edg@claris.uucp> (02/11/90)
An old advertisement. No date given:
Two men, 1000 miles apart talk to each other by telephone without
leaving their desks.
Two wires of copper form a track over which the talk travels from
point to point throughout a continent.
Moving along one railroad track at the same time are scores of trains
carrying thousands of passengers. The telephone track must be checked
from end to end to carry the voice of one customer.
The Bell System has more than ten million miles of wire that reaches
over five million telephones. This system is operated by a force of
100,000 people and making seven billion connections a year, twenty
million "clear tracks" a day for the local and the long distance
communications of the American people.
The efficiency of the Bell System depends upon "One System, One
Policy, and Universal Service."
-- American Telephone and Telegraph Company and
Associated Companies.
[Moderator's Note: What memories! That ad first appeared in 1935, and
was used for more than twenty years. Does anyone remember the ad of
the old lady in the rocking chair with a contented look on her face?
She was an AT&T stockholder in the depression years. The text pointed
out that AT&T stockholders were a happy bunch, since not a single
quarter passed without a generous dividend from Mother. PT]
paul@alice.UUCP (Paul Krzyzanowski) (02/13/90)
The Bell System had a lot of great ads. One of my favorites is "Weaving the World of Speech", which appeared in 1933: "Daily, as upon a magic loom, the world is bound together by telephone. There, in a tapestry of words, is woven the story of many lives and the pattern of countless activities. In and out of the switchboard move the cords that intertwine the voices of communities and continents. Swiftly, skilfully, the operator picks up the thread of speech and guides it across the miles. She moves a hand and your voice is carried over high mountains and desert sands, to moving ships, or to lands across the seas. London, Paris, Berlin -- Madrid, Rome, Bucharest -- Capetown, Manila, Sydney -- Lima, Rio Janeiro and Buenos Aires -- these and many other cities overseas are brought close to you by telephone. .... ...." "Of all the things you buy, probably none gives so much for so little as the telephone." (1931) They don't write them like that anymore. -Paul Krzyzanowski paul@allegra.att.com