Small town phone service in 1940's and 1950's

O

oldmontana

Senior Member
Location
Montana
Our town of about 350 had its phone company in a home. It was open from about 8AM to 7PM. We had to ring the phone company to place a call. Our phine number was 29.

Most of the times you just had to ask the operator who you wanted...she new the number. At times you could say "please connect me with Joe Smith" Sometimes she would say "he is not home I just saw him at the store".

About 1960 a regional phone compay bought out the local phone company and we got dial up phones and could call and get calls 24/7.
 

Ellen Marie said:
When I was young, we were on a party line with two other families. (I used to listen in).... I know you don't think I am capable of that, but I was then... as a child... as long as I didn't get caught!
Click to expand...
yes we did the same on our party line sometimes.. but we were kids and if my parents had known we'd have been in trouble... :LOL:
 

Last edited:
We had a party line telephone.

I remember that we were never allowed to use the telephone during an electrical storm because it was thought to be too dangerous. Sometimes the thunder and lightening would actually cause the bell on the phone to make a short ring. šŸ˜³
 
I'll bet there was more than a bit of 'ear-wigging' on party lines by adults too, not that I ever did you understand, well I wouldn't would I........oh shut up, Tim. :)
 
How posh you all are, having a phone in the 40's & 50's. All we had was:
phone2.jpg
To make a call you needed four of these pre-decimal pennies.
phone3.jpg
You then inserted your four pennies into the coin box and dialled the number,
sometimes you had to ask the operator to put you through, we didn't have long distance
dialling back then, it was known as trunk dialling.
phone1.jpg
When the phone was answered you pressed button A to speak.
If there was no answer you pressed button B and your money was returned.
 
horseless carriage said:
How posh you all are, having a phone in the 40's & 50's. All we had was:
View attachment 190836
To make a call you needed four of these pre-decimal pennies.
View attachment 190837
You then inserted your four pennies into the coin box and dialled the number,
sometimes you had to ask the operator to put you through, we didn't have long distance
dialling back then, it was known as trunk dialling.
View attachment 190838
When the phone was answered you pressed button A to speak.
If there was no answer you pressed button B and your money was returned.
Click to expand...
We didn't have a phone until the mid 60's and it was still on a party line... looked like this but our was green...

https://telephonesuk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/706_cream_2-1.jpg

We had to press the button in the top middle of the phone to get a clear line before we dialled out, but if you picked it up, and the neighboour was using it, we could hear them straight away, and if we were quiet we could listen in to their conversation.. The reason we had line was because they were a much cheaper line rental option than a direct connect line.. but I think by around the early 70's everyone had their own private connections..
 
phone.jpg
This was our first phone when we got married. We still have it. The button you mentioned Holly, is still there but on our appliance it's solid and can't press down. For years the phone was redundant, then a computer geek that we know put a little gizmo inside it and hey presto, it worked. It's only for show though, we have a modern candlestick phone so that we can see the number of the incoming call.
Old phones are a great talking point but they are useless at detecting scam & canvassing calls.
 
Those phones HC were the GPO, plastic 700 series... the 706 had the number around the edge and the 746 which is the one in your picture is the GPO 746.. later to become BT...

I own that red 746 as well..as several other colours including black in the 706 & 746 series... I also have earlier model phones from the 30's and 40's which were made from Bakelite and much heavier, with a heavier handset...

My hobby for many years was collecting, and restoring and then selling Vintage home phones.. ... some of which I replaced with a digital line and worked on the modern plug in system which I sold . I stopped collecting and selling years ago.. but I kept a few of those phones for myself, because I just love them, but only 2 are adapted for my home line, great loud bell when the phone rings, but despite that the phone line to talk isn't the best so I don't actually use them at home.. ... I have 2 here in the next room to where I am now, one in Black, and one in Black and red as ornaments really.... a few are in a box in the attic.. and I also have several different styles and colours of trimfones from the 70's and 80's .. ( remember those ) ? ..I do have photos of them somewhere on my computer, when I find time to look I'll post them
 
horseless carriage said:
Holly if you had a stall at any of the vintage festivals like Twinwood: https://www.google.com/search?q=ima...Z-xG8SDgwfNvqewAQ&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB749GB750 or Goodwood Revival https://www.google.com/search?q=ima...biw=1349&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB749GB750&hl=en-US you would have been inundated. We are a sad lot in the vintage era, but it's good fun all the same.
Click to expand...
Indeed...and although I never had stalls there.. I did sell at Boot Sales all over the county and online Auction sites... . there was a huge interest in them and people were prepared to pay considerable sums of money for them around 10 or 15 years ago, then the modern manufacturers caught onto this passion for the vintage look with phones and started to make digital phones in the GPO 700 series style, which cost as little as around Ā£35 or Ā£40.. so consumers bought those because the rotary dial had been replaced by digital buttons ,.

