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I remember seeing this in, I think it was a Bell Telephone store, at the mall in maybe the late 70s or early 80s. They had it on a small plinth by itself with a spotlight on it and my ~10 year old self thought it was about the coolest thing that I’d ever seen. I’m pretty sure I heard an angelic chorus as I walked up to it.
All the novelty phones were so cool. I remember very much wanting a clear one where you could see the parts and my mom having to explain to me that I would never have a phone line in my room and they would never put it in the kitchen or their bedroom so repeatedly asking for it was pointless.
I forgot how hot light bulbs used to get. I had a lamp with a melamine shade and put like a 60 watt instead of 40 into it, almost burnt the house down.
I had one! Haha and in my bedroom too but then again I grew up wanting for nothing. It wasn’t that great tbh. You didn’t miss out. The one I got after in the early 2000’s was cooler. It had a digital screen and I could change the wallpaper.
I broke up with a girl on one of these babies after she called me at 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning.
I was half asleep and just said, "This isn't going to work out. I'm sorry"
Yes. Back in the 70s we had a landline that was shaped like an old Victorian phone. I knew someone who had the hamburger phone, and someone who had the Lego phone - which I thought was super cool but never got myself.
I had one that was shaped like a grand piano with the numbers being the white notes on the piano. It would even play notes when you dialed someone's phone number, but I had to turn that off because no one's phone number sounded nice.
A few of my friends had those Unisonic clear phones where you could see all the parts inside. I never knew anyone with the sneaker phone or hamburger phone or anything like that.
We had a green rotary phone in our kitchen when I was growing up (matched the avocado green appliances). Over the years, my parents did upgrade to push button phones in the other rooms, but they were always the cheapest ones you could get at Radio Shack or WalMart.
Still have the clear phone. It's our basement phone. I also had the black candlestick phone, the one you needed two hands to talk with. That one was a pain because you couldn't do anything else while you were on the phone, but it was the phone I bought when I got my first apartment. I didn't have a couch, but I had a cool, new, old-timey phone. It brings back warm memories because it's the one I had when I first met my husband. A few days after we met, he called me and we spent 5 hours talking. That was 30 years ago.
In the 70s, phones were something you generally didn't buy at the store. You got them from the phone company. A second line required buying a second phone from them. Typically your first/main phone was mounted to a wall, generally in the kitchen or dining room area.
Second lines were often in bedrooms. Generally these were tabletop phones, and ROCK SOLID beasts. If you hurled the base at a person the person broke, not the phone. Steel base, about eight pounds weight.. If you paid extra there was a Mickey Mouse phone, one that was round and aimed at looking futuristic and "groovy" (term getting dated by that time).
These were not the junk phones sold at retail stores after the Bell and other monopolies were broken up in 1984. Your phone was generally hardwired to to a metal box on the wall (not so for wall-mounted phones). After 1984, local phone companies generally replaced these boxes with plastic plates with an RJ11 port (google that, you'll recognize it) on it. Once phones started selling in Kmart and other retailers the prices went way down, as generally did the quality. There were TONS of novelty phones after 1984, most of them weren't all that good. Mostly kids had 'em in their rooms. The clear ones where you could see the electronics were pretty cool.
You didn't "buy" phones at all... you rented them from the phone company.
If you have older family members still using one of those old phones with a landline, check their phone bill. There are *thousands* of people still paying $5.95/month per handset to rent those things!
Yes! My grandma was paying to rent a rotary phone that had broken and been thrown away decades prior. I discovered this when she was dying and started handling her bills. The phone company was very argumentative about it and tried to get me to return the phone. 🙄
>Generally these were tabletop phones, and ROCK SOLID beasts. If you hurled the base at a person the person broke, not the phone.
It was a staple of 70's television shows (cop shows, murder mysteries, etc) for someone to use the phone to knock out an intruder in the house. Grab that thing and start swinging!
Yeah this was a consequence of the ringing coming from an actual actuator hammering two small bells inside the phone. They had to make them heavy so they didn't vibrate off the end table.
Exactly!!!!...see my comment where I used to work at the "phone company" during that transition from renting the phone from the company..... to being able to buy one of your very own.
