Old French phone
Monday, June 21, 2010 Publié par Eric Tenin
Look what I found at a brocante this weekend... Yes it's a phone (I think it's better to tell my younger visitors what this instrument was, as they probably don't know that in the past(!) phones had a rotary dial and - I know it's hard to believe - a cord that was plugged into a socket in the wall! And no, you could not take it out in the street to place and receive calls wherever you wanted! LOL). Anyway, it does not make a nice photo, but it makes a nice memory, so... The chair is also very typical of the 60's. Have a good Monday everyone, I hope the phone you use at work does not look like this one!
June 21, 2010 12:18:00 AM GMT+02:00
All that trouble and time I went through to learn how to use both hands while talking. And now it is all wasted. I suppose I should be glad that now only one hand suffices for both talking and listening. Thanks for keeping us up to date, Eric. I don’t suppose I could interest anyone in a used phone.
June 21, 2010 12:53:00 AM GMT+02:00
Gosh, it hasn't been that long ago that I used phones similar to this one! The thing I liked best about them was that you could actually hear the caller very well through the receiver. Not so with portable phones or cell phones, or perhaps my hearing just isn't what it used to be!
June 21, 2010 1:04:00 AM GMT+02:00
Oh, I want it! You would never find something this cool at my local brocante. Tacky romance novels and ratty tee sirts, yes. Groovy 30's-looking phones, never. I wonder if it still works. Luddite that I am, I still have a phone jack and land line in my house.
June 21, 2010 1:23:00 AM GMT+02:00
Old phones and cameras have so much visual design in them. They just look good. Remember the Salvador Dali phones, with lobsters as handsets? You can see one here: http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/detail.php?v=12&id=5033
June 21, 2010 2:41:00 AM GMT+02:00
a double blast from the past. 'allo? 'allo?
June 21, 2010 2:59:00 AM GMT+02:00
Cool. Il y a un ecouteur derriere?
Those old bakelite phones were also heavy. Great find!
The chair, I don't know... Those can really pinch your skin ugh.
June 21, 2010 3:18:00 AM GMT+02:00
Je l'aime bien, cette téléphone! So much character. I miss the time, too when life wasn't so busy that you could sit and give the person on the other end your full attention. Lost art of listening. Aside from that, very practical. At least if the power went out you could still make a phone call to the power company and let them know of the trouble!:) LOL
June 21, 2010 3:31:00 AM GMT+02:00
Et alors quoi?
A stuffing telephone and all this guff; have you all lost the plot?
June 21, 2010 3:56:00 AM GMT+02:00
Would you believe that my parents still have one of these in our studio? So funny! This is a unique find though. (Can I say that I much prefer to have speed dial?) lol
June 21, 2010 4:01:00 AM GMT+02:00
My grandmother used to not get a lot of incoming calls, because she had two rotary phones and I used to sit at them and dial just to see and hear the rotary.
It was just seven years ago that I got my first cell phone. I was eighteen and a new driver, and my mother worries. Otherwise I may still not have one now, I never use it but to talk to my family and my dad who lives in another state.
Back then (which sort of feels like a generation ago!) it was rare for anyone that young who didn't drive to have one, that was the main reason we were given one, our parents worried. Now you find them commonplace on middle schoolers! All that change in seven years!
Better to have a land line than to let people have access to you at all hours of the day and night whatever you are doing! And those rude people who don't know how to stop texting at the movies!
June 21, 2010 4:02:00 AM GMT+02:00
Also, Tall Gary, I would love a phone like that!
June 21, 2010 4:12:00 AM GMT+02:00
Not at all, Billy B. There’s a plot still waiting for me here. You’ll never believe it but it’s not far from a Billy B who has been shooting his own blanks of late.
Jennifer, your wish... As you can see, they are called “candlestick phones.” You could try a search with that term.
June 21, 2010 4:27:00 AM GMT+02:00
And as any Hitchcock fan might say when seeing this sort of phone, "Dial 'M' for ...." Yes, this dates a few of us,non? (the plot continues to thicken) ;-)
June 21, 2010 5:12:00 AM GMT+02:00
I find that Dali’s Lobster Phone, as so kindly pointed out by Jeff, would be just the thing for the top of my Yoga Desk. Oh, but wait. Where did that lobster go? I’m sure Dali had it with him just moments ago.
June 21, 2010 5:37:00 AM GMT+02:00
Happy Birthday Coltrane!
6/20/2010
June 21, 2010 5:54:00 AM GMT+02:00
I still have and use the rotary phone in my bedroom. (And it's red, Tomate.)
ujimatoday.blogspot.com
June 21, 2010 7:10:00 AM GMT+02:00
Actually, the first telephone I remember using as a boy looked like the phone in your photograph, but with out the dial. It was simple to use. You just picked up the receiver and waited until the lady asked "Number please?" Then you gave her the 2 or 3 digit number of the person you wanted to call and she plugged you into the right jack and there you were. Our number was 136. If the person you were calling lived out on farm, they might have been on a Party Line which meant that the operator first had to listen to see it the line was being used. If so she asked you to wait and try again later. You wanted to text a message? You wanted to send a photo? Try again in about 60 years. Those were the days.
