"

This appears to be the first BSP for 554's. All photos show a shiny hookswitch, I have owned them w a dull Switchook and I saw a beat-up set with the black switchook.
colors are black,Ivory, green,red, beige,
green,red, beige are furnished w/ gray retractible cords only

Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

JorgeAmely

I have some Bell Telephone System Almanacs from 55, 56 and 1957. The 554 is shown in the issue of 1956 and 1957, not 1955. But I would expect the 1955 issue to have been printed late in 1954.
Jorge

Jim Stettler

Quote from: Jim S. on February 15, 2010, 11:10:58 AM



According to BSP  C32.559 Issue 1 Feb 1955 AT&T Standard "Telephone Sets 554,556 and 558 types, description and uses"

This appears to be the first BSP for 554's. All photos show a shiny hookswitch, I have owned them w a dull Switchook and I saw a beat-up set with the black switchook.
colors are black,Ivory, green,red, beige,
green,red, beige are furnished w/ gray retractible cords only

Jim

Here is a yousendit link for the above BSP
http://download.yousendit.com/VGljck93Q3RHa09Ga1E9PQ

Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Dennis Markham

The BSP is interesting, thanks for posting that Jim.  Despite the depiction of the hook being what looks like the satin finished hook, we have seen one set with a black hook from mid 1955, as seen in this posting:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1161.msg14701#msg14701

Jonathan has a photo of a second set with a black hook.  That phone belongs to a friend of his that lives in California.  Perhaps Jonathan would be able to post a photo of that set.

One discrepancy that I notice in the BSP is with the diagram of the phone, specifically showing the volume control lever.  The drawings shows that the volume becomes "Loud" when the lever is moved to the right.  In fact, the volume of the ringer increases when the lever is moved left.  I have never run across a set yet that increased with volume after moving the lever to the right.  Not a big deal but it makes me question details of the BSP's.  I wonder if they were checked for detailed accuracy and what other information may not be factual, if any??

jsowers

Thanks, Jim, for the BSP reference. I'll look at it in a few minutes and comment if I have anything to add.

Dennis, below is my friend's black switchhook 554, from 8-55. Mine is from 6-55. Also notice one of the caps is double dated 7 and 8-55. And the handset has 7-5 and not 7-55 on it. I've seen one other on eBay, but someone else got it. I love finding out info on these phones. They just aren't seen very often.
Jonathan

Dennis Markham

Thanks, Jonathan for posting those photos.  I have seen handsets stamped in that manner, with just a  month and year with a hyphen between them.  I don't recall ever running into a double stamped part like that however.

jsowers

About the BSP on 554s, that's definitely a chrome switchhook and not a black one. Strange, since it's so early in 1955. You can see the black switchhook one in the WE Apparatus catalog page I posted in the link that Dennis provided. There's no date exactly on the catalog, but it appears to me to be early 1955.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1161.msg14701#msg14701

About the almanacs, yes, they were published the year before, so the 55 almanac was a 1954 publication.

The info about which cords came with which phones was news to me. It was nice to see that the straight cords only came on the black and ivory models. I got an NOS green 554 from 1-57 in 2006 with an attached straight gray cord, but I had a feeling it was replaced because there was another straight gray cord, still in the paper sleeve, in the box too. I have plenty of other uses for those two cords, and now I know what to put on that phone. I attached two pictures of it. The first is propped on its original box and the second is the additional straight gray cord (on top of a 302 mounting cord that also came with it). Anybody know where the stash of those straight gray cords is? I'd love to find more!
Jonathan

McHeath

QuoteAnybody know where the stash of those straight gray cords is?

They are all at my house!! ;)

I wish.

That's a great looking moss green 554.  I've never seen a straight gray cord on any 554, only a very few black cords on all black units.  

Just to muddy the waters, my NE 554 from 1965 has a black plastic switchook.  It's not clear like the later models, but solid, and shaped just like the early large metal hooks on the WE 554s.