"THE FRIENDLY WAY" BEHIND THE SCENES AT BELL TELEPHONE CO. OPERATORS PROMO FILM 93254

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This black & white educational film is about workers at the phone company. This is circa the mid 1950s.
Opening (no credits): A man talks with a woman at a desk.Two men talk near a car. A man installs a telephone. A policeman plugs in his phone, a woman uses an adding machine. Women work in an office. Men and women work in a telephone company. A man works on a telephone wire, people in an office, women work adding machines, a woman types, a phone operator (:10-1:22). A man on the phone in a hotel room. He wanders the room. He imagines the police talking with her and lights a cigarette. He throws a cigarette to the ground and runs to the phone, he talks on it. Phone operators at work in a row, some take calls. A man looks at plans, a hand moves the plugs in the operators office (1:23-4:03). A group of men sit around a table. A man installs a telephone, a woman and child enter the room. An older man talks on the phone while his wife cooks with an operator. The wife makes food, the phone company repair service calls the man back. The man is happy they will help him (4:04-7:26). The repair man is with the husband in a shed. The phone wire goes to a pole and then onward to another pole. A man works on phone wires under ground. A man enters the phone company, approaches a woman at a desk. The man then enters a room with multiple workers, sits at a woman's desk and makes a complaint. Another worker takes a call. Back to the man filing a complaint (7:27-10:09). A woman sits at another woman's desk. The man making the complaint is still talking with a worker. Workers type. Close on a time card. Workers do various tasks. Close on a page of phone book listings. Workers at desks. A man types at his desk. A phone book has its pages flipped. Early phone receivers. Men in the phone company. A man uses an older phone. A man talks at his desk. Telephone wires. A man climbs a telephone pole. A man unscrews and watch a phone spin. A phone brochure is pointed at by a worker (10:10-13:53). Two men talk on a moving train. A man in a phone booth makes a call, gets the wrong number. He dials the operator. Gets his coin back. The operator helps the man find the right number. Another operator helps. The man finally gets it right. Two men talk on a moving train (13:54-17:54). A couple at home, the woman brings food into the living room and the man picks up the phone but it's dead. The man goes to the door and the telephone repair man is there, he enters and looks at the couple's phone. The repair man calls the operator and the phone is fixed. A telephone linesman on the pole. A woman talks to another at her desk. Telephone operator on the line. A man in a hotel room on the phone, others on their phones. Workers on the job, happy customers. Women leave work at the phone company (17:55-21:40) End credits (21:41-21:50).
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[@Mr.SLovesTheSacredHeartofJesus]

I'm not going to make fun of this at all. I think this is wonderful. Too bad an updated version isn't shown in all companies. My aunt worked for the telephone company for just under 40 years. She was a telephone operator. And from the 1940s till the early 1970s it was a very good job she was proud of. And had pride in doing well. It's a shame all that's gone now. We have regressed as a society. ☎

[@mancheezethegreat8617]

My grandmother, RIP, was a telephone operator in New York and Boston when she was young in the 30's and 40's.

[@ShortBusScotty]

Mine worked in NYC too at the time.

[@Bill_N_ATX]

Wow, the concept of service.

[@randybargar4408]

How I wish life was still this way

[@Queserasera_LaLaLa]

This was a time when not everyone had a telephone and it was still considered a luxury not everyone could afford.

[@ShortBusScotty]

The good old days when a real person answered the phone.

[@JDAbelRN]

I'm sure tired of robots.

[@damxgopak457]

Customer service sure has taken a big shit since the good old days.

[@ggeorgeherny]

This brings me good memories of people I Love who used to do this work. Our world has changed so much. People were more polite and service was quality. That is all lost.

[@johnkern7075]

One ringy-dingy, two the ringy-dingy. 😄

[@markreeter6227]

"Is this the party to whom I am speaking?"

[@kernow9324]

"A gracious good afternoon."

[@kathleenking47]

Oh ernestine 🤣

[@kathleenking47]

Watching on a telephone, the size of a notepad 😋🤣 Someone called me, it was a wrong number..from RUSSIA🤣

[@dawnreneegmail]

Illinois Bell Telephone here and we loved the monopoly motto joke, "We don't care, we don't have to," the beginning of the wise guy era for customer service.

[@JeffFrmJoisey]

That all disappeared in the 70's!!

