Golden Era phone books

[Mr. Sable]

Does anyone here know what phone book looked like back in the Golden Era? How many numbers did people have to dial back then? Would anyone have any screen captures of an old 30's or 40's movie with someone using a payphone or phone book? Any visual telephone references would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[android]

Well, in the early 60's and 50's you would dial seven numbers, but you only had to remember five. That's because even in a big city there were only a few switches. They'd come up with a name based on the letters that went with the numbers.

So, 465-xxxx would be "gopher" 5xxxx or some such nonsense.

 

[Mr. Sable]

I remember in the 70's we only had to dial 6 numbers in my small town. Then in the 80's all seven.

 

[scotrace]

Interesting Field

This is actually pretty interesting. There were official "exchanges" that were used throughout the system. It's interesting to try and learn what yours might have been in, say, the 1940's.
That's why we have things like "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" and "BUtterfield-8"
Here's a list of exchanges:
http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/Recommended.html
And more info here:
http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html

We have a Ma Bell 1940 phone that we still use in the dining room. Very nifty.

 

[Mycroft]

As I have seen them in Nero Wolfe(1940's-1950's), they look like long, medium-with, encyclopedias.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

You can use the exchange name project to convert your "modern" number to its vintage counterpart. That way, when someone asks you for your phone number you give it using the exchange name instead of using all the digits. This either makes people think you are insane, or makes people think you are really cool. Plus, you can also add your retro-converted number to the center dial insert of your rotary telephone.

 

[Mycroft]

Here are a bunch of old ones on Ebay: http://collectibles.listings.ebay.com/Communication-Utilities_Telephone_W0QQfclZ1QQsacatZ879QQsocmdZListingItemList

 

[Wild Root]

This is cool! About 6 years ago I asked my father what our phone number would have been in the 40's. He said that the city of Monrovia had the exchange of "Elliot". The first three numbers of my old number was 358. Looking under the three I saw the letter E and under the number 5 I saw the letter L. So, it would have looked like this EL-8****.

I also remember seeing in Hollywood an old Liquor store a crossed the street from RKO studios on Melrose. It's still there today and open for biz but up till just a few years ago, they had the original phone number on the side of the place that read: HO-72255 or something like that.

I put my exchange once on a business card with the EL in place of the 35. Some people liked it and understood it, but others were just puzzled.

I'm going to do it again when I can!

Root.

 

[Andykev]

Number Please!

My phone number as a kid, was LA4-****. The entire network was done with letters. Landscape *-**** was what you told the operator. We had a lot more operators back then. And pay phones. Cell Phone? what the Star Treck hell was that?!?!?!!?!?

Oh and we had a DIAL phone at that!. Plus the ones with NO DIAL at all...you picked up the receiver, clicked it a few times, and the operator came on.

Oh, those were "candlestick phones".

You didn't think I was THAT old, did you?

 

[The Wolf]

Scotrace, thanks for the great site. I noticed 57 wasn't used but my phone number used to (and does again) start with 57. I just told people it was KRakatoa9-****. Naturally, I got some weird looks. Even after I explained it some people didn't understand.
I prefer using it because it is easier to remember. 573..... and 753..... sound the same to me. I'm not a numbers guy. Interestingly, when I lived in Sebastopol I came up with VAlley9- and according to the list that was an option used.

Mr Sable, "The Big Sleep" shows Marlowe using a public phone in a drugstore with the phone directory there. In the 1940's a lot of towns still had six digit phone numbers. I suggest you check the local librarian to see if your library has any old directories you can view

Your devoted servant,
The Wolf

 

[flat-top]

In the 70's growing up in the Bronx, my grandmother's # was TA3-****., or "Talmadge-3-****". And I used to dial the # that way...you didn't think twice about it, and we're talking only like 25-30 years ago!
flat-top

 

[ITG]

There's a website where you can put your phone # in and see if it spells anything. Turns out I can spell my first name with my home #.

www.phonespell.com

 

[Mr. Sable]

Thanks, you guys! This has been a great help!

And who'd have though ebay would be a place to go for research?!

 

[cowboy76]

You can use the exchange name project to convert your "modern" number to its vintage counterpart.....This either makes people think you are insane, or makes people think you are really cool.

BWWWAAAHHHHHH!! lol

Just another thing to get people to give you the
cocked-to-the-side-dog-head-look[huh]

Everyone already thinks I'm nuts when I go out and trim the hedges using a 40s Sunbeam electric hedge trimmer dressed in a pair of overalls, newsboy cap, vintage safty glasses, and old pair of vintage dress shoes (or look-a-likes).
....or better yet, when I'm dressed the same working on the suped up jalopy of mine with vintage bakelite rimmed torch goggles, vinage leather gloves and egineer's cap, (ala 30s-40s blue collar workers/welders)....yep I'm not all there,...wouldn't have it any other way!!

 

[The Wolf]

I've noticed that when old movies are subtitled the phone numbers are written wrong. It should be CIrcle-7745 instead the subtitles read "circle 7-7-4-5", That shouldn't annoy me but it does.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Decobelle]

I don't have a screen capture, but in the original 1937 "A Star is Born" Fredric March picks up an L.A. telephone book to look up Janey Gaynor's number - it's very visible for a couple of seconds. I was looking for a 1930s L.A. phone book for my mom on Ebay a few years ago, and happened to find a 1937 one - it does look exactly like the one in the film!

In the U.S. we also had City Directories. These were just like phone books but also list the occupation of the resident(s). They have a reverse lookup by street address, so are handy for doing some quick old house research, in urban areas anyway (for rural addresses they just have a "rural route" number). They went up into the 1980s.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most Bell System phone books used a standard grey cover thru the 30s and 40s, featuring an engraving of the "Spirit of Communication" --

-- along with the name of the service area covered. Some of the big city directories had unique covers though -- I have a 1944 Manhattan Classified directory with a painting of a destroyer and a Buy War Bonds logo.

Urban directories were much larger than those in small towns -- not just thicker but wider and longer as well, about the size of a Sears catalog. The typical small town phone book, well into the early '70s, was much smaller, about 7" X 9".

Exchange names generally went out of use by the mid-sixties in most areas, but public pressure kept them in some of the bigger cities at least a decade longer. New York was probably the last city to fully give in to All-Digit Dialing.

 

[David Conwill]

http://www.mifamilyhistory.org/tuscola/Directory/Carophonedirectory.htm

The above link is to scanned images of phone books for Caro, MI for 1939, 1940, 1944, 1951, 1958, 1960, 1966, and 1969-1970. Note that the system was neither Bell nor GTE like it was in most of the state, but rather the W.E. Moore system. Mr. Moore was very rich, and quite eccentric. His lavish mansion still stands across from my church and includes a huge carriage house that once housed his extensive motor car collection, an early swimming pool, and the remains of a trapeze he used to use to enter said pool from the second floor!

Apparently Mr. Moore had a telephone in every room of his house, each with a separate number. The number for the maid’s room was eventually taken out of the directory, however, as lonely traveling salesmen were known to dial up the maid and engage her in lewd conversation.

Incidentally, the telephone number for my house in 1939 was 348 and sometime between 1951 and 1958 became 3-2741. The Caro exchange name was OSborne, and I would have tried to get 673-2741 when I got my new phone, but it’s in use.

-Dave

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

In my small town, we only had to dial 5 numbers, at least through the early 80s when I left.
I'm using an old black rotary I found while cleaning out my grandmother's house; the paper disc says Mission 7 2219.

 

[Fletch]

My number spells BE-A-FUZZ. Must have belonged to the Police Academy.

When they built my house, in 1937, it was 1689-J - no dial service.