American Telephone & Telegraph Co, 1962
216 notes
·
View notes
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.
175 notes
·
View notes
"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)
86 notes
·
View notes
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.
453 notes
·
View notes
1980 Bell Systems Telephone ad with the Reach Out and Touch Someone tagline. That one is engraved in my psyche!
75 notes
·
View notes
Oversized Telephone Prop, 7 13 24, Photo by Joe Bruha, Copyright 2024
51 notes
·
View notes
Bilk System (MAD #212, January 1980)
Photographer: Irving Schild
97 notes
·
View notes
30 notes
·
View notes
8 notes
·
View notes
Bell System ad photo. 1966
16 notes
·
View notes
AT&T Corp, 1982
57 notes
·
View notes
AT&T - Bell System
2 notes
·
View notes
"One unified, nationwide organization with one purpose" (1964)
97 notes
·
View notes
LIBERTY, March 6, 1943
4 notes
·
View notes
1966 AT&T Bell System advertisement
20 notes
·
View notes