• U.S.

Modern Living: Look, Ma Bell, No Hands

2 minute read
TIME

In most U.S. cities, vandals rip off dials, bash in faceplates, amputate receivers and show promise of elevating phone-booth burglary to a fine art. Now Ma Bell has turned to a new “hands free” phone that may help thwart vandals. Placed in Manhattan at Pennsylvania and Grand Central stations and one outdoor location, the new models have already surprised—and disconcerted—thousands of callers.

Originally built by Bell Telephone Laboratories for installation in large booths at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, the phones were designed to permit whole families at a time to tell the folks back home how much they were enjoying their visit. In the new, normal-size booths, the phone at first glance looks as if it has already been vandalized. There is no receiver—only a steel wall with a grille that hides—and protects—a recessed microphone. A loudspeaker is in the ceiling. Press a button, put in a dime, dial your number, and turn down the volume control if you don’t want all the passers-by to hear the amplified voice of the speaker at the other end of the line. Gamblers and bookies hate the new phone, lovers are embarrassed by it and just about everyone accustomed to the intimacy provided by a standard receiver feels nervous with it.

At least, both hands are left free. One can juggle his packages, take notes, doodle graffiti or gesticulate wildly. But if something goes wrong with the call, one can no longer seize the receiver and use it to bludgeon the instrument into oblivion. The hands-free public phone may eventually replace many of the traditional booths in big cities. Though its sturdy, simple construction should frustrate vandalism, it is obviously no cure-all for all of Ma Bell’s problems; while checking out the four new phones at Pennsylvania Station recently, a traveler discovered that two were out of order.

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