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Color choices

Started by Babybearjs, December 18, 2017, 02:56:12 AM

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Babybearjs

OK... now who can tell me what the most popular color for key office phones was available to the commercial sector.... Black was basic, beige was too.... what other colors were popular in the offices in America back in the day??? (564-65, 2564-65)
John

jsowers

It wasn't popular, but light gray is quite evident in episodes of The Bob Newhart Show and the Mary Tyler Moore Show. There are light gray 2565 keysets in the WJM newsroom and a rare light gray 1554 on the wall next to the door. Bob has a light gray 2565 on his desk that he answers at the beginning of the show and Carol has a light gray Call Director, at least in the early days.

I would say moss green was a very popular color and so was white, but black was by far the most predominant in my memory of businesses and schools in the 1960s-80s. The only place I saw color WE keysets was NC Baptist Hospital when I went to the dermatologist. Coincidentally, my uncle Don was responsible for designing their phone system at Southern Bell. There were even 2851 keysets on the wall in the examining rooms and it was interesting seeing the line lights flash on and off while I was waiting.

Attached are a couple color listings I found in some brochure scans. Note that Mahogany brown was even available in 1958 on keysets, but again not a popular color. Ivory was also available in 1958 but white wasn't. They called them "button phones" in these early brochures. By 1960 white was available. I don't have any brochures later than 1966.
Jonathan

rdelius

it depdentd on the telephone co. Some Indipendant telephone telephne used  ITT sets,brown was very common.Rare in Bell treeeitory.Heins Telephone in NC used lots of SC sets so bright orange or white was used.Also not common Bell colors.GTE in Durham used lots of beige.

Babybearjs

I was looking at the ITT practices and notices that black, white, green, and beige were pretty much the color choices... what colors did WE offer for key sets? they did offer Gold.... it was custom, but it was still out there.....what other colors are hiding out there??
John

Russ Kirk

As a PBX installer in the 1980's for Pacific Telephone, i recall lthe most common colors I saw were black, beige and green. I do recall seeing sets in blue a couple of times for some bosses.
- Russ Kirk
ATCA & TCI

WEBellSystemChristian

I think WE/Bell offered any color that they produced, but it was special-order, like Gold. That doesn't mean that every color available for special order was made (or that any example of a color actually produced has survived half a century), but the possibilities are still wider than what you will expect to see on paper.

It also depends on how you define an original color. Gold was done in refurb shops, using both new and recycled parts. There are examples of standard 500s and 554s that were painted in non-standard colors using the same method used to produce Gold 500s.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

Jim Stettler

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on December 19, 2017, 10:52:46 PM
I think WE/Bell offered any color that they produced, but it was special-order, like Gold. That doesn't mean that every color available for special order was made (or that any example of a color actually produced has survived half a century), but the possibilities are still wider than what you will expect to see on paper.

This has always been my thought. I always assume  that any WE plastic phone had at least 1 clear housing produced (for engineering purposes).
All  along the history of Bell you could "special order" sets (for a fee).
There are BSP's that tell how to order "special finish" sets. Any current color should be a very simple "special order"
There is a large variety of "special finish" sets that were produced over the years. All are  low production, some  are a single  set to mark an event, others are small runs and/or custom orders.  Most  have/or had a better survival rate due to them being unique.

My opinion,
Jim S.

BTW I do have a clear Kellogg/ITT  keyset, and have heard of clear WE keysets as well.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.