The CRPF "Old Phones in Movies & TV" Compilation

[New England Tel.]

From the "Twilight Zone" episode, Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, this phone appears to be a modified WE 653 with a G-type handset.

What say you? Was this actually produced or refurbished in this form, or was it a studio prop?

Conversion at WE repair shop. The dial version is coded 653BA per D-157315. The one pictured here started out as a non-dial 533A: notice the blank where the transmitter was originally in the center. Later, the transmitter was moved lower so that a dial could be added (553A or 653A). Finally, it was converted to a handset model. The B indicates a high impedance ringer.

As you can see more clearly in this picture, this one has a standard switchhook and a G handset. Is this a "kosher" WE conversion?

Yours is a cool example - btw!

[poplar1]

From the "Twilight Zone" episode, Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, this phone appears to be a modified WE 653 with a G-type handset.

What say you? Was this actually produced or refurbished in this form, or was it a studio prop?

Conversion at WE repair shop. The dial version is coded 653BA per D-157315. The one pictured here started out as a non-dial 533A: notice the blank where the transmitter was originally in the center. Later, the transmitter was moved lower so that a dial could be added (553A or 653A). Finally, it was converted to a handset model. The B indicates a high impedance ringer.

As you can see more clearly in this picture, this one has a standard switchhook and a G handset. Is this a "kosher" WE conversion?

Yours is a cool example - btw!

Now that I see this picture, I don't think it's a WE shop conversion. That hook is for a 143/144/706A receiver. 

The cradle on the 653BA per D-157315 resembles others made for F-type handsets---such as on 211s, 354s, or 191G coin phones.

[poplar1]

Anita and I got hooked on Murdoch Mysteries.  Lots of sticks in this series, here's a couple of them.  I believe the phone in the third picture is called a "staircase"?

Transmitter assembly on the NE was installed backwards. Notice that the receiver cord exits facing the user. True left-handed desk stands would have the cord on the back. Other one is a Kellogg.

[New England Tel.]

From the "Twilight Zone" episode, Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, this phone appears to be a modified WE 653 with a G-type handset.

What say you? Was this actually produced or refurbished in this form, or was it a studio prop?

Conversion at WE repair shop. The dial version is coded 653BA per D-157315. The one pictured here started out as a non-dial 533A: notice the blank where the transmitter was originally in the center. Later, the transmitter was moved lower so that a dial could be added (553A or 653A). Finally, it was converted to a handset model. The B indicates a high impedance ringer.

As you can see more clearly in this picture, this one has a standard switchhook and a G handset. Is this a "kosher" WE conversion?

Yours is a cool example - btw!

Now that I see this picture, I don't think it's a WE shop conversion. That hook is for a 143/144/706A receiver. 

The cradle on the 653BA per D-157315 resembles others made for F-type handsets---such as on 211s, 354s, or 191G coin phones.

It does make you wonder though. Why would the TZ producers go to the trouble of making an incorrect prop when they certainly had access to the proper phones of the period (which needed no modifications)?

Who knows?

[poplar1]

More from Murdoch Mysteries.  This particular episode is called "Dial M for Murder", so much of the murder mystery is centered around phones.  Tell me if the switchboard technology looks period correct for 1899.

These switchboards appear to be 552s with added woodwork to make them look old. The 552 is an attendant console for a dial PBX such as a 701 or 740. It doesn't have lamps for each line jack, only amber lamps for the central office trunks.  Also, operators in picture appears to be talking to several subscribers at once.

[BDM]

Twilight Zone - A Nice Place to Visit

[BDM]

Psycho

[Brinybay]

Lauren Bacall, 1924-2014.  Not sure which movie the first pic is from, but the second one is from Dark Passage.  There didn't seem to be many pics of her talking on a phone.  The second one is an animated gif.


https://sgtr.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/dark-passage1.gif

[tallguy58]

I watched "G-Men" with James Cagney tonight and my eyes bugged out when I saw this.

[Dave F]

The Day After is a 1983 drama about the aftermath of a nuclear exchange between the USSR and the USA.  This made-for-TV movie caused considerable controversy when originally aired.  Some of the more unsettling images of the horrors of being caught in a nuclear blast were excised before the film was permitted to be shown on network television.  While not terribly graphic by today's standards, it still gives the viewer plenty to ponder.

Here is an AUTOVON panel phone in use aboard a SAC EC-135 (Looking Glass) Airborne Command Post aircraft.  The scenes inside the EC-135 were borrowed from a previous Air Force training exercise, and the people shown are real SAC officers.  If you ever wanted to see an AUTOVON phone in use, this is about as real as it gets.  (As a sideline, the scenes of the interior of the missile launch complex are also real, so there is a lot of eye candy for the military enthusiast.)

DF

[Brinybay]

I watched "G-Men" with James Cagney tonight and my eyes bugged out when I saw this.

"Like"!

[Mr. Bones]

     Much of The Day After was filmed here in Lawrence, and I remember it quite well.

     My car is in it, and I, like countless others here, were offered the chance to be extras... I had to work and feed my family, so abstained. I was perfectly content for my '66 Caprice to get all the glory, and earn a few much-needed bucks for our household.

     To the best of my knowledge, no Caprices were ever harmed in the making of this film.

Best regards!

[twocvbloke]

That "The day after" sounds a lot like a BBC drama called "Threads" (made in 1984), and it too caused quite a stir in it's depiction of post-nuke life, and if I recall it too featured a lot of interesting telephone equipment, but the last time I watched it, which was the first time, made me not want to watch it again, so if someone else wants to do screengrabs of it, you're welcome to, just take a couple of antidepresants beforehand...

[TelePlay]

I've never seen, or don't remember seeing one of these, on TV before tonight. This is from The Rockford Files, Season 4, Episode 1 (1977) titled "Beamer's Last Case." Might have been cool back then but 37 years later, to me, it looks a bit cheap. Yes, it's not old but it's, well it's . . .

[andre_janew]

It looks like one of those reproduction candlestick phones they had in 1976 used to mark the 100th anniversary of the telephone and the 200th birthday of our nation.  They may not seem antique, but they are now.

My friend, Tony, used to call my WE 5300 series phone the "Batman" phone.  What such a phone had to do with Batman, I have no idea.  Bruce Wayne had a designer phone of some sort.  Batman had a red 500D.  I have no idea who had a black 5300 series phone.  His wife seems to think he just called it that because it was black and old.  Maybe she's right.  What do you guys think?