"Things You Wouldn't Know If We Didn't Blog Intermittently."
19 November 2020
A history of the phone booth in cinema
An impressive and enjoyable compilation. I wonder how long it will be before we have a generation of moviegoers who don't know what a phone booth is (probably the children of those who don't recognize a film canister). Via Neatorama.
A while ago now I watched the entire series of Prime Suspect, which had seven seasons which ran sporadically from 1991 to 2006. One thing that was really noticeable was the evolution of mobile (cell) phones as the series progressed. In the first series, there were no mobile phones and on a couple of occasions Tennison had to find a phone booth to get in contact with someone, but as the series progressed some characters had mobile phones, but reception and batteries were a problem, and by the end they were ubiquitous. I feel that films before mobile phones became widely available don't feel quite real anymore to me, but especially teenagers and 20 somethings who have never know anything else, in much the same as black and white films felt old to my generation (Gen X).
similarly lost on many will soon be the car phone. I remember watching the early 50s Bogart&Hepburn film, Sabrina. Bogart has a radiotelephone in one of his cars. With a chauffeur operating the vehicle, he used that utterly foreign anachronistic equipment for a long while on screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlUc5K2YU6E&feature=emb_logo I was secretly thrilled to discover a rotsry desk phone among the items given to me by an emeritus faculty as he gave up his office. i connected it to my work landline. it works to make and receive calls. the metal clapper on metal bell ringer is a delight. so is dialing a number.
A while ago now I watched the entire series of Prime Suspect, which had seven seasons which ran sporadically from 1991 to 2006. One thing that was really noticeable was the evolution of mobile (cell) phones as the series progressed. In the first series, there were no mobile phones and on a couple of occasions Tennison had to find a phone booth to get in contact with someone, but as the series progressed some characters had mobile phones, but reception and batteries were a problem, and by the end they were ubiquitous. I feel that films before mobile phones became widely available don't feel quite real anymore to me, but especially teenagers and 20 somethings who have never know anything else, in much the same as black and white films felt old to my generation (Gen X).
ReplyDeletesimilarly lost on many will soon be the car phone. I remember watching the early 50s Bogart&Hepburn film, Sabrina. Bogart has a radiotelephone in one of his cars. With a chauffeur operating the vehicle, he used that utterly foreign anachronistic equipment for a long while on screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlUc5K2YU6E&feature=emb_logo I was secretly thrilled to discover a rotsry desk phone among the items given to me by an emeritus faculty as he gave up his office. i connected it to my work landline. it works to make and receive calls. the metal clapper on metal bell ringer is a delight. so is dialing a number.
ReplyDelete