1959 WE 500

[liteamorn]

I won a 1959 WE 500 on ebay and it arrived today. I couldn't wait to take it apart to examine what I purchased.

All of the dates match (6-59) with the exeption of the receiver which is 58.

It has no center holes on the caps and there is almost no fading at all. I removed the caps and the colors match perfectly.

He put a modular line cord on it but sent the original 4 prong line with it.

I think it is a soft plastic case judging by the smell. Using the search function I found that 1959 cases could go either way, especially around June. My case is dated 6-24-59 1.

The dial is a 7C and the color code is 60(I'm hoping that is beige ).

The case interior has the same odor as the handset, which has me thinking it might be a soft plastic case.


I now have a red 554, a multi dated beige 500, a 1959 beige 500 and a 302, all WE. I swore I wasn't going to get into this but boy this is fun!

[jsowers]

Wow! Congratulations on getting a nice light beige soft plastic phone. Do you have any pictures to share? We'd love to see it. You've done some great detective work and you're correct. The -60 code denotes light beige. I call it light beige to differentiate it from the older dark beige, or what some call Rose Beige. That darker beige has white letters and numbers on the dial and it dates from about 1954-57.

Light beige soft plastic didn't fade badly, from the examples I've seen. Another plus on the side of Tenite. The cords sometimes faded, but the plastics were very stable. If you do a fingernail tap on your other light beige phone and then tap this one, this one should have a duller, muted sound.

And I can't help but compare your unique handle to the name of the cottage in the movie The Quiet Man, White O'Morn. I love that movie.

[liteamorn]

Jonathan,
You are right on all counts. The 59 has a duller sound when tapped. The cords have very little fading also, I'm thinking this spent most of it's life out of the sun and out from under florescent lighting. It has an old phone # on the dial, one that starts with 2 letters (not an exchange name though). The card is a little beat and I'm not sure it I want to leave it or put one of my new "Wait for dial tone"cards on it. The base has absolutely no rust or corrosion on it and the internal parts are like new.

I did derive my screen name from The Quiet Man! When I bought my first boat I named it the Lite"A"Morn thinking I was naming it after Sean Thorntons childhood estate. When I was the movie again after I had named the boat I realized i missed the name a bit . I liked the way the name sounded so I stuck with it. I've had 3 boats since and they all have the same name.

I will try to post pictures tomorrow.

[GG]

Great catch there!  See also my comment in your other topic on this phone, re. the line cord and dial fingerwheel. 

[jsowers]

It has an old phone # on the dial, one that starts with 2 letters (not an exchange name though). The card is a little beat and I'm not sure it I want to leave it or put one of my new "Wait for dial tone"cards on it.
I will try to post pictures tomorrow.

The two letters on your card probably had an exchange name to go with it from a few years earlier. That was done often in the early 1960s when exchange names were fading away from use. There's a website where you can look up exchange names all across the us, by city or state, if you know where the phone came from. The area code will also help locate which state. Here's the link, below. You click on Search our Database and if your own hometown isn't in there, you can add it. It's not the best database search I've ever seen, but it's better than nothing!

http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html

What you could do is put the old card behind the "Wait for Dial Tone" card and just leave it with the phone, for history's sake. You might also be able to find another card with the same prefix, but all spelled out. Either one is correct for 1959.

That's neat about your boat names and you named them after a beautiful place, if only in a movie. You can't beat John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, directed by John Ford. That's one movie I never tire of seeing. And I had to look up the name of the cottage to make sure what it was and how it was spelled. It's hard to understand those Irish accents sometimes in that movie.