26d2b95ff19d6000af4273ffe07dbbe8.jpg


they even copied the bakelite 300 series.. and in colours which weren't available back in the day....

51Pwh3ZNuVL._AC_.jpg
...now there's nowhere near the interest there was..so I stopped selling some years ago.. and just kept what I have in my own collection...
 
horseless carriage said:
How posh you all are, having a phone in the 40's & 50's. All we had was:
View attachment 190836
To make a call you needed four of these pre-decimal pennies.
View attachment 190837
You then inserted your four pennies into the coin box and dialled the number,
sometimes you had to ask the operator to put you through, we didn't have long distance
dialling back then, it was known as trunk dialling.
View attachment 190838
When the phone was answered you pressed button A to speak.
If there was no answer you pressed button B and your money was returned.
Click to expand...
And queueing up outside the boxes in the rain or snow to use the phone, me Dad used to say it wouldn't do you any harm standing there freezing. :)
 
So as I mentioned I do still have some of those vintage phones that I used to buy , renovate and sell... here are some of those in different styles...

UNTJ5974-1.jpg
DFUV5707-3.jpg
IHHO2688-1.jpg


FHLN6311-3.jpg
YAAD2370-1.jpg
FICF0723-1.jpg


IMG-1807.jpg


I have more which are boxed in the attic... and a couple more on display .. which I'll take a pic of today....
 
Last edited:
hollydolly said:
I do still have some of those vintage phones
Click to expand...
Cool, wish I had one of those! However like yours it would probably end up in a box in storage somewhere. I have too much "collectable" stuff. Nothing valuable, just interesting (to me).

Bought a house once with one of the old wooden wall crank types in it. When the phone company stopped using them the previous owner and some of the neighbors figured out how to keep them working and developed a small local network. We could call 2 other houses with ours! Left it there when we sold.
 
GeorgiaXplant said:
Soon after the war we got a phone and were on a 12-party line. It might have been fun to listen in on conversations, but they were almost always in Finnish, Italian or Polish.
Click to expand...
Wow 12 party line...never heard of that many ....,but like an early version of Zoom... you coulda all had a party without leaving your homes...:ROFLMAO:
 
oldmontana said:
Most of the times you just had to ask the operator who you wanted...she new the number. At times you could say "please connect me with Joe Smith" Sometimes she would say "he is not home I just saw him at the store".
Click to expand...
:):D:LOL::ROFLMAO::giggle::ROFLMAO:
Was someone likely to continue with that conversation? Such as.......

To the operator:
Did you ask him how is mother is doing, and if his sister had her baby yet?:unsure::giggle:
 
Pappy said:
As a youngster I remember our old 5 party line as we lived in the country. It was the wooden wall phone with a crank for dialing operator. The lines were always busy as Mrs. Crumb, next door was on it constantly. I donā€™t remember our ring sequence.
Click to expand...
I think ours was a 5 party also, black, no dial, needed oper. My mom & aunt would talk for hours, lost time for me & siblings. 811-M.
 
hollydolly said:
Those phones HC were the GPO, plastic 700 series... the 706 had the number around the edge and the 746 which is the one in your picture is the GPO 746.. later to become BT...

I own that red 746 as well..as several other colours including black in the 706 & 746 series... I also have earlier model phones from the 30's and 40's which were made from Bakelite and much heavier, with a heavier handset...

My hobby for many years was collecting, and restoring and then selling Vintage home phones.. ... some of which I replaced with a digital line and worked on the modern plug in system which I sold . I stopped collecting and selling years ago.. but I kept a few of those phones for myself, because I just love them, but only 2 are adapted for my home line, great loud bell when the phone rings, but despite that the phone line to talk isn't the best so I don't actually use them at home.. ... I have 2 here in the next room to where I am now, one in Black, and one in Black and red as ornaments really.... a few are in a box in the attic.. and I also have several different styles and colours of trimfones from the 70's and 80's .. ( remember those ) ? ..I do have photos of them somewhere on my computer, when I find time to look I'll post them
Click to expand...
I remember the trim phones from the 80s and up...but my fave was the princess phone. We had a pink one in the bedroom I shared with my sister. I even remember the phone #...255-6800.

I wish I still had that.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top