The CRPF "Old Phones in Movies & TV" Compilation

[Brinybay]

That Dictograph-like device is interesting. Would it record on wax cylinders, or wire?

Not sure what exactly that is.  With all those levers, I don't think it's a recording device.  I went back and looked at the scene again but it doesn't give any indication of what happens after he flipped the switch.  He picked something up in his left hand before he flipped the switch (Capture 9), but can't see what it is.

[Adam]

Brinybay, I'm pretty sure it's a dictation console.  He's probably picking up a handset-like device that is a transmitter (mike) on a handle.  The handle may include remote control functions like pause, rewind, etc.  The lever switches control which of the recorders for each of the multiple secretaries in the facility that the user wants the dictation to be routed to.

With all those levers, it *could* be the station selector console for an internal office intercom system, but to my eyes, the two larger circular devices (whatever they are, can't tell from the pic) make the intercom possibility look less likely. And besides, an intercom system probably wouldn't be hidden in a drawer like that.

But, that's just my educated guess.

And yes, I believe in those years, dictation devices would have used wax cylinders or wax discs.

[Brinybay]

Brinybay, I'm pretty sure it's a dictation console.  He's probably picking up a handset-like device that is a transmitter (mike) on a handle.  The handle may include remote control functions like pause, rewind, etc.  The lever switches control which of the recorders for each of the multiple secretaries in the facility that the user wants the dictation to be routed to.

With all those levers, it *could* be the station selector console for an internal office intercom system, but to my eyes, the two larger circular devices (whatever they are, can't tell from the pic) make the intercom possibility look less likely. And besides, an intercom system probably wouldn't be hidden in a drawer like that.

But, that's just my educated guess.

And yes, I believe in those years, dictation devices would have used wax cylinders or wax discs.

It makes sense to me.

[Brinybay]

Couple of payphones in the same movie.

[Sargeguy]

That transmitter gizmo is a "Hush-a-Phone".  There is are two WE scissor phones, one a drawn perch and the other a  solid perch type with thumbscrew in "Capture4"

[Adam]

Mystery solved.  Console in drawer with lever switches is a Dictograph office intercom.  Found this out on the net.

http://www.museumoftechnology.org.uk/expand.php?key=243

[BDM]

Just an interesting little tid-bit in a movie I saw the other day. Anyone remember the movie thriller "You'll Like My Mother" from 1972 with Patty Duke and Richard Thomas?(in this movie, a cross between John Boy and Michael Meyers ). Anyhow she (Patty Duke) finds an old 500 set in the attic of the mansion with a 4 pronger. She finds a jack plugs it in, and then dials. It tickles the ringer on a 354 wall set down in the kitchen. Of course alerting Richard someones using a phone. Kind of a technical tib-bit for a movie.

[rp2813]

During last night's episode of "Mad Men" I think I spotted the first non-WECO phone since the show began.   It's in Megan's Laurel Canyon home.  An AE in an unappealing shade of mint green.  They even dubbed in the sound of an AE ringer.

It had me wondering if anybody on the "Mad Men" team thought Laurel Canyon was outside Pacific Telephone territory (it's at least fairly close to today's Verizon border, I know that much) and was going for premises equipment correctness, but then I saw the black 554 on the wall in the kitchen and I knew that wasn't the case.

I would have been highly impressed if it had been an AE wall model, even more so if it wasn't a black one.

[paul-f]

1938 - You Can't Take It With You
 
Watch Jean Arthur answer a D1 with E1 handset with NO HANDS!
 
If you can't wait to find the whole film, the sequence is in this YouTube clip:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF_BoAPqvTo&list=PL16C180583B19BF51

[Brinybay]

"Alibi" (1929) screen captures.  It was a little hard to get, but I managed to get a screen capture at just the right angle to see a clear glass mouthpiece on the stick in the nightclub office.  Also an exchange manned exclusively by police.

Found a short clip from the same scene with the same phone and got a couple of captures from it.  I'm a little miffed that the Youtube clips are much sharper than the DVD I have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXFluStyyas

[BDM]

Paul, she could have tried that on any of my phones Brinybay, you had me start watching that movie now Twilight Zone 1960 "A Thing About Machines". Notice the cord is about ready to pull out of the receiver. You could plainly see it move as he moved the phone. Real close to popping right out

[BDM]

Twilight Zone episode "Night Call". Hey, a D1/202 with a 685A subset Once you hear it ring, you'll know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKF5YPyvJ-Y

[poplar1]

It's a C4 ringer--as in a 685A subset or a 500--but I think in the 1963 Twilight Zone episode  it's just a sound track.

It's possible to wire a 202 to a 685A subset using a 5-conductor mounting cord.  However, I doubt that 202s with E-type handsets were typically used with 685A subsets. By the time 685As were available (early 50s?), 202s would have had F1- or F4- handsets.

[BDM]

Dave I should have been more clear. I know it's Hollyweed at it's best using a soudtrack to fit the telephone "sound" of the day   I should call that "KL" number and see if she answers Heck I have the same first name as her dead fiance

[paul-f]

I should call that "KL" number and see if she answers

Save your time!  They put that number in the movie for a reason.
 
  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5536.msg67326#msg67326