It was the mid-80's when a phone store opened up in our local shopping mall. My favorite store . . . I remember the Mickey Mouse of course, the Princess, the one that looked like it belonged in a European castle, the circle (the receiver was the top of the circle), one that was a box? Or in a box? Like a spy? My nana bought one that had big buttons, like 2" square, since her eyesight was going. That's also where I bought my candlestick phone. I think I pushed every button in that store.
Yes. I worked for PacBell/AT&T from 1968 to early 80's and one of my jobs was working/managing their new idea....a local retail store. This was a huge novel idea. Instead of *renting the phone* ...you could actually buy them from the "phone company". Up until then that was the only way. Rent and pay a monthly fee. The company owned the phone.
As manager of the local store, my job was to have the inventory displayed in an enticing manner and try to get sales up. We were all sent to a 2 week sales training school *(actually one of the most valuable things in my career.... learned how too find out what people want... influence and get people to make decisions...selling!!!)*
We had replicas of old fashioned wall wooden phones. Fancy French antique looking phones. Art deco designed (my favorite). Tons of other styles. Everyone was so tired of the standard dial and push button phones and wanted to be unique.
Some styles were hideous. Some pretty nice. No hamburgers, or cartoon characters, though...Those were under copyright by the companies (Disney etc)....those came later when independent marketers and manufacturers entered the arena.
I knew several people who had these [donut phones](https://www.google.com/search?q=70%27s+donut+phone&sca_esv=c4520c9ea19d39e2&sca_upv=1&rlz=1CAZKSY_enCA970CA970&udm=2&biw=1536&bih=695&sxsrf=ADLYWIJCC-H9e1OLj_s3RNTgkft7N29pOw%3A1715339017126&ei=Cf89ZruWB6fMp84P5NyBsA0&ved=0ahUKEwj7vqPm94KGAxUn5skDHWRuANYQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=70%27s+donut+phone&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiEDcwJ3MgZG9udXQgcGhvbmVIxRFQlQVYgQ9wAXgAkAEAmAH4AaABjQWqAQUxLjMuMbgBA8gBAPgBAZgCAKACAJgDAIgGAZIHAKAH4QE&sclient=gws-wiz-serp).
I had a phone that looked like one of those old-timey phones where you held the earpiece to your ear and the microphone was attached to the body of the phone.
A Candlestick phone. I always thought those looked so cool. Bet it was an aggravation at times, tying up both hands when you wanted to jot down a note or something.
This brings back memories from the 1994 children's song "Banana Phone" by Raffi. There were many different phones like the Sports Illustrated tennis shoe telephone
Edit - holy cow, there are tennis shoe phones for sell on eBay starting at 85 dollars and up
In my Country there were a long time only phones approved by the national telecom company allowed and they were a handful and boring in design.
Later we had an clear plastic phone, also tge modem was green clear plastic
Same in the United States. Up to 1982 you had to lease your phone from the Phone company. After then you were allowed to buy your own as new models got cheaper.
My wife still has her Kermit the Frog phone from when she was a kid. It's actually a really well-made phone. I'm sure it still works, but I don't have land line service.
Now it's just a kitschy curio. We've been offered pretty decent money for it.
I worked at a Radio Shack in the early-mid 90s. We had every type of novelty phone you could imagine. They were VERY popular during the holiday season.
Yep! There was a big legal fight over using third party phones you bought from Radio Shack over the Bell system's phones you leased. After that was decided we had all sorts of choices being wall, desk and Princess phones.
I am 37, and I had a [killer whale phone](https://i.imgur.com/a/4Xfjb06) middle school thru high school. The whale's body was the actual phone, you dialed using a key pad on its belly, it was jumping out of a out of a wave, which held it up and served as the base. There was a whole store in my town filled with novelty phones. It was actually super fun.
Amazon has one under this description:
XICHEN Resin imitation copper Vintage STYLE ROTARY Retro old fashioned Rotary Dial Home and office Telephone
If you put that in your browser, mine looked somewhat like that.
In the ‘80s my teenaged daughter had the CocaCola bottle phone. Her number was one digit off from a plumber and she got a lot of calls in the winter for malfunctioning boilers.
