Official WE Dark/Pastel Color Changeover?

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Does anyone know the exact month that Western Electric switched over from the model 500 'Dark' line of colors (Rose Beige, Oxford Gray, Mediterranean Blue, Mahogany Brown) to the 'Pastel' line (Light Beige, Light Gray, Aqua, White, Pink)? I know that by mid to late 1957 the Pastel lineup was in full swing (August 1957 is the earliest AFAIK for two of my Pastel colors), but does anybody know the exact month, or even week or day that the darker colors left and lighters colors came in?

[jsowers]

I can go through pictures and see what I have as far as component dates go. In the meantime this won't exactly answer your question, but it does point out what kind of advance work was done in manufacturing and publication before these colors were introduced.

Below are scans from the January, 1958 Southern Telephone News. The cover picture with the ladies dressed in pastel colored dresses, each toting a different pastel color phone, is interesting to me and kind of quaint in a 1950s way. It's announcing the new pastel colors and a line in the article refers to the "new color line for this fall." Magazine advance times being what they were, it looks like fall, 1957 was the time of introduction and the first phones in those colors were likely made a few months in advance of introduction.

I don't have anything specific about the exact month or week of introduction or when the earliest phones were made in those colors, but I'll keep looking.

[unbeldi]

I agree, I haven't seen any official date or month for change-over. I would think this may not have been a clean cut-over date across all the new colors in terms of manufacturing.  It stands to reason that not all colors of plastic granules were in stock in exactly the same amount to run out at the exact same time, so a time period would be more logical.  It is also possible that remaining plastic stock was used only for replacement parts, rather than complete sets, but often they would simply repaint dark colors with the new light color.

On the other hand, the associated companies estimated need and ordered telephone sets on a quarterly basis, so even if there was a time window for manufacturing change, this may have been less visible for the operating companies.  I haven't seen any documents that explained how often deliveries were made.

As you say, I am also under the impression that is was the third or fourth quarter of 57 when the new colors appeared, I've had several aqua blues and they were all between 10 and 12-57, IIRC. I don't think I've had a 57 pink.

[jsowers]

It's funny, I just finished looking through my pictures and pink made in 8-57 happened to be the earliest one I found. The rest of the other pastels were 9-57 or 10-57 at the earliest date if I had one made in 1957 that was original. So August, 1957 seems to be the beginning of production, unless anyone can post something earlier.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Since no one can find official documentation, we could look for the earliest dated pastel model and latest dated dark model among us and develop a transition period based on those dates, sort of like Poplar1's earliest/latest dated parts list.

Jonathan and I each have a Pastel dated 8-57, my latest Dark is dated 11-56, although I know the darker ones were made well into 1957.

[Jim Stettler]

I doubt if there was an official cut off date.
The dark brown Keysets were still being produced after they had stopped production on brown 500's. Some of the discontinued sets were kept in stock for replacement sets and later used as cores for special order painted sets.

JMO,
JimS.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I doubt if there was an official cut off date.

I know that there was a sizable overlap in color production, but it would be cool to narrow the time down for standard production 500 sets as much as possible.

[jsowers]

Here's the latest of the discontinued colors that I could find, and the plastics are a month earlier than the base and dial, but everything seems to be original. It's dark beige from 6-57.

[unbeldi]

I believe, the latest mediterranean blue I have seen was 7/57.  Don't know where it was, perhaps the forum, but I recorded the date.  If I saved pictures, I'll find them eventually.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Unbeldi, I think this is the phone you were thinking of.

This Med Blue was in an old Auction Contest, and it seems to be completely dated 7-57, including the housing (7-10-57).

So we seem to have a line drawn where the transition period took place--somewhere between July and August of 1957.

[unbeldi]

Unbeldi, I think this is the phone you were thinking of.

This Med Blue was in an old Auction Contest, and it seems to be completely dated 7-57, including the housing (7-10-57).

So we seem to have a line drawn where the transition period took place--somewhere between July and August of 1957.

Entirely possible,  I do remember the picture showing the dial reversed in the housing cutout, visible with the date stamp.
This was a very nice set, pristine cord. Desirable, also because it was indeed likely one of the last (few ten thousand) blue ones made.

The history of these colors is interesting. Ivory, Green, Blue, Red, and Rose actually originated in 1931 in planning for the 302-type telephone.  According to Mr. Wahl in the BLR (1956, Telephone Sets in Color) they made over one million color sets in 1955, and expected to double that in 1956. So, by 1957 WECo must have produced probably well over 2 million telephones in color.  That means they made over 200,000 sets every month. Even if the colors were evenly distributed, and we know that can't be right, they would have made ca. 25,000 of each color per month. perhaps they made only half or a quarter of that in blue, gray, and brown.  In fact, ivory and green had been the best-sellers previously before the 500 set, accounting for 70% and 12% of sets. That leaves only 18% to the remaining three colors. So perhaps blue was only at 5%, and using that to project 500-sales, it reduces the number to perhaps 10,000 blue sets per month.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I don't think we'll get any later than this for latest dated dark colors.

Dennis' Mahogany Brown 500 is dated December 1957. I wonder if there are any actually built within the first days of 1958?

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