FOUND *** WANTED - Tan or Beige ITT modular coiled handset cord

[HarrySmith]

I started working on the ITT 3554 I got for my friend. It came with a nasty white handset cord. I have a box of modular cords in a lot of colors, even had 2 beige ones but they are lighter than this phone. It appears to be a dark beige? Picture of phone attached. Anybody have a cord or two?

[TelePlay]

Could it be your phone has uniform discoloration?

Beige discolors by becoming darker.

Does the interior of the housing match the exterior?

[HarrySmith]

That was my first thought but the inside is just about the same color. It my be slightly darker but not much. The inside color does not match the beige WE cords I have either. I am thinking it must be an ITT color?

[Kellogg Kitt]

The cord looks like one of those cheap replacement cords.  They were not a standard telephone color, but a generic off-white color.  They almost matched the WE/ITT/SC ivory color, but not quite.  I have a few of those, and I hate them because they do not match any phone.  They were ugly, but they were cheap and widely available.  If your cord broke in the middle of the night, just run to the convenience store, grocery store, drug store, etc., grab a new one and plug 'er in!

Your phone (at least on my screen) looks like a correct, factory-fresh ITT beige color, with no browning or fading.

WE/ITT/SC beiges were all the same color, allowing interchangeable parts and cords with matching colors.

I am just speculating here, but it is possible that in later years, ITT produced a slightly lighter beige color.  I have an ITT 2500 set that was made in 1985, and it is a lighter beige, just like your wall phone.  Compared to my other beige phones, it is significantly lighter.  The others may have some slight darkening from age, but I saw plenty of beige telephones (mostly ITT, but some SC and WE) when they were brand new in the 1970s and 80s, so as well as my memory serves me, I know what "real" beige looks like.  The newer ITT models seem slightly lighter.  Again, just my speculation and memories from 40 years ago, but that might explain why your WE cords do not match (I assume the cords are darker).

[HarrySmith]

I ordered a couple of beige cords from eBay. I got them yesterday and it is a perfect match.