Jack.Winslade@iugate.unomaha.edu (Jack Winslade) (12/18/90)
In a message of <16 Dec 90 09:21:04>, Pat writes: >There were a few ads which also made use of QUincy as an exchange. >I think one of the very old ads I remember had Mr. Jones at QUincy 2368 >trying to make a long distance call to Mr. Smith at ZEigfield 8632. It >explained how he would go about doing it, and what to tell the operator. In the 60's, prior to the conversion to all digits, for a while they had some new prefixes with made-up letter combinations that did not correspond to any name or familiar word. The worst I remember was a Bronx prefix beginning with XX (XX7, I think ???). The most publicized was probably WABC's at LT1-7777. They made no sense at all, and didn't have that air of normalcy that was found in such things as PLaza, MUrrayhill, SPring, CIrcle, BUtterfield, and even some of the out-of-the-way ones such as GEdney and ULster. (Imagine the scenario. Young man asks young lady for phone number. She replies with '..yeah, call me at XX7-9901'. That sounds almost as phony as KLondike 5-2368. ;-) BTW: Pat, on this old set I have here, it's quite possible to dial the ZEigfield prefix. <big grin> Good Day! JSW [Moderator's Note: Several points: There were some 'out-of-the-way' named exchanges here also. How about RODney, MULberry, INTerocean, FINancial, HOLlycourt and GRAceland (named after the cemetery by that name here, not Elvis' home). BITtersweet was another good one. I've also got an old 1930's phone with a 'Z' on the final hole on the dial, sharing space with the Operator. But no, ZEigfeld was not and could not be valid simply because a zero as the first pull *always* meant the operator. There were brief experiments in those days with exchanges like EZra, allowing the zero to be the second pull, however. I guess it was not a very popular idea at the time since I have not seen 'Z' on any phones manufactured in the past fifty years. This old phone of mine by the way has the staight (not curled) *brown cloth* cord from the receiver to the base of the phone and from the back of the phone to the wall jack. Two thin 'fingers' on each side of hook serve as cradle to hold the handset; the base is oval with no bell inside, meaning a side-ringer had to be used. The bottom is completely covered with the brown felt they used to use, and a peek inside shows a stenciled notation: Manufactured by Western Electric Hawthorne Works, 5-1-1930". And it still works just fine with a modern microphone / earpiece. PAT]