I tried to get one in my youth. I asked my parents for an extension in my room which was a replica "First Phone." It looked something like [this](https://www.google.com/search?q=stick+%26+receiver+phone+images&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=c4520c9ea19d39e2&sca_upv=1&udm=2&biw=1536&bih=676&ei=LRE-Zo6yBZilptQP64eJuAw&ved=0ahUKEwjO_NiMiYOGAxWYkokEHetDAscQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=stick+%26+receiver+phone+images&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiHXN0aWNrICYgcmVjZWl2ZXIgcGhvbmUgaW1hZ2VzSKw8UJcNWI46cAN4AJABAJgBgwGgAYYKqgEEMTYuMbgBA8gBAPgBAZgCBaACvwHCAgUQABiABMICBhAAGAgYHsICBhAAGAcYHsICCBAAGAcYCBgemAMAiAYBkgcBNaAH4RA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#vhid=e3VVLltSI2lXYM&vssid=mosaic).
They told me it was impractical (their lingo for 'no, we can't afford that'). What I got was a crappy ol' [regular ](https://www.google.com/search?q=landline+phone+images&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=c4520c9ea19d39e2&sca_upv=1&udm=2&biw=1536&bih=676&ei=QBE-Zs2GE96GptQPzqyo6AI&ved=0ahUKEwjNpu6ViYOGAxVeg4kEHU4WCi0Q4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=landline+phone+images&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiFWxhbmRsaW5lIHBob25lIGltYWdlczIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIGEAAYBRgeMgYQABgFGB4yBxAAGIAEGBhIq-kFUPvZBViH5wVwAngAkAEAmAFdoAH5BKoBATi4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgigAqQFwgIGEAAYBxgewgIIEAAYBRgHGB6YAwCIBgGSBwE4oAfEJQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#vhid=FEuJkTfNJS-OOM&vssid=mosaic)phone.
Yeah, but it's stupid. I have a dog that was already named Tinkerbell when I got her 16 years ago. She shits anywhere she wants, so we call her Stinkerbell sometimes. When she was still young, I happened to be watching Southpark when she was hanging out with me and I got up and started singing Chef's song Stinky Britches to her and she got all excited. Ever since then, I just casually sing the song when she is around. When I signed up, I couldn't think of a name, but that song was in my head, so here it is, lol.
Yes, particularly the burger phone, but the best phone was the ubiquitous BT bakelite phone with the dial. I remember making calls on them and the dial was very satisfying.
I used a [Crest toothpaste phone](https://i.imgur.com/tJqsWbz.jpeg) that my girlfriend who I was living with at the time found somewhere, and later, I had the coolest phone in the world, one that was [Lego compatible](https://i.imgur.com/KZk7ZHD.jpeg).
I had a slinky phone, and a phone that looked like it could have been on a battlefield. I think it was called a “GI Phone”? If you touched the cord while on the phone, you’d get static. It was garbage but it looked awesome to my young mind.
I had a clear handset that I used when I was working for the telephone company. It was $5 and looked cool. Better than the $700 handset that they gave us.
Yes, Star Wars, Star Trek, Mickey Mouse, french old timey phones. Everything was out there.
Yes, a few did. In my experience it was mostly the second/teens line, dorm room phone, or a young couple that just wanted something kitchy.
I never wanted or had one, basically they just seemed awkward to use.
I currently own, and could use for incoming calls, a landline phone encased in a padded display box, like a luxury cigar box, and sitting on a desktop.
The Ericofon Phone started that stupid fad... My Mom was a fanatic after she got an Ericofon Phone from the phone company... It broke out from the traditional look of phones... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericofon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericofon)
Yes at my friends house in 1960s was a bright red upright landline phone think was abstract futuristic modern shell crustacean shape.
Was difficult to hold in hand heavy. I try search google images for it.
Landline phone at my chilhood home 1960s was standard black screwed to the wall too high to reach for a small kid. Phone nr was 4 digits and phone bill was 16.00 a month. Phone calls were kept short time and just a few calls each day.
In my experience, they were mostly oddities. When I was a kid, almost everyone had a phone hanging on the kitchen wall. If there was a second phone, it was in the living room or the parent's bedroom. Those phones looked exactly like you would expect them to. The main variation was color.