[@Wa3ypx]

The lady at 3:07 has the same hair style as my mom has today! She's 97 and was a telephone operator in the 40's

[@sugarplum5824]

Nowadays, he could have called her cell phone and located his wife immediately. That being said, it's SO frustrating never getting a polite human being to answer when you call any business anywhere. Customer service is only a fond memory for those who remember such a thing.

[@johnjaco5544]

Or that speak english.

[@ivorwm2291]

I worked for Pacific Telephone and then Pacific Bell. I enjoyed my job. I was very well trained on how to assist customers. I regret leaving Pac Bell and moving to Texas

[@roachtoasties]

That's what I used to do as a kid (14:55). Tell the operator you dialed "a wrong number" and she'll make the call for you for free. Never pay for a call again. ;)

[@scratchdog2216]

2:48 Watch for the shadow of the boom microphone moving across the suitcase in the foreground.

[@rollingtones1]

Scratch Dog 22: Also at 2:22.

[@scratchdog2216]

@@rollingtones1 LOL I guess that one didn't catch my eye the first time around. Good show anyway.

[@bichela]

I wish I was born in those times. I would love to be a switchboard operator

[@stevenmetzger3385]

Thanks!!!

[@misslora3896]

People today think this kind of courteous costumer service was something fictional. People in general used to be FAR more kind and considerate, but especially in service related jobs. I didn't enter the workforce until several decades after this period, in the mid 80's and worked in costumer service for nearly 30 years. As each decade passed I could see how that was beginning to wain more and more. Over the last 15 yrs the decline really sped up, but especially after the "superbug" of 4 years ago. Not only in service, but overall. People no longer care about others... least of all strangers. It's become very much a society focused primarily on self in every possible way. Family, community, even friends don't matter or mean what they used to. It's been a very sad and upsetting thing to witness.

[@lightdark00]

Why are there no two hour waits to actually talk to someone?

[@gm12551]

Mrs Williamson would be the type of person to not tip at a restaurant. She sure seemed to look at the negative things. Must have been commonplace after living thru the depression.

[@OneBlueFroggy]

Aaah yes, I remember when people were nice and tried to be helpful ! You could even discuss other topics with them, they weren't in a big rush to get rid of you ! And if you knew someone's name you could just look up their number in the phone book. Or any business you needed. If someone was rude to you, you could complain and something would be done about it, or you take your business elsewhere ! All gone now, excuse me for living. 🥴🇨🇦✌️

[@HobbyOrganist]

" You could even discuss other topics with them, they weren't in a big rush to get rid of you ! " True, but back in 1950 the entire US population was only 150 million and a lot of people couldnt even afford a telephone, now it's 333 million and everyone has and uses the phone for everything. In 1950 you had to pay fr each call, and long distance charges too, so people didn't make 47 calls a day and gab for an hour at a time. In the 1950s, only 62% of US households had telephones, there were 43.6 million households in 1950, so 62% of that means only about 27 million of them had a telephone! compare that to to-day- according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 128,579,000 households in the United States, there's NO comparison!

[@farcenter]

​@@HobbyOrganist I think you missed the point. Ok there were less people by half or something, and only half had phones, that's obvious stuff and not applicable. The point I believe was that people treated each other more respectfully in general. It's not about the phones or the fact you paid by the minute. It's that windows into our past often show things that we have lost, as well as ways we have progressed.

[@Legend813a]

8:18 That central office is in Evenston Illinois.

[@Nocturnal11Guy]

Such simpler times.

[@unclebbmunson1084]

My mom was an operator 1954. Spring Valley ny. SPring Valley 6.

[@satanofficial3902]

Do you have Prince Albert in a can? Is your refrigerator running? A telephone can have its uses...

[@satanofficial3902]

And a call to a bowling alley, "Do you have ten-pound balls?"

[@satanofficial3902]

Although of course, in these daze of caller ID, making anonymous prank calls doesn't work so well anymore. Moe would immediately know it's Bart again.

[@farcenter]

Imagine calling any service provider now in the morning and have them offer to be there by 12 noon! And you say that's too long and they say 11 on the jiffy!

[@dreamcatcherjulie1]

I miss these times.

