Too Late - - I Wonder If She Called?

Long before even the CONCEPTION of the cel phone (in April 6, 1929 to be exact), the Telephone Message Bureau produced a lot of advertisements about men answering phones in public places. Curiously they always depict the "candlestick" style as opposed to the Bell 102 (or "French phone"), maybe to make the image more striking.

This advertisement states "you can't phone on the subway. It's too noisy." But either subways have gotten quieter or it's no longer "too noisy" to answer your phone there, because everybody's doing it.

Note the expressions on the faces of the passengers: the man on the left is rightfully annoyed to be listening to the details of Mr. Telephone's house party ("Dude, she was totally DRUNK, like totally GONE, like twenty-three SKIDOO!"), but the guy on the right thinks it's all very funny, and the woman at the far end is just afraid her fox-fur stole is coming back to life.

Après-Midi d'un Phone

We continue to unravel the mysteries of "The French Phone," using only New Yorker magazine as our guide. In the October 15, 1927 issue we get more details about Bell's telephone monopoly, and also finally learn the REAL name of the French Phone:

The French type of apparatus is increasingly popular. The company avoids the use of he term French phone, however: its official title is Bell system hand-set. Several hundred experts have been at work since this instrument was devised, improving it, but experiments still go on. The phone does not survive satisfactorily the rough treatment it receives, although it is as durable as the old desk type of instrument. Slamming the headpiece on to the delicate plunger and knocking the whole apparatus on the floor present problems in durability...

It is even now, however, superior to any other of its type, the engineers report, and is the only French instrument the company allows to be used. Employees are instructed to report any "alien" instruments and the company then orders them removed. In investigating faulty transmission the officials first determine whether the subscriber has an outlaw instrument...

The "French Phone" again (AKA "Synchronicity")

Harry McNaughton: You know, somebody called me on the phone the other night, I couldn't understand a word they said.
George Shelton: Why was that?
Harry McNaughton: It was a French phone.

"It Pays To Be Ignorant," December 7, 1945.

So the "French Phone" term was still in use in the '40s. But since McNaughton and Shelton were old Vaudeville performers, the joke just might have been incredibly old, though the audience still laughed.

The "French Phone" (Continued May 14, 1927)

We continue to hear much about the new French-style phones. Everybody wants one and everybody that has one likes it. Much more convenient than the old instruments, they are much better looking too. We have heard artistically inclined people approve the design and applaud the prospective disappearance of the unlovely upright instrument. In a country wiich places utility above everything, this is certainly a big step forward. We heear mutterings, however, about the fifty-cents-a-month charge for the new instrument, the general opinion being that the corporation should discontinue this after the cost of a new phone has been made up. We presume the Public Utilities Commission or the City Club will look into this matter in due course.

While on this subject we might as well express our satisfaction with the dial system. We have found that twirling the little discs has always proved not only amusing but effectual. It is a long way ahead of the old method of depending on a human operator. Progress is being made, even by our mightiest corporations.

The "French Phone"

In early 1927, the New Yorker begins mentioning a revolutionary telephone that everybody wants to have. Called "The French Phone," I didn't know what the heck it was until I ran across this cartoon this morning:

It seems this type of phone -- with the receiver and headset combined into one section, the way we know it today -- cost more to install and caused minor havoc with the Bell Telephone company.

To get around the higher cost, people bought cheaper French Phones made by third-party companies and installed them personally. But Bell had a contract in its clause that nobody had paid attention to previously: you were not allowed to use non-Bell accessories with Bell's telephone service.

From the sounds of it, this prohibition was pretty much unenforcable. It may have begun the breakdown of Bell's phone-and-service monopoly. If you're interested in learning more about early telephones, check out this site. But I warn you: you'll suffer a disturbing MIDI loop of "Puttin' On the Ritz."

PS: Why was it called "The French Phone?" Apparently it resembled phones in Europe. What that means exactly I'm not sure.