Candlesticks still in use in 1962.

[bingster]

Plus, the hook is now on the correct (left) side.

[Greg G.]

Briny,  great pics, thanks for posting them!

But, that third pic is a different office than the second pic, isn't it?  I don't believe they changed the candlestick on Andy's desk in the jail house during the course of the show.

Of course, those are all Hollywood sets.  But it does seem they had someone consulting on this and were trying to be true to the time and place.

These were captured from Youtube clips.  Apparently the D-1 only appears in the missing scene from the pilot episode.  All the others I've looked at feature the candlestick in the Sheriff's office.  Andy's home has what appears to be a non-dial 500.  I miss that show, Don Knotts as Barney Fife really carried it.

[Stephen Furley]

Any idea what date that top picture with the candlestick was supposed to be set?

'Brighton Rock' was made in 1947, so a typical dial candlestick would have been about twenty years old by then so there would probably have been a fair number of them still in use then, but it was ten years before I was born, so obviously I don't remember.  Certainly, by the early '60s, which I can remember, they seemed to be very rare.  Bakelite telephones seemed to have a much longer life, probably about forty years.  I suppose the candlestick was a difficult device to use.  When standing on a desk it was generally too low, and if you picked it up it was heavy, and it didn't leave a hand free to take notes.

I'm not totally surprised to see them in use at the BBC.  They did tend to use old technology; they were still recording on 78 rpm acetate lacquer disks when elsewhere they had been replaced by 33 1/3 rpm disks or tape for example.  I'm not sure what the candlesticks were used for, the drop-down indicators can be clearly seen, but a switchboard operator wouldn't have used a candlestick, surely they would have used a headset.  Maybe they were used by maintenance engineers or something.

I still think that the Temple Mills railway yard control room is the most incredible candlestick installation I've soon, I don't have a picture which I can post, simply due to the very late installation date, even if it was short-lived.  I met somebody who worked in that yard in the '60s, and he said that it wasn't there then.

[rp2813]

My junior high school was built in 1931.  All of the classrooms by the door had an odd flat-spined handset hanging on a hook from a small black box without a dial.  I believe these were connected to the administrative office.  They made a single faint buzz when a call was coming in.

I was there for only one year, from 1968 to 1969.  In the nurse's office there was a candlestick phone.  I presume it wasn't part of the intra-school system, but I never saw it in use.

Here's a picture of the school, which still stands today as a result of neighborhood opposition to its demolition.  After nearly 30 years of being closed due to not meeting earthquake standards (adult education used it part of that time) it was retrofitted and is in use as a middle school now.

[bigdaddylove]

I was watching an episode of "Route 66" from late 1961. "A Bridge Across 5 Days" was filmed in Baltimore, MD.

In the photo below, Buzz made a call from his room on a manual candlestick. It's hard to believe these phones were in use only 5-7 years before I was born -- feeling a little old right now.

[dsk]

If you look at the pictures from the control room, the operators had headsets.
At that time, heavy carbon transmitters was common, and the candle sticks was a unique microphone stand, and easy to change between headset and receivers. Just a genius solution of its time.

dsk

[stub]

  The first candlestick I remember seeing was a manual Kellogg that my gr. uncle made into a lamp, that was 1959. Yes, I still have it. It has been repaired and mated with a correct subset that I use as an extension.
   I still use a AE- Type 18 "Stairstep" Desk stand with a Type 11 Mercedes dial . I like to swap out several more of my phone to use from time to time.  stub

[Doug Rose]

  The first candlestick I remember seeing was a manual Kellogg that my gr. uncle made into a lamp, that was 1959. Yes, I still have it. It has been repaired and mated with a correct subset that I use as an extension.
   I still use a AE- Type 18 "Stairstep" Desk stand with a Type 11 Mercedes dial . I like to swap out several more of my phone to use from time to time.  stub

That is one beautiful phone...Wow!!!....Doug

[stub]

Doug,  Thanks.  Someday I'm gonna have a room like yours !!!!!!!!!! Well , close    stub