#Bell System

[goshyesvintageads]

American Telephone & Telegraph Co, 1962

[syncallio]

I got one more Esterbrook J, and this one is black.

And also quite possibly stolen from someone's place of work.

If you're wondering what the imprint means, Bell System was an American telecom monopoly. They basically owned the entire phone system in the USA from 1899 to 1982, when the federal government forced them to split up. To this day you can find signs like these in older neighborhoods:

I shudder to think what things would be like now if they hadn't been split up.

The Bell branding on this pen is noticeably deeper than that of the Esterbrook imprint. Seems, I dunno, symbolic?

Anyway, it's a good pen, and I delighted in filling it with ink that would have been Improper in its former office days.

[wordfromoursponsor]

"Someday you may pay bills by phone. You will simply insert special plastic cards into a telephone set that dials automatically, and then detail the dollars and cents by pushing numbered Touch-Tone® buttons. In this way you will ring your bank's computer, identify your account with a code number, and tell the computer whom to pay and how much." (1965)

[foone]

Alt history where the cold war ends in 1981, because AT&T launches a coup of the United States with the assistance of the USSR.

Seeing the breakup coming as their long antitrust trial comes to an end, the bell system secretly coordinates with the soviets for military support, and takes over the US. They officially end the Truman doctrine, to allow the Soviet union to bring socialism to the world. AT&T doesn't care who runs the world, so long as they're allowed to provide phone service to it.

Governor Ronald Reagan never takes office after winning the 1980 election. The 40th president of the US is instead Chairman Charles L. Brown, formerly CEO of AT&T.

The United States of Bell is begun.

[vintageadsmakemehappy]

1980 Bell Systems Telephone ad with the Reach Out and Touch Someone tagline. That one is engraved in my psyche!

[thingsilikealex99a]

Anita Ventura couldn't find a thing to wear so she had to improvise.

It'll do.

Note the old-timey Western Electric Bell System "Automatic Answering Service" machine behind her...

It recorded onto a magnetic drum, was full of vacuum tubes, weighed fifty pounds and was built like a tank.

It was very simple to use.

[joeinct]

Oversized Telephone Prop, 7 13 24, Photo by Joe Bruha, Copyright 2024

[usualgangofidiots]

Bilk System (MAD #212, January 1980)

Photographer: Irving Schild

[periodically80s]

[lisamarie-vee]

[doppleganger-rental]

Bell System ad photo. 1966

[goshyesvintageads]

AT&T Corp, 1982

[restroom]

Remembering the AT&T Telstar rolltop telephone, ca. '79. Believe it or not, these were a direct replacement in the Design Line (watch the '79 DL presentation!) for the Stowaway, which was the same 'phone but it came in a wooden box with a lid! Manufactured by Western Electric, natch, "for that forward-looking person who's never satisfied with today", according to the presentation, but it's followed immediately by the Coquette, a candlestick in ivory and chrome, which is pronounced very clearly as "cokehead" several times.

[wordfromoursponsor]

"One unified, nationwide organization with one purpose" (1964)

[insiderzx]

AT&T - Bell System

[vintageadsmakemehappy]

1966 AT&T Bell System advertisement