Ernestine

[Forbin]

We still have the Princess Phone we bought when we got married (1979) in the bedroom. It IS a pushbutton, though, not a dial. But it's the one land line in the house that isn't susceptible to a power failure.

 

[Therin of Andor]

#331 by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

I recently bought this Ericofon from a second hand store. Made famous in Australia when used in a long-running, popular 60s/70s TV series, "Homicide". We tried to order one in 1971, but they'd just gone out of production. The dial is under the base - and the phone still works.

 

[scotpens]

Well, this thread has drifted a bit, wouldn’t you say?

That one-piece Swedish Ericofon was the height of modernity in the late 1950s/early ’60s. It was used in a lot of sci-fi TV shows and movies for a “futuristic” look. Having to hold the thing upside-down to dial the number wasn’t a terribly practical idea.

Technically it was Ms. Barrett who did the voice for the TOS computer, as she wasn't married to Gene at that point.

Yes, she was the future Mrs. Roddenberry during TOS production. Gene and Majel were married in the summer of 1969, IIRC, in a Buddhist ceremony in Japan.

 

[Wingsley]

With the exception of John Winston's "Mirror, Mirror" stint as the I.S.S. Enterprise's computer voice ("Ernie"), am I correct in assuming that no other actors other than Majel Barrett (Roddenberry) were ever used for the ship's computer voice? Is that Majel in "Day of the Dove"?

 

[WRStone]

With the exception of John Winston's "Mirror, Mirror" stint as the I.S.S. Enterprise's computer voice ("Ernie"), am I correct in assuming that no other actors other than Majel Barrett (Roddenberry) were ever used for the ship's computer voice? Is that Majel in "Day of the Dove"?

I'm not sure if it's "Day Of the Dove," but I know there's at least one episode where I'd swear it's the voice of Elizabeth Rogers. She played Lieutenant Palmer, a communications officer sometimes used when Nichelle Nichols wasn't available.

That may just be my ear, however.

Dakota Smith

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

With the exception of John Winston's "Mirror, Mirror" stint as the I.S.S. Enterprise's computer voice ("Ernie")

Are you sure that was him? I thought it was James Doohan. Sure sounded like him, anyway.

 

[Wingsley]

^ Check out the credits listed in the Memory Alpha article on "Mirror, Mirror". That "empire" computer voice is Winston. Sounds like Winston to me. If you compare "Ernie" in "Mirror, Mirror" to the "Mission Control" loudspeaker voice in "Assignment: Earth", it should be establish pretty quickly that "Ernie" is not Doohan's voice.

 

[plynch]

My then-fiancee and I used to have to wait til 11 pm when the rates changed, to call each other long distance. Fun memories.

 

[Maurice]

I for one refuse to refer to the Enterprise computer with a moniker like "Ernestine".

 

[Wingsley]

Well... WELL????

What name do you prefer???

 

[ATMachine]

I find the idea of the "everybody-is-evil mirror universe" Enterprise computer having a male personality rather amusing, mostly due to the comparison with HAL 9000.

Oddly enough, in Arthur C. Clarke's early drafts of the 2001 novel, the Discovery's computer was less homicidal, and it was a female personality named Athena. And in an even earlier version, the ship's AI was a Robby-style robot named Socrates.

 

[Maurice]

Well... WELL????

What name do you prefer???

Not everything needs a name. "Computer" works fine.

 

[Wingsley]

^ Ahhhh, but that's not the point of this thread. I ascribed names to the various versions of the TOS computer voice to provide points of reference. Saying "Computer 1" and "Computer 2" isn't as easy to distinguish as "Ciggie" versus "Tin Canny". "Ernestine" and "Ernie" are just blanket labels to distinguish the masculine versus feminine personalities of the computer voices. (And my lamely humorous aside about where these voices may have come from.)

 

[plynch]

How did you arrive at Ciggie?

2. Since they address it as Computer, I would argue that is its name.

 

[Wingsley]

Naturally you would not expect the characters to address the computer as "Ciggie" or "Tin Canny" or anything like that. This thread wasn't about the characters or an "in-universe" discussion. Check out the O.P. and you will see what I was talking about.

 

[Elder Knight]

. . . I do maintain the larger speaker and microphone elements allow for superior sound on the older phones. Plus, their weight kept them from sliding off tables or desks if the cords were stretched to any significant degree.

Yeah, that old Western Electric model 500 desk phone was a heavy sumbitch. And the ringer used real acoustic bells. Even the "traditional" ringtone available for today's phones doesn't sound quite like the real thing.

My parents held on to their heavy, black dial phone through the 1980s, up until it was no longer supported. When visiting them, I would marvel at how quaint it looked and how heavy it was. In the intervening years I had subscribed to the extent of one (1) jack and had wired our entire house with slick new parts bought at Radio Shack.

The old Bell parts were really tough. At my college dorm, there was a wall phone that served the entire floor, just outside my room. Time and again, many times every day, someone would answer, and shout loudly to So-and-so to get his butt over to the phone. Now, there was nowhere for him to put the receiver down without hanging it up, but the top of the wall unit looked like it might be large enough . . . . Well, it wasn't. I'd always hear the phone fall, smack to the tiled floor and bouce several times.

It survived.