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Question About 'Invasion from Outer Space, Part 1'

posted 14 years ago by krazzyten
6 replies | jump to latest

It was right around the time the "alien," Mabouse, came into The Green Hornet's house and then asked Casey to use the telephone for something (I forget what). I want to know what kind of telephone that was. It looked like a normal rotary telephone, but Casey inserted some kind of punch card into the telephone and shortly after it started making clicking sounds. What exactly was the card and what kind of phone was it? Was it a sort of speed-dial that they were using? I can't come to any other conclusion!

[–] tbrittreid 14 years ago

Well phrased. It was indeed a pre-touch-tone era device for automatically dialing numbers. I don't know if any such thing actually existed then, however. Old TV shows, including this one, showed speakerphones being used for conversations when even today talking into one doesn't work very well. With no other significant use possible before touch-tone, those might as well have not existed, so maybe they didn't then and this thing never did. Come to that, unlike speakerphones I've never seen it anywhere else that I can remember.

The GREEN HORNET Strikes Again!

[–] TheSolarSailor 14 years ago

It was intended to be an advanced luxury for our rich millionaire, not necessarily reflective of anything that was really in use at the time...though it may have really existed for governmental use somewhere. The card with small holds in it was designed to carry data, much like this music book I bought my mother than comes with plastic discs with holes punched in it that dictates what tune it played. It is designed to be old fashioned and is very cool.

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

[–] krazzyten 14 years ago

Ahh, so it was meant to be indicative of his wealth! It does make sense. No one I asked seemed to know what it was, so you two are probably right in that it most likely didn't exist (also, Google turned up nothing for "rotary telephone with punch-card"). Either way, I was impressed with the technology they were employing not only in that episode, but in the series as a whole. The props department was an imaginative bunch!

Thank you both for your replies!

[–] unsolicited-2 14 years ago

They were real.

The old rotary telephone system worked by making and breaking a contact within the dial. You could also dial the phone by clicking the top button or hanger (10 times for "0", as an example).

The card dialers were not common, but they did exist. Here's an example of a touchtone unit:
http://www.porticus.org/bell/telephones.html#CARD%20DIALER%20TELEPHONE

and a rotary unit can be seen here (4 MB video file):
http://www.porticus.org/bell/mm/carddialer.mpg

[–] krazzyten 14 years ago

Thank you, unsolicited-2, for the photographic evidence! It appears that my searching skills are not up to par. It must have been a fascinating thing to use, to be certain, especially now that you've posted those links. It also looks like the phone used in "Invasion from Outer Space, Part 1" is the same as in the video link you provided (it may even be the same color!). And judging by the alphabetized cards, it looks as though it could hold quite a few numbers. It's too bad that website doesn't have a PDF of the manual, though. But I did find this vintage ad for Bell Telephone: http://store.vintagepaperads.com/servlet/-strse-50029/1963-Bell-Card-dsh-Dialer-Telephone/Detail
Looks a little confusing for my taste. I can't quite get how you fill out the card, haha.

[–] 14 years ago

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