Research Catalog

Once upon a telephone : an illustrated social history / Ellen Stern and Emily Gwathmey.

Title
Once upon a telephone : an illustrated social history / Ellen Stern and Emily Gwathmey.
Author
Stern, Ellen.
Publication
New York : Harcourt Brace, c1994.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance HE8817 .S86 1994Off-site

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Details

Additional Authors
Gwathmey, Emily Margolin.
Description
135 p. : col. ill.; 25 cm.
Summary
"The telephone rings. It jingles our psyches, jangles our nerves. We are seduced and soothed, rattled and betrayed by it. Wherever it is--on the desk or street corner, the high seas or highway, in our bathrooms or briefcases--it has, for a machine, an allure like no other. Once Upon a Telephone is a visual history of this indispensable and inescapable apparatus--with an emphasis on the days before 800s, 900s, voice mail, and FAX. Lavishly illustrated in full color with a wealth of twentieth-century ephemera--everything from movie stills to matchbooks--and including excerpts from a variety of literary sources, Once Upon a Telephone is a spirited tribute to operators, directories, phone booths, and, of course, the appliance itself. The evolution of telephony irreversibly altered conventions of modern romance and constructions of power; Once Upon a Telephone is the only work in existence to chronicle these changes in such a comprehensive and entertaining fashion."--Jacket.
Subject
  • Telephone > History. > United States
  • Telephone > United States > Anecdotes
Genre/Form
  • Anecdotes
  • History
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-135).
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
"My God, it talks!" -- "Hello, Central!" -- Form and function -- The telephone book -- "Give me a ring" -- Love on the line -- "Don't call us, we'll call you" -- Gigglegiggle, talktalktalk -- The pay phone -- Bell's hell.
ISBN
0151000867 :
LCCN
^^^93050854^
OCLC
29668595
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library