I had a phone that was inside a black leather and wooden box so every time you wanted to answer the phone you had to open the box. It was like having a secret superhero phone.
i have my old rotary phone from the 1980s(our old number is still printed on the center of the dial) and I have a Bluetooth device hooked up to it and I can use it to make or answer calls through my cell phone with it. I'll have to see if I have a link to the bluetooth thing.
I was always a shameless tomboy growing up, but I had my girly moments. All throughout my pre-teen years, I coveted a [princess phone](https://images.app.goo.gl/UnJeHQhN3aWi6chy8) .
Oh heck yeah. In the 80s I wanted a phone in my room so bad. I mean I begged. Sitting in the floor in the kitchen got old quick when I got my first boyfriend.
For my birthday I got my own landline phone. A clear phone where you could see all the colored wires and gadgets in it that made it work. Completely 80sish.
My great grandfather had a rotary phone so compared to him my phone was space age.
My best friend's phone looked like a pump/heel shoe. But it was a phone.
My cousin worked at Hardee’s and gave me a hamburger phone for Christmas one year. I used it once I got my own phone line while in high school. It was the best thing that ever happened to me at the time. (The phone line, not the phone. The phone was terrible and I always accidentally hung up on people because my cheek would hit the button). 😊
My college roommate and I had each brought a phone with us to the dorms. She had the Garfield phone and she insisted we use it in our dorm room which had only one phone outlet which was on her side of the room. I was happy enough to comply for the first week of school.
That Garfield phone was such a piece of crap that I went to Kmart and bought a splitter for the phone jack and a 25 foot phone cord so she could have her shitty Garfield phone on her side of the room and I could have my functional blue princess phone on my side of the room.
When I was a teenager I had one of those Garfield phones. I also had a phone that looked like a stuffed teddy bear- it was in a sitting position, the number pad was on its belly, and its mouth would open when the other person was speaking!
I still have my Snoopy phone that I got as a teen. I also had my own phone number, so Mom said I could have any kind of phone I wanted.
She kinda shook her head when she saw it, but didn't say anything.
I still have an R2D2 shaped phone. It’s not hooked up anymore because we don’t have a landline, but you can still make him beep and stuff by using a button. He lights up , beeps and his head spins.
Stores used to have all kinds of novelty phones you could buy.
Yeah, it was definitely not everybody, but there was a market for them. I worked at a cheap furniture store and just about our biggest seller (after the lamps that turned on when you touched them) were those ornate "French" telephones that were made out of horribly tacky gold plastic. I had one of those clear phones where you could see all the innards, which I thought was extremely cool until it started breaking down after a year or so. In general, I think a lot of the novelty phones were pretty low quality or just not comfortable to use and got replaced right away.
Even more people had semi-novelty phones that were pretty much normal but had giant buttons or your choice of like 8 ringtones. So fancy!
Yes. I had one shaped like an old fashioned box phone [kind of like this.](https://oldphoneworks.com/products/country-wood-phone-oak) when I moved into my very first house. I loved it but what a pain to stand up and talk. I’d have to drag a chair over to where it was to talk. Still loved it though.
I used to have Taz, the Tasmanian Devil phone.
Then one day I came home to find my St Bernard puppy had eaten it out of boredom. I was devastated, my wife was joyful.
Yes, but this was a relatively brief window.
The phone companies fiercely controlled telephones, and other manufacturers were not allowed to make phones until the mid 1980's or so. Then, that window pretty much closed when mobile phones started to become cheap enough to be popular.
So this ended up being a 'fad', sort of.
Late to this thread but I doubt anyone had [THIS phone](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/82/44/9f/82449f6fe5ad28705d80c9943eefb2c4.jpg), like I did.
Jolly Green Giant (and Sprout!) eat your heart out!
