This might be the most expensive Princess ever, thanks to its installation.
Full details and photos. (https://www.dragoneauctions.com/thebarris1967oldsmobiletoronado)
Wuzzat one of 007's cars?
That is very cool!
But what's the point? I've been waiting for someone to tell us why it's there. Was it intercom to the driver from the back seat, was it part of a mobile phone?
Those were boat's, that would pass anything but a gas station. But I don't see the point of having one in the car.
Anyone? Don't get me wrong, it's a nice looking phone...
It was a mobile (there was no back seat in that custom Toronado). Mannix was originally written to be technologically cutting-edge with a focus on computers. Executive producer Lucille Ball decided they were too obscure for average viewers to comprehend (it was 1967, after all) so they were largely removed. But the car was obviously super-advanced for the time so they evidently decided to keep the car-phone.
That's what I thought, though I didn't realize there was no back seat. Thanks for the information.
As I recall, Lucy helped shift the focus of the show away from technology to him being a PI with a secretary and Gail Fisher was brought in at the beginning of season 2 as Peggy and she added a lot to the show and it did better in the ratings. Over the years he had several unusual cars.
That Princess phone was just a prop and the technology to make a standard desk phone work in a car didn't exist. It had to be a specially designed radio telephone with a trunk-mounted unit and a head unit near the driver. Those head units were pretty small and looked a lot like Princess phones and they were often mounted on the transmission hump, which wasn't present in a Toronado since it was front wheel drive. The Princess phone's location in that car wasn't well thought out because how in the world could you dial it with it behind the driver like that. Maybe it was on rails and extended out and away from the seat?
Something else about that show... the Lalo Schifrin theme music will eat into your brain. It's very good. Here is a concert version with the sheet music that goes by on the screen and makes it interesting to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzA9TEgEwco
Well a piece of TV history, is cool, and I know that technology didn't exist where a princess could be used as a mobile set.
Just like knight rider 2000, couldn't do all they made it out to.
Taking corners at Nealy a hundred mph jumping though box cars traveling down the rails.
I wonder who's warehouse this Sat in for all these years.
I think radio telephony was in use at that time. The early sets used those "glass dome" selectors like some of the railroad sets did.
In 1991 my boss had radiotelephone service instead of cell. Incoming calls were free for the first 60 or 90 seconds.
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I have a Rotary trendline briefcase/car telephone. It used radiotelephone technology. You needed a license for each frequency you used.
It is a heavy briefcase. To use it as a car phone, you store the briefcase in the trunk and hook up the cables for the dash mounted trendline handset .
JMO,
Jim S.