[@joecarlo1073]

@PeriscopeFilm, you have a nice collection of films, and it's nice of you to upload some here. But I am an audio-video-computer engineer, and I need to let U know, that the audio and even the video of your uploads can be improved a lot, if handled a different way. For example this audio track has a constant high-pitched tone throughout the entire duration, which should not really be on the film but most likely came from the projector used. Another video I just saw had barely recognizable audio. And another very low contrast (in B&W) All this can be improved quite easily, and would make your videos more appealing for potential customers

[@PeriscopeFilm]

Actually, most of the defects that you see and hear with our films are from the source material. We transfer all our material directly from film on a LaserGraphics ScanStation, a very high end scanning system that supports 4k transfer. It is true that we don't restore or alter the finished scan -- we prefer to present films as they were originally seen, without doctoring. You are so very welcome. Love our channel? Help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.

[@mistervacation23]

HELLO, SARAH? GET ME THE BLUEBIRD DINER.

[@MJK1965]

That was fantastic. Now they don't even offer land lines anymore. Only VOIP. So if a storm knocks out your internet, your phone is gone too.

[@MaximRecoil]

I still have a landline.

[@HobbyOrganist]

@@MaximRecoil They are no more now and will be completely gone by 2025; How long will landlines be supported? By 2025, traditional landline phones, using 100-year-old technology, are set to be switched off in favour of a digital network fit for the modern era. This will apply to both home and business phone lines, so if you're still relying on analogue equipment, you'll need to make plans now to upgrade.Aug 2, 2022 Can you just get a landline phone without Internet? "Our landline base uses cellular signals to connect to towers near your home or business to provide reliable local and nationwide calling service. Our system does not require an internet connection, and is a great choice for customers who are not connected to the internet. Is Verizon getting rid of landlines? The Verizon 3G shutdown affects millions of Americans who rely on devices like the Verizon Home Phone Connect to power their landline phones.May 4, 2022 Is AT&T getting rid of landlines? Are landlines being phased out? Yes, traditional copper-wire landlines are being phased out starting August 2nd 2022. Community Phone offers a wireless landline alternative that allows you to keep your landline, without the need for internet or copper wires. Call Community Phone at to learn more.Mar 17, 2022 I have a restored mint condition 1950s rotary dial phone that can be used to both dial out, make and take calls, it's connected to a device that uses my cell phone signal, so the cell phone needs to be nearby for it to access the signal. Since it's not a push button phone there's no star or # to use to access certain features like voicemail password access.

[@MaximRecoil]

​@@HobbyOrganist "They are no more now" Wrong. As I said 5 months ago in the post that you replied to, I have a true landline, and I still do. "and will be completely gone by 2025" You don't know what you're talking about. The paragraph you quoted is talking about the UK. It says it right in the first sentence of the article that you copied and pasted it from: "You may have heard that a major change is coming to the UK's phone network in the coming years. By 2025, traditional landline phones, using 100-year-old technology, are set to be switched off in favour of a digital network fit for the modern era." I live in the US. "Is Verizon getting rid of landlines?" "Is AT&T getting rid of landlines?" Doesn't matter. I don't have Verizon or AT&T. "I have a restored mint condition 1950s rotary dial phone that can be used to both dial out, make and take calls, it's connected to a device that uses my cell phone signal, so the cell phone needs to be nearby for it to access the signal." I have seven rotary phones, including a pair of new old stock (didn't need to be restored because they were still new in the box when I got them) Western Electric model 500s, both made in June 1966, and they all work perfectly just by plugging them into the same wiring that was installed in this house by the Bell System many decades ago. That's because I have a true landline, like I already said.

[@Daledavispratt]

Wouldn't you have just called the police station where she would have checked and left word? But then of course, we wouldn't have a plot...

[@NipkowDisk]

At 13:22 is a very strange sort of device being used. I wonder what its purpose was? The baffles surrounding the turntable assembly might be for soundproofing, so maybe they were doing some form of acoustical measurement...

[@HobbyOrganist]

It seems to be some kind of "laboratory test" they were doing

[@c0t0d0s7]

DISCONNECT! But she says the payment is in the mail. We OWN the mail. DISCONNECT!

[@rohnkd4hct260]

Back in the days when "customer Service" mattered. Now days, you get what they will provide...... but you better pay your bill on time.

