Auction 83: 1965 Bell System Picturephone

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I remember hearing that they carted out loads of rare phones hours before the fire, so I would bet it did survive.

[unbeldi]

Didn't they announce a demonstration of the picture phones at a recent phone show?

[andre_janew]

Why were they carting out loads of rare phones before the fire?  Could it be that something fishy was going on?

[paul-f]

Why were they carting out loads of rare phones before the fire?  Could it be that something fishy was going on?

   

It seem logical that they got word that the fire was headed toward the museum and they had a few hours to collect whatever valuables they could remove and evacuate the area.

That sounds like the best alternative in a very bad situation.

The picturephones were undoubtedly near the top of the list...

   http://jklmuseum.com/picturephone-model-ii-demo/

[Greg G.]

It's not clear if Maureen's phone survived.  The picture they use is not the same model as Maureen's phone.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

It's not clear if Maureen's phone survived.  The picture they use is not the same model as Maureen's phone.

I think Paul is saying that if the JKL crew had a list of the most important phones to get out before the fire, the Picturephones would be near the top of that list.

[AE_Collector]

I emailed Gary and asked if he knew because we were just talking about the fire a couple of days ago. Here is what he said:

I believe that the museum saved one or more of the picturephones, but Remco will have to verify that for you.  We had one of them working at my March show this year.

And then Remco replied to me with this:

Hi Terry,

Yes, the Model I Picturephones were among the items that were saved from the fire.

We had one Model I Picturephone working in July last year using the hardware we acquired from the lady you mentioned below:

http://jklmuseum.com/western-electric-1964-model-i-picturephone/

At the Placentia Telephone in March of this year the museum demonstrated 2 working Model II Picturephones, but not working together.

Regards,

Remco Enthoven

Curator & VP of Museum Technologies AMOT / JKL Museum of Telephony

[Phonesrfun]

For the sake of reiteration,  I just happened to be on the phone with Remo this afternoon.  He confirmed that the "Maureen" picture phone was saved.  Sadly, many, many other things were not.

[teka-bb]

We had a working demonstration of two Picturephone Model II at the Southern California Telephone Collectors Show on Saturday, March 19, 2016.

http://jklmuseum.com/picturephone-model-ii-demo-video/