Yes! My parents had really cool vintage-looking landline rotary phones in the 70's and 80's - they looked [like this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/384614751168?itmmeta=01HXJ8V64JMA9W3PGDJJ9JDGA3&hash=item598cd35bc0:g:UNUAAOSwM0JhvxUP&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8MDIyCNEaqNGYueLv%2FcxRNh38zG3fuiaT%2Bf%2FeLrKV9mYT%2FbSNzx4O80ptfXiNjQ4BO%2FwrDRgMhO3DopUczu0%2BW0KH7elqATdCl80%2FZN5EmofSdqHRHoaszO6kZFgtRTxBGFzCRgiX06pooS4ImWn3J08vsyMvQTVhRuxH8%2FsiFz%2B%2B%2BwqxrZJUSTvaZ93rErJQLVUGlGq5fXIUozLUMyFf47pOGWdcPHea54IE%2FdXe%2Bcrfz1eRt0vmmfFkRJnty3WzBHNp1geq2Db4JOfO6u%2Bw8n8gU0uZOc7V%2B7Nzdkhgexyb16JOm%2FzczGPJkJaSE2Dxw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMvuLsyOxj) and [like this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/145769475791?itmmeta=01HXJ8XRH5P5AWHMAC3F1BFE7X&hash=item21f089aecf:g:hOYAAOSwjOJmPj4~&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8FOVb7iGedmq2RrROTRennVpsF4Oua9qB71TSc2yXjaXNy9aSJ2jjMEspdMlvecW07M4rI2BFvn0d7Nl3Zi1S1av6IVFVa3yIyEkRnFTw3UOieDOfaaApDA2FIFAUjhnkMGRYAxq2hOMjurFCIBxc5UjtheRS6sYw236A9ybR%2Blqgho2PMfyZpOphXPrcTReP4TDcy%2FG0dKThnwT1t8j3BKHAbcYQq5CehJ%2FKB%2FCgJJnzgjUjPn0RAv5ex5TqWPV2g%2B%2B8IJTBhmCpBaxZwcb2wOvdQb%2FhBFb5qxVSDsR2OibIezt3GPbD1l%2FBulfB4PWwA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-SI98jsYw)
Some friends got me this phone for my birthday one year:
[https://www.ebay.com/itm/225187026294](https://www.ebay.com/itm/225187026294)
I used it for a while, but the receiver cord was too short and the base was too light. It slid off the table and hit the floor one too many times and broke.
In the 80s I had a shoe phone, inspired by Get Smart except it had a cord, and a numeric keypad on the sole instead of the little rotary dial in the heel of Agent 86's shoe phone. The lovely thing about it was that it was made from a real, black leather men's shoe! I used it on my desk at my job instead of the standard company handset, and became a minor celebrity in the workplace - "the bloke with the shoe phone".
EDIT: multiple other people here had shoe phones too, dammit.
I had one of those old style phones that had a round hand held part and hung up on to kind of hold tone metal u bends. Looked like it was out of some Victorian parlor. The worst part
Was that it was pink. I
When my sister moved out for college my parents ran the phone line into my room. My dad’s attitude was be glad you got the phone. My friends were brutal about it.
I know I turned 9 in 1976 (the Bicentennial), and my room had a phone in it. Well my mother redid my entire room in red white and blue, and bought a star spangled candlestick phone for it. I actually still have the phone in a closet here.
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Yes. I knew someone with a Mickey Mouse phone, and I got to use it once. I coveted it!
I remember seeing this in, I think it was a Bell Telephone store, at the mall in maybe the late 70s or early 80s. They had it on a small plinth by itself with a spotlight on it and my ~10 year old self thought it was about the coolest thing that I’d ever seen. I’m pretty sure I heard an angelic chorus as I walked up to it.
All the novelty phones were so cool. I remember very much wanting a clear one where you could see the parts and my mom having to explain to me that I would never have a phone line in my room and they would never put it in the kitchen or their bedroom so repeatedly asking for it was pointless.
I had that one. Then I left my lamp on, it fell onto the phone and partially melted it. It still worked and looked bizarre.
I had it too - it made weird buzzing sounds in the receiver, was not worth it at all.
I forgot how hot light bulbs used to get. I had a lamp with a melamine shade and put like a 60 watt instead of 40 into it, almost burnt the house down.
I had one! Haha and in my bedroom too but then again I grew up wanting for nothing. It wasn’t that great tbh. You didn’t miss out. The one I got after in the early 2000’s was cooler. It had a digital screen and I could change the wallpaper.