[@satanofficial3902]

Unlike in tv commercials where operators are standing by, these operators are sitting in chairs. TV commercial companies are too cheap to think about their employee comfort. "Call now! Yes, call now! But only if you call NOW! Operators are standing by! Have your credit card ready!"

[@johnkern7075]

Don't forget! This offer expires at midnight.

[@fordlandau]

Service ? What is that ? Telephone book. Huh ?

[@SPEAKEASYAZ4895]

We now have cell phones. 😂😂 we can get to that next week😅 all these jobs are gone today.

[@tibblescat2918]

WTF ? you phone your ISP, a human answers, and they send an engineer to your home within 3 hours? And now we live in the bright modern age they could only dream of !

[@samwiebaux2788]

Tibbles Cat died years ago, before Tibbles stopped working at ATT as President, or vice president. You just don't get it!

[@HobbyOrganist]

wonder what that device is doing @13:27

[@farcenter]

What was a party line?

[@samwiebaux2788]

A BUSINESS WOULD CHOKE OF THEY HAD TO BE POLITE IN THE 2020'S! TMOBILE WOULD DIE IF HELD TO THIS LEVEL OF DECENCY!

[@satanofficial3902]

Oh-uh... Henry is seeing and hearing things again. Obvious signs of... reefer madness!

[@Mr.SLovesTheSacredHeartofJesus]

Why would have a name like that?!

[@billsimpson604]

Those were the days when you had a good paying job for life with the Bells. Today the US corporations contract everything out, (that they can't relocate to lower wage countries), to the lowest bidder, so the top managers can make millions a year. The lowest AT&T bidder installing fiber cut the water off TWICE within 2 weeks in my sister's upscale subdivision. And when those top managers screw up, like in 2008, & need yet another taxpayer bailout, they walk away with multi million dollar bonuses for screwing up. Corporate America is the only place where the rich screw ups get rewarded, & retire with millions of dollars in bonuses. Then they get their taxes cut when we are $34 TRILLION in debt.

[@m_rocka]

This type of shit happens in the whole world, it's just capitalism.

[@lizzapaolia959]

Civilized society. Look at the USA in 2024. God bless our European brothers and sisters 🙏

[@luisreyes1963]

So why does AT&T still keep the word "Telegraph" in their corporate name? 🤔

[@dookiebutt616]

If only service was like that today especially with spectrum, they say they be over at a time set but they never deliver and in fact it was the day after the next, and they here rude also. Power company also. Also thaw man called Mr. Williamson called the woman that lives with him mother, there's no way that's his mother she is too young and looks the same age as him. Should of gotten a much older woman to play his mother to make it more believable for it to be his mother. 😮‍💨

[@Nocturnal11Guy]

Nowadays you talk to a computer for service. Or someone in a foreign country.

[@c0t0d0s7]

Did you see the wife slip a roofie into the repair man’s coffee? He’s still tied up in the basement!

[@DMBall]

The good old days of the monopoly? Sorry, they weren't that good. I can remember when Bell built their own phones for about $5 apiece and rented them to customers for $3 per month. And supressed the information that you could buy your own instrument.

[@MaximRecoil]

