I’ll admit, it is hard for me to imagine a world before the dial tone. Sure I’ve watched plenty of old movies and TV shows so I’m well aware of the iconic “Number please” phone operators. But truly imagining it is, honestly, difficult at best.
Therefore it’s naturally all kinds of fascinating to me to imagine a world before you could pick up the phone and simply dial a number. It’s quaint and somehow nostalgic in a way that only things that you never really experienced for yourself can be.
The funny thing is kids born now will probably have the same reaction to dial tones since, after all, they are members of the cellphone generation. One day when they sit down to watch an old movie or classic TV show they will be fascinated with people picking up those strange clunky home phones and listening for a dial tone.
Makes me feel old. Oh yeah, I suppose that’s because I AM old.
At any rate below is a gem of a film released in 1954 by Bell System when they were converting from the operator based system to the dial tone system we know and love.
But before the main event I thought I’d force you to look at...uh I mean…share pics of my two classic phones. (I want more…no place to keep them…and yes they do both still work).
The first one is from a bit before this period and the second one is probably a bit after.
And now for the main course I present “Now you can Dial.” Oh, and incidentally, I totally stole this film from @Pee-Wee Herman. True story.)