June 21, 2010 7:17:00 AM GMT+02:00
Yes, happy birthday Coltrane!
(I knew this photo would trigger a few comments from people who actually used a phone like this... (er, like me for instance!)
Yes, Tomate, you're right! There used to be a little "écouteur" at the back of the phone so that a second person could actually listen to the conversation - but not talk of course.
Great for family talks (of course now we have the speaker phone function, which allows more than one to listen to the conversation...)
June 21, 2010 7:38:00 AM GMT+02:00
Boy, does this take me back—to Paris circa 1960-something! I remember the little écouteur on the back too. At the modeling agency where I worked, we had to call all the models every evening and give them their assignments for the next day—my fingers would get tired from that rotary dial. As I recall, at least the phone numbers were mercifully short. No area codes—you'd just call a neighborhood exchange and 4 numbers, like OPE(ra)-1234 or POI(ncaré)-5678.
Is that right? (It's been a looong time.)
BTW, TG -- great linkage! And Happy Birthday to Coltrane!
June 21, 2010 9:11:00 AM GMT+02:00
Happy birthday, Coltrane !
June 21, 2010 9:41:00 AM GMT+02:00
Used to love using these instruments as a kid :)
June 21, 2010 9:59:00 AM GMT+02:00
We still use a phone like this in our house in Normandy. It's very heavy so phone calls are short. It also has a seperate earpiece to listen in to the conversation. It doesn't work when you are calling automated switchboards (press 1, 2 etc). I don't know if this is a good or bad thing…
June 21, 2010 10:08:00 AM GMT+02:00
Istill use an old handset on my pushbutton phone at home because, YES, you can hear better.
Happy b'day Coltrain!
June 21, 2010 10:58:00 AM GMT+02:00
Coltrane, 'Press M for Murder' just doesn't have the same RING to it. Happy Birthday.
We've still got an old black plastic dial phone somewhere which my wife 'retained' when a new handset was installed.
June 21, 2010 11:01:00 AM GMT+02:00
ohhh...the memories:)....I remember breaking up with someone on one of these ( I know it wasn't polite! )
June 21, 2010 11:07:00 AM GMT+02:00
This reminds me very much of our first phone at home, Eric. I thought I was very grown-up when I used a pencil to do the dialling!
June 21, 2010 11:08:00 AM GMT+02:00
Happy birthday to you, Coltrane! ~~~
June 21, 2010 3:51:00 PM GMT+02:00
Happy Birthday, Coltrane! I grew up in the country and the first phone I remember in the early 60's was a party line. I wonder how long they persisted?
June 21, 2010 6:46:00 PM GMT+02:00
Happy Birthday Coltrane.
Gary: The Dali photos are great. I believe I just saw the one with the naked woman and the lobster at an exhibit at the Pompidou museum. Dali's pavilion at the 1939 (?) fair included many erotic displays like this, with an ocean theme. One example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bUXIIKTyAw
June 21, 2010 11:29:00 PM GMT+02:00
@Alexa "No area codes—you'd just call a neighborhood exchange and 4 numbers, like OPE(ra)-1234 or POI(ncaré)-5678.
Is that right? (It's been a looong time."
Yes. I (well my parents) was/were MIRabeau. That was fun, you could tell where the person you were calling lived. Now we have "non geographical numbers" throughout France! Times are changing, for sure.
I bet you would have loved speed dial at your agency...
June 21, 2010 11:48:00 PM GMT+02:00
Ohh..I remember even older phones...LOL!! Mais, bien sur..!! Ours was like an old Hollywood movie phone with the cradle..we had a party line and phone numbers weren't all digits, they had a name or a zone attachment. Our number was TWinbrook 3-3818 or TW3-3818..and the Operator was always there and usually your friend!!
June 22, 2010 8:17:00 AM GMT+02:00
Drummond..."Press M for Murder" LOL
Merci to all the birthday wishers! I do love these old phones...plenty of character for certain. I love the red numbers on the dial of this particular phone. They give the Bakelite black some pizzaz!
June 22, 2010 8:22:00 AM GMT+02:00
PS...merci to Anon for the link to Wynton's septet. A nice birthday jazz gift and so thoughtful too.
September 30, 2010 2:31:00 AM GMT+02:00
The Breitling Watches was established in 1884 in the Jura mountains of Switzerland.The only people who can tell the difference between the original and the Navitimer Watches is a jeweler and he will probably have to use a jeweler's loop to do so. Everyone else will assume you are wearing the original Montbrillant Datora on your hand. Even you will believe you have the original, since all markings are the same.