"The good old days of the monopoly?" Yes. "Sorry, they weren't that good." Yes, they were. "I can remember when Bell built their own phones for about $5 apiece and rented them to customers for $3 per month." How do you know what it cost them to make phones? In any case, they were, and still are, the best phones in the world. Also, the charge was more like $2 a month, and what difference does it make? At the time it was just an inherent part of the monthly service charge. They could have said the phone rental was "free" and added $2 to the standard monthly service charge; would that have been better? "And supressed the information that you could buy your own instrument." They didn't do any such thing. They simply disallowed connecting aftermarket equipment to THEIR phone lines, i.e., the phone lines and other infrastructure that THEY built and maintained, which, logically speaking, they had every right to do. One of the reasons the Bell System was so good was that _every_ customer had a top quality Western Electric phone. Suppose they allowed aftermarket equipment to be connected to their phone system and grandma goes down to the K-mart and picks herself up a $10 made-in-China piece of junk phone, and now people who talk on the phone with grandma are having problems: distorted speech, static, drop-outs, too loud or too quiet, echoes, etc. Now people are calling up Ma Bell wanting to know why their calls to grandma are terrible quality, and what is Ma Bell supposed to do about it? "Fix" grandma's POS phone that they didn't design or manufacture in the first place? Obviously not. Of course, grandma wouldn't be the only one heading out to K-mart; a bunch of people would be doing it, people who have no understanding of quality at all; people who have a "a phone is a phone" mentality, and then call quality on the Bell System becomes a crap shoot, because the phones themselves are a fundamental part of the system. By allowing people to use whatever phones they wanted to, they would be relinquishing their control over quality. Once the government forced them to allow aftermarket phones on their system, things took a nosedive. For example, this is a conversation that the late Art Bell had with a caller on his Coast to Coast AM radio show on June 3, 1997: "I will see what I can do, and in the meantime, do us all a favor and go out and buy a phone. Because I would like to interview you more extensively but that phone you've got, it should be put in a trash compactor. You can go out to a swap meet and get just a good old-fashioned, regular old telephone. Remember one of the old ones with the push-buttons that probably says 'property of the Bell System' or something? And get one of those and you plug it in and use it for when you're calling a radio show." After the call ended he continued: "Actually, I've got one of those here, and you know where I bought it? I bought it at a swap meet. You know what it says on the back of it? Let me see... actually, yup, it says 'Bell System property, not for sale.' And they are some of the best phones in the whole world. Just the old-fashioned, um -- and I'm not talking about the dial phones now, it's a touch-tone phone -- the good old heavy phones, you know, the kind of phone where, uh, if you're unhappy with somebody you can crack 'em over the head and they're gone. When they're hit with a Bell System phone, one of the old ones, they're gone." Of course, now, with the near ubiquity of cell phones (i.e., glorified walkie-talkies), and VoIP rather than real landlines, things are worse than they have ever been. A good quality phone call is now very much the exception rather than the rule. On top of that, hardly anyone's number is listed in phone books anymore and you have to jump through hoops to talk to a human operator, assuming you can even talk to one at all. Also, payphones are all but extinct, and if you do find one, it could be owned/operated by scammers because the government forced the Bell System / Baby Bells to allow COCOTs (Customer-Owned Coin-Operated Telephone). Telephony has very much regressed since the days of the Bell System's "evil monopoly."

[@DMBall]

@@MaximRecoil Sorry, Windy, but I was there at the time. I was charged $3 a month to rent a Western Electric trimline phone. I was never offered the option of furnishing my own. I read about that option in a newspaper article, and had to threaten the local Bell goons with a formal complaint to the utility commission in order to replace the trimline with a $13 model from Woolworth's in 1979, which lasted 13 years and saved me at $500 in fees.

[@MaximRecoil]

​@@DMBall "Sorry, Windy, but I was there at the time. I was charged $3 a month to rent a Western Electric trimline phone." The Trimline was an extra cost option, so that was your own fault. You should have opted for the standard 500 or 2500 series (depending on whether or not you had touch-tone service in your area). "I was never offered the option of furnishing my own. I read about that option in a newspaper article, and had to threaten the local Bell goons with a formal complaint to the utility commission" That's because '79 was around the time that government thugs forced them to allow random people to connect whatever they wanted to a phone network that didn't belong to them. It was also only a few years before said government thugs destroyed the Bell System. Before that time frame, there was no option, so they couldn't exactly suppress an option that didn't even exist. "in order to replace the trimline with a $13 model from Woolworth's in 1979" So you connected a piece of junk to a phone system that didn't belong to you. Congratulations. " which lasted 13 years and saved me at $500 in fees." That's a load of horseshit. For one thing, it was only about $2 a month, not $3 (the extra dollar was your own fault; see above), and for another thing, the breakup was finalized in '82, at which point there was no more obligation, nor even a seeming obligation, to continue renting phones from the Bell System, because they were required to notify all their customers that they could turn their phones back in and buy their own, or purchase the phones they had been renting all along (for around $20 for the standard 500 or 2500 series, which was a great deal), or continue to rent them if they wanted. So that's 3 years, not 13, which amounts to a $72 savings. I bet you were really living it up with all that extra money in your pocket, you know, a whopping $2 extra every month. I see you didn't address the quality of telephony drastically regressing since the days of the Bell System, so I'll go ahead and note your tacit concession on that.

[@Janotes]

@@MaximRecoil I have never read such a rebuttal for the championing Of the Great Bell System. Bravo Sir or Madam.