The CRPF "Old Phones in Movies & TV" Compilation

[McHeath]

Grab is in the Utilities folder, which is in the Applications folder on the Hard Drive.  It works pretty much as you said, you get the movie on screen, pause at the scene you want, then open Grab and from it's menu choose "Capture" and then "selection".  It will give you a selector tool and you size it to the movie frame and when you let go of it the program will create a file of that image.  Then you can open that file from the desktop, or where ever you saved it to, with Preview and then do a Save As and make it a jpg file. 

[ntophones]

Ah, thanks.

[jsowers]

Here's a really old one, from the movie Heaven Can Wait (1943). The actress is Gene Tierney. I can see a Bell Logo on the phone. Looks like they went to great pains to be accurate, but phones of this vintage are way beyond my knowledge. I got this picture from Turner Classic Movies' site, in the Movie Morlocks blog.

[McHeath]

This is from The Day the Earth Stood Still made in 1951.  The shot is early in the movie and only lasts a moment, right after the UFO sets down in the ballfield.  The phone is a 302 with an E series handset, rare today and from what I know indicates a very early 302, maybe first year of production.

[HobieSport]

Hi Everyone,

I've been off the forum for over two months now as I'm experimenting with not having a connection at my home. Nowadays I walk into town with my computer and go on line at the local pizza joint about once a week. So now I have sixteen pages of unread topics. I don't think I'll go through them all...

Anyway, I'll check in on the forum about once a week. Meanwhile, here are some more Bogart captures. I forget which movie the three shots of him working on a 202 are from ("Dark Passage", or possibly "The Enforcer"). Anyway, in this sequence he "bugs" a 202 by putting a circular piece of paper under the dial and somehow attaches a bit of pencil lead to the underside of the dial. According to the plot, in this way he can "read" the last phone number dialed by studying the marks made on the paper by the dial turning the lead on the stationary bit of round paper. Whether or not this could really work, I could not say...

[bwanna]

hi matt!....great clips .. i want that payphone

[bingster]

I like the big honking Rauland Amplicall on the desk, too.  Very nice.

[Drew]

My interest in this film is three fold - First, my father Sterling Hayden was in it, playing the role of Jack D. Ripper. Second, it's simply an amazing movie on so many levels.  Third and most relevant to this forum - the telephone is used over and over in an attempt to prevent man from destroying the World, but the phone's not the problem, it's the people. With sophisticated phone communications, we can't save ourselves despite many attempts....Ripper informing his base via phone that a Wing Attack against the U.S.S.R. is underway. The President (Peter Sellers) trying to explain to the Russian Premier on the phone why the planes can't all be called back. Or Mandrake (also played by Peter Sellers) desperately trying to reach the President with the recall code as time is running out and he has no change for the pay phone. And of course, George C. Scott on the phone with his girlfriend while in the War Room as all out Nuclear war is about to unfold.  So much frustrating use of the phone in this move, it's actually the focal point of tension. I've read that director Stanley Kubrick specifically used the telephone this way in the film.

Strangelove broke new ground in it's dark approach to satire, the deadpan seriousness of the approach made the film even funnier.  My father quite making movies for a ten year period in the 1960s but this is the one movie he made.


Drew

[Dan/Panther]

Drew;
Welcome to our forum, I hope you continue to stop by.
I think the phone has played pivotal roles in more movies than we realize. Even in many old Time radio programs. It is and always will be either a great tool for convenience or major frustration.. The worst sound known to man, has got to be the busy signal. I can recall slamming the receiver down many times due to the busy signal.
Dr. Strangelove, was a very popular movie in my crowd. It was a spoof so to speak of "Fail Safe" and a very well done one at that.  Slim Pickens will stick in my mind forever, riding that bomb like a bull.
Your Dad was a favorite of mine, and I will never forget his final scene in The "Godfather", a corrupt Police officer getting his just reward. I've never seen a more realistic scene in any movie.
Did he ever comment to you about that ?
D/P

[Dan/Panther]

Drew;
What was the subtitle of Dr. Strangelove, if I recall it was; "Something, Something, and how I learned to love the Bomb."
D/P

[Drew]

It was;  'How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb'.  Also, Strangelove was not a parody of Fail-Safe....Columbia Pictures took over distribution of Fail-Safe which was directed by Sindey Lumet and promised to release it after Dr. Strangelove - Strangelove opened in Dec. 1963 and Fail-Safe opened in Oct. 1964. The whole story is long complicated and political.

Love this forum and have learned much about phones since joining this week, and am amazed at the detail you guys have gone into about production changes and history.

  Bitten by the 500 sets bug !

Drew

[Wallphone]

Drew,
Your father was a very interesting person. And he was ruggedly handsome.
I remember around 1976 when he was on the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder.
He talked about getting a caboose and traveling about the country on the back of a train.
How awesome would that be? That was probably one heck of an adventure (party).
That interview has always stuck in my mind.
When both were younger, he reminded me a lot of Buddy Ebsen.
Dougpav

[Dan/Panther]

Drew;
WOW!  That is a real surprise to me, I thought for sure "Fail-Safe" came out first, was it maybe in the works, and the plot leaked ?

I have a nice collection of 500's, but my heart is with the 302's.
You may find other sources for telephone information, but you won't find a better place anywhere as far a willingness to help.
D/P

[jsowers]

Drew, my favorite movie of your dad's was The Asphalt Jungle (1950). His character was named Dix. Jean Hagen played his wife. Marilyn Monroe also had a bit part. It's very suspenseful. I'm sure there are lots of phones in it too. I posted a neat picture from that movie below with all the major stars looking down through a glass table. Your dad is bottom right. Jean Hagen is next to him on the left and Louis Calhern is next to her. Monroe is upside down on top. She played Calhern's girlfriend. The movie is going to be on Turner Classic Movies on Friday March 26th at 2:30pm Eastern, so I may record it and capture some of the phones.

I haven't seen Dr. Strangelove all the way through, but I agree about the phone being pivotal in the movie. I found a bunch of stills from it all over the net and they're posted below. The first one is your dad with a long cigar, in case anyone doesn't know who we're referring to here. I left the title as is. "Essence" fits it well, don't you think?

Next is Peter Sellers on the phone. It looks like a British phone to me. Next is Sellers as a different character, on a G3 handset. Next is an odd one, from Getty Images, where they are filming Strangelove and the girl in the bathing suit is on the phone. Next is another shot of the girl and you can see the phone in the background.

I have a couple more shots if anyone is interested. Another interesting bit of trivia... Peter Sellers and my dad were born on the same day in the same year,  September 8, 1925. They were nothing alike.

[Steve]

 Your Father is great in that movie.

"Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?"

Asphalt Jungle is my favorite movie with him.
He is a great actor, you must be proud.