TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Phone Shown in 'Capote' / RJ Connector History

Re: Phone Shown in 'Capote' / RJ Connector History

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
31 Oct 2005 09:44:10 -0800

C_shore wrote:

> I hate sloppy history in movie props. Were RJ connectors in use in 66?

> This could be the worst film/phone mistake since a movie (sorry I
> forgot the name) that showed an actor using a Pacific Bell pay phone
> in New York City some years back.

You may have missed a recent discussion on this newsgroup about how
telephone props very often made the incorrect sound, such as ding-ding
from coins in a single slot payphone, or a 300-type ringer on a 500
type phone. Characters dialing a phone call almost always dialed
wrong, spinning the dial or dialing too few digits.

If a film made today is about an historical period, usually the phones
will be wrong. It's common to have a black rotary 500 set with a
clear plastic dial and modular cords as a phone in use in the early
1950s or even earlier. Other times a foreign old style set is used.

I suspect virtually film viewer won't notice modular cords instead of
hard wired or the wrong kind of pay phone.

As to modular connectors, I don't think they came out until the mid
1970s. When we got new phone service in 1972, our jacks were the old
style big 4-prong. I believe my office converted to touch tone and
modular sets around 1977, many of us continue to use that system to
this day, though I think most of the WE 2500 sets have been replaced
with more modern 2500 sets or modern fancy sets.

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