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Color, Everyone?

Started by Adam, July 02, 2011, 12:00:54 AM

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Adam

I'm fascinated by this Western Electric magazine ad from 1960.

My empirical evidence from eBay show many red telephones for sale, and very few white telephones.  Yet in 1960, Western Electric reported white as the most popular color, with beige second, and red in last by far.

I would have thought beige would be number 1, and a much higher percentage for red.

How does everybody else's experiences and/or remembrances jive with these 1960 numbers from Western Electric?

(Ad from a picture on eBay, so this is the best resolution I have.)
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

cihensley@aol.com

Adam:

I tend to agree with your observation, and gray at 6% in the ad which is higher than red (4%) is scarcely seen.

Chuck

Dan

I see a lot of pink too. I think some people kept the reds and pinks, while the more common colours as listed on this add made landfills.
"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

AE_Collector

This chart is from the early 60s when black was really the highest percentage by far.  Colors like red probably got more popular in later years. Dont forget that there are probably more white phones on ebaY than we realise but they now look Ivory to us a first glance.

Terry

Willytx

My father was in the military, so we moved a lot. On the east coast, it was always a black 554 in the kitchen and a green or blue Trimline in my parents bedroom. In California it seems like we always had a yellow 554 in the kitchen. Sometimes there was also a beige 500 in another room. I know my father would never request a color, just whatever the installer had.

No matter how much I begged, we never had a red phone, or a Snoopy.

Red phones still command a premium price, probably why more of those end up on eBay.