Telephone first?

[CrazyMatt]

Not sure if this was that unusual for that time period, I think by the late '60's, touch tone phones began to be the "model of choice."

I base this on personal experience: I had relatives that moved into a new house in mid '68, and they had a phone installed at the bottom of the cellar stairs. I clearly remember it was fire engine red and was a touch tone model--the first one I had ever seen.

Conversely, at my house, we had rotary phones well into the '70s... I assume at some point the local phone company--which OWNED the phones back then--changed it out for a touch tone model.

 

[mb22]

Conversely, at my house, we had rotary phones well into the '70s... I assume at some point the local phone company--which OWNED the phones back then--changed it out for a touch tone model.

No one forced my family to change anything at the time. By the time we went to touch tone AT&T had broken up years earlier.

 

[Grant]

There is no way a touch tone was the model of choice by the late 60s. It took well into the late 70s before touch tone replaced rotary as predominant. Wikipedia says that it wasn't until the 1980s that touch tone was in majority use.
Just watch TV shows during the late 1960s and early 1970s and you see rotary as the ubiquitous.

It also went by whether the local region was set up for touch tone service. Then once they had set up for touch tone service they probably charged an extra amount to have one installed---since as the earlier poster stated---they owned the phones up until the breakup of the phone monopoly.

You would think that NYC or LA would have been the first, but it was actually in Pennsylvania where touch tone first went online in 1963.

 

[Magellan]

Not sure if this was that unusual for that time period, I think by the late '60's, touch tone phones began to be the "model of choice."

I base this on personal experience: I had relatives that moved into a new house in mid '68, and they had a phone installed at the bottom of the cellar stairs. I clearly remember it was fire engine red and was a touch tone model--the first one I had ever seen.

Conversely, at my house, we had rotary phones well into the '70s... I assume at some point the local phone company--which OWNED the phones back then--changed it out for a touch tone model.

I sure feel deprived now. My family was still using a rotary phone as I was growing up. We're talking into the early/mid-90s.

 

[Grant]

Not sure if this was that unusual for that time period, I think by the late '60's, touch tone phones began to be the "model of choice."

I base this on personal experience: I had relatives that moved into a new house in mid '68, and they had a phone installed at the bottom of the cellar stairs. I clearly remember it was fire engine red and was a touch tone model--the first one I had ever seen.

Conversely, at my house, we had rotary phones well into the '70s... I assume at some point the local phone company--which OWNED the phones back then--changed it out for a touch tone model.

I sure feel deprived now. My family was still using a rotary phone as I was growing up. We're talking into the early/mid-90s.

Wow, was it a rural area?

 

[Redfern]

I still keep a late 60s rotary model on hand should the power go out.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Grant]

I still keep a late 60s rotary model on hand should the power go out.

Sincerely,

Bill

Hardwired touch tones work when the power goes out.
My mom has a hardwired touch tone that works when she losses the power.

 

[T'Bonz]

Bewitched had a push button phone in 1969 according to this website.

#183 (down the page)

 

[telerites]

I bet Maxwell Smart would have loved to have a push button shoe.

 

[Maurice]

I bet Maxwell Smart would have loved to have a push button shoe.

Nah, he'd be doing the foot equivalent of "butt dialing" every time he took a step. Rotary is safer for a shoe phone.

 

[Grant]

Bewitched had a push button phone in 1969 according to this website.

#183 (down the page)

Star Trek science beats witch's magic by at least 7 months!

 

[Melakon]

We were in Chicago suburbs in the mid-'50s. The wall phone in the kitchen didn't even have a dial. The exchange operator would say "Number plee-ez" and you'd give her a 4-digit number for a local call. Calling a different exchange was a toll call.

 

[Grant]

We were in Chicago suburbs in the mid-'50s. The wall phone in the kitchen didn't even have a dial. The exchange operator would say "Number plee-ez" and you'd give her a 4-digit number for a local call. Calling a different exchange was a toll call.

When I was a kid we would use two letters for the first two numbers of our phone.
JA3-8035= 523-8035---why? Don't ask me.

 

[scotpens]

When I was a kid we would use two letters for the first two numbers of our phone.
JA3-8035= 523-8035---why? Don't ask me.

All U.S. phone systems used exchange prefixes before the introduction of all-digit dialing in the early 1960s. Using the first two letters of the exchange name made phone numbers easier to remember. When I was growing up in the San Fernando Valley, our number was STate 4-9406. Then, when I was seven years old, I was told our number was now 784-9406. I immediately started calling all my friends to tell them our phone number had changed -- then I looked at the dial and realized it was still the same number! Boy, did I feel dumb.

 

[Push The Button]

The first touch-tone telephone that I can recall seeing in a TV show was in Emergency!, but that was in the early 70's. It was a ten-button keypad model in Dr. Brackett's office, with no # or * keys. I never noticed the ones in AE, probably because most of my early Trek viewings were on a small B&W set, with a noisy UHF signal out of Boston.

I always liked how Mork from Ork could generate touch-tones with his mouth when he had to call someone.

 

[MantaBase]

I still keep a late 60s rotary model on hand should the power go out.

Sincerely,

Bill

How do you plug it in? That would have the 1x1" 4 pin plug.

BTW - That's a great idea.

 

[Grant]

When I was a kid we would use two letters for the first two numbers of our phone.
JA3-8035= 523-8035---why? Don't ask me.

All U.S. phone systems used exchange prefixes before the introduction of all-digit dialing in the early 1960s. Using the first two letters of the exchange name made phone numbers easier to remember. When I was growing up in the San Fernando Valley, our number was STate 4-9406. Then, when I was seven years old, I was told our number was now 784-9406. I immediately started calling all my friends to tell them our phone number had changed -- then I looked at the dial and realized it was still the same number! Boy, did I feel dumb.

I guessed it was for ease of memory, but is that true? Is it really that hard to remember two extra numbers?
Imagine explaining to a young person the "party line"--- they'd think you were joking.

 

[MantaBase]

.

EDIT: Saw Scotpens reply

So yeah, your number would have been JAckson-3-8025. Remember Transylvania 6-5000 song?

876-5000

 

[MantaBase]

I guessed it was for ease of memory, but is that true? Is it really that hard to remember two extra numbers?
Imagine explaining to a young person the "party line"--- they'd think you were joking.

It was easier to remember because there were limited prefixes. So in a small city you might only have 3 prefixes. It's not like there were a bunch of random ones.

 

[TolkienOtaku]

I have nothing to add to the Star Trek side of this conversation. Telephone side, man have we come a long way. You can now store a phone, pager, music player, and super powerful computer in a single device that fits in your pocket. Who during Star Trek's initial run would have thought that was possible?