Town and the Telephone, The

Town and the Telephone, The is a short film released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.

Followed by an outro by and about Southwestern Bell Telephone Employee orientation film for telco workers explaining structure and corporate values of the Bell System. Followed by a film specific to Southwestern Bell.

Town and the Telephone, The
Produced by	Murphy (Owen) Productions
Production company	Murphy (Owen) Productions
Distributed by	Murphy (Owen) Productions
Running time	27:21
Language	English

Thumbnail

https://archive.org/download/0878_Town_and_the_Telephone_The_02_01_03_00

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More Details

ca. late 1950s

Shot List

NOT ALL SHOTS LOGGED ' good film, return to

• Two men looking at a blueprint in front of a building construction site
• Family moving into a new house ' kids running into front door, mom posing with kids on stoop
• Kids at playground
• Milkman delivering milk to side door
• Older woman sweeping her front steps
• Housewife hanging up laundry
• Postman delivering mail
• Man working on his boat
• Woman watering plants in greenhouse
• Tracking shot of main shopping street from automobile
• CUs People in different walks of life talking on the telephone
• CUs hands dialing phones with number MYtown 4-3122
• Man climbing telephone pole, seen from below (good)
• CUs line of operators at work, busy (good)
• Woman supervisor walks behind line of operators
• Night switchboard with many fewer operators
• CUs faces of operators talking into headsets (good)
• Information operator
• MCU woman on phone asking for number of Wilson's Meat Market
• CUs Operator plugging into jacks and filling out billing cards
• More CUs of operators
• MCU woman calling in emergency car accident
• CU operator handling emergency call
• LS huge conflagration exterior, explosion
• Hurricane footage
• Disaster footage (fires, hurricane) shown over faces of operators
• Traffic cop standing in white circle on main street directing traffic
• VS construction and heavy equipment in operation (bulldozer and operator)
• MS steam shovel dumping load of dirt in front of camera
• Group of telephone installers getting work assignments from installation supervisor
• Installer putting in line, talking to young boy asking question: 'Where does this wire go?' (EXCELLENT PHONE PHREAK IMAGE)
• Installer explains cable has 100 wires in it, connects to phones
• Pan from cable box on top of pole down neighborhood street
• VS in central office, including switching equipment
• CU fingers dialing: phone number is Andrew 9-9945
• Installer tells housewife her phone is ready, gives her directory
• She thanks installer
• Supervisor pulls up in car to check on how installer is doing; installer asks how the other departments fit into the picture
• 'All of us in the telephone company are organized to do just one thing: to give people good telephone service.'
• Review of how people get new phone service:
• Woman in business office talking to a service representative in the Commercial Department
• CU well-dressed woman with hat talking to service rep
• VS people talking on phone in kitchen; woman in bed talking on phone; man in chef's hat during family barbecue talking on extension phone while family is out on the terrace (patio)
• VS telco workers in action:
• CU typing out order form
• Clerk sitting in front of files assigns line
• CU Teletype prints out order
• Frame technician hooks up cable pair to frame
• Boss: 'We've all got a lot to learn, Ted.'
• VS service representatives talking on the phone
• Customers paying bills at phone office
• CU section of telephone directory listings
• Directory sections coming off printing press
• CU 'MYTOWN' telephone directory cover
• Collectors collecting coins from pay phones
• Salesmen pitching phone equipment and Yellow Pages advertising to business customers
• MS draftsmen in drafting room working on large drawings
• Supervisor comes over to draftsman; they check out details of drawing together
• VS laying underground and overhead telephone cable
• Cable winding equipment passes by camera (good)
• Engineer talking to homebuilder regarding immediate telephone installation when houses are completed.
• 'Some builders don't include us in our plans, and then homeowners have to wait for their telephone service to be installed.'
• CU auger drilling into earth, pulling up dirt (good construction shot)
• Setting poles into holes in ground
• Stringing cable onto poles
• Lineman installing terminals at top of pole
• VS clerks and workers in accounting office
• Women working on accounting machines, checking ledgers
• Woman working on paycheck printer; CU paychecks being printed
• CU fingers on IBM card punch (good)
• CU IBM cards moving through punch (good)
• VS CU IBM card sorter in action (good)
• CU machine printing out bills and stuffing envelopes, adding postage (good)
• Montage of telephones turning around; Bell vignette in middle, all 1960s-vintage color phones (good)
• Low-angle shot of prosperous people walking on Main Street
• Smiling cop directing traffic
• Lineman on top of pole in suburban area, reeling down along cable (good)
• Fingers on adding machines and accounting machines
• Meeting of white-collar workers in personnel department
• Man opening letter at his mailbox, smoking cigar, smiling
• Doctor and nurse looking at worker's arm
• Legal workers in law library
• Public relations department
• Ad designers
• MS Woman starts 16mm projector (good)
• Tour of telephone central office with town residents
• Explanation of how AT&T, Western Electric and Bell Laboratories all fit together
• Pan up AT&T headquarters in New York City
• Map showing different Bell operating companies
• Explanation of the operating companies and their relationship to AT&T
• Diagram (abstract) of Long Lines connections between cities
• Map of the United States with dots representing independent phone companies
• VS microwave relay towers of AT&T Long Lines system
• Cable-laying chips
• TV network transmission control with video monitor
• Guard opens iron gate into Western Electric factory
• Telephone assembly lines (good)
• Reels of cable winding (good)
• Workers assembling switching equipment
• Boxes moving down conveyor belt
• Hands picking up parts from warehouse shelves (good)
• Forklift moving telephone booth by camera (good)
• Men loading Western Electric cartons into airplane (for emergency use)
• Aerial flyby White Alice towers in Alaska (good)
• Radomes on DEW Line (good)
• LS guided missile taking off, SOF (good)
• Sign: Bell Telephone Laboratories
• VS Bell Labs buildings
• Inside Bell Labs
• MS man looking at/through some kind of optical device
• Engineer with sliderules and pads at drafting table
• Various experiments and testing around new phones
• CU fingers on new 10-button touch-tone phone (old design) (good)
• Engineers testing new electronic switching systems (good)
• CU soldering iron pointing to transistors on circuit board
• CU board filled with transistors
• Various shots soldering/electronic assembly
• Transistorized devices rotating on turntable in front of camera (good) including radio, components, etc.
• Older man meets older woman on main shopping street; they shake hands
• VS 'Mytown'
• Looking up telephone pole at lineman working (from below) (good)
• Mother and daughter looking into store window; kid's face contorts into expression of wonder

FOLLOWING PART NOT ENCODED:

• [end main film, begin Southwestern Bell outro film]
• Executive follows up on first film to explain structure and operation of Southwestern Bell itself. This is for employee orientation.
• Finger points to outline map of U.S. divided into Bell regions (with no text labels ' just colored areas and state outlines)
• Outline map of SW Bell territory, with state lines and small dots showing independent telephone companies
• Much of the footage in this section repeats from THE TOWN AND THE TELEPHONE
• Man's hands assemble puzzle of Southwestern states on table
• Departments: traffic, plant, commercial.
• Other departments: accounting, legal, personnel, public relations.
• CU advertising artist sketching out ad