Telephone History Fan Gifts

Bell on early phone: 'I know it's you, Watson - stop trying to sound like Edison!'

'Yes, as a matter of fact, you have caught me at a bad time.'

Before the Internet

'Dial 1-900-Fortune.'

'And now for the anesthesia: I've got plenty of conventional anesthetics I could use here but you can also choose to spend half an hour on the phone with my mother...'

'Can't talk now, I'm just going into a tunnel.'

'It's engaged.'

'Never mind what I'm wearing!'

'He's so behind the times - his Hot Line is rotary!'

"He'll come to eat when he can interrupt dinner. He's playing telemarketer."

'This is a prerecorded message. Thank you for rubbing me. Please state your name and your wish. I will get back to you as soon as possible.'

'Environmental dept? Yes, just a query. It's August, it's 85?. It has been for 3 months now...'

'If you don't mind, I'm trying to use the telephone here.'

Alexander Graham Bell receives his first telephone call.

Owl answers telephone.

You are on hold. Press One for Vivaldi...

Look, I'm not shocked. It's just that you sounded a bit different on the phone!

Alexander Graham Bell - invents the telephone and makes the first 1900 call.

'Well, it's been nice talking to you, even if you are a recording.'

Woman dresses up to talk to a suitor on the phone.

"If you are calling from a rotary phone, you gotta be kidding!"

"Baldo, let everyone know that Tia Carmen is in the hospital!"

"No, it's not valuable it's just a conversation piece."

'Now THERE'S a friendship I've never quite understood. That's Ludwig van Beethoven on the left, with Harvey Fernquist, the inventor of telephone 'hold' music!'

"Oh yes, here it is, early morning call 7:30...I can't imagine how we overlooked it Mr Van Winkle!"

'Yes, I'm writing the message down.'

"Only half an hour - that was quick! Was it a wrong number?"

The First phone call was not exactly as history books report it.

"We heard you say you're worried about the government listening to your phone calls so we called to tell you not to worry ... yet."

'Hello, is that the Compulsive Callers helpline?'

Shaped telephone box in a maternity ward.

Private Phone Calls

"And I'm telling you you've got the wrong pole."