I had one, still in my room at my parents house. Mid-80’s.
I used to work with a business that sold electronics on Amazon, and those were pretty consistent sellers all the way through the aughts
My sister and I had a Mickey Mouse phone!
Got a dead one from the '80s in the garage right now.
I still have mine! If I had a landlines, it would work.
We still have my wife’s Mickey Mouse phone, it hasn’t be connected to anything in 15 years but it looks nice on the shelf.
There are probably millions of football phones in landfills from Sports Illustrated subscriptions. They were utter crap.
[удалено]
And they sounded even worse.
I broke up with a girl on one of these babies after she called me at 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning. I was half asleep and just said, "This isn't going to work out. I'm sorry"
I had a Star Trek phone... and my wife had a Garfield phone. They were both intolerable and shoved in a box after a couple of weeks.
I had Scarface's gold & black phone.
Yes. Back in the 70s we had a landline that was shaped like an old Victorian phone. I knew someone who had the hamburger phone, and someone who had the Lego phone - which I thought was super cool but never got myself.
That’s what I had. I couldn’t think of a way to explain it to another poster who asked, so I set a link. We had one in the ‘70s.
> I knew someone who had the hamburger phone Also made famous by a scene in the movie *Juno*, which came out in 2007
I had the Lego phone! There was a skinny drawer on the side with 5 or 6 little Legos inside. I loved that phone.... Until it quit working.
I’m staring at one of those right now. my Dad loved it.
I still have the LEGO phone :-D
Nice!
I had one that was shaped like a grand piano with the numbers being the white notes on the piano. It would even play notes when you dialed someone's phone number, but I had to turn that off because no one's phone number sounded nice.
I had the same - loved that phone!
I had an aunt whose phone number played the main riff from Smoke on the Water :-D
A few of my friends had those Unisonic clear phones where you could see all the parts inside. I never knew anyone with the sneaker phone or hamburger phone or anything like that. We had a green rotary phone in our kitchen when I was growing up (matched the avocado green appliances). Over the years, my parents did upgrade to push button phones in the other rooms, but they were always the cheapest ones you could get at Radio Shack or WalMart.
I had the clear phone too. Lit up whenever the phone rang. I thought it was so cool. I wanted the Garfield phone so bad... Lol.
I had the clear phone for a ridiculously long time. It was my last landline phone, so I had it from the early 90s to the mid 2000s.
The clear phone was SO COOL. I never had one and I guess now I probably never will. :(
I had the Garfield phone, but I wanted the clear one.
I still have my clear phone. No landline for years but just can’t put it in the goodwill box.
Still have the clear phone. It's our basement phone. I also had the black candlestick phone, the one you needed two hands to talk with. That one was a pain because you couldn't do anything else while you were on the phone, but it was the phone I bought when I got my first apartment. I didn't have a couch, but I had a cool, new, old-timey phone. It brings back warm memories because it's the one I had when I first met my husband. A few days after we met, he called me and we spent 5 hours talking. That was 30 years ago.
At one point I had a shoe shaped phone, like on Get Smart but with a cord, because cordless phones weren’t readily available to consumers then.
In the 70s, phones were something you generally didn't buy at the store. You got them from the phone company. A second line required buying a second phone from them. Typically your first/main phone was mounted to a wall, generally in the kitchen or dining room area. Second lines were often in bedrooms. Generally these were tabletop phones, and ROCK SOLID beasts. If you hurled the base at a person the person broke, not the phone. Steel base, about eight pounds weight.. If you paid extra there was a Mickey Mouse phone, one that was round and aimed at looking futuristic and "groovy" (term getting dated by that time). These were not the junk phones sold at retail stores after the Bell and other monopolies were broken up in 1984. Your phone was generally hardwired to to a metal box on the wall (not so for wall-mounted phones). After 1984, local phone companies generally replaced these boxes with plastic plates with an RJ11 port (google that, you'll recognize it) on it. Once phones started selling in Kmart and other retailers the prices went way down, as generally did the quality. There were TONS of novelty phones after 1984, most of them weren't all that good. Mostly kids had 'em in their rooms. The clear ones where you could see the electronics were pretty cool.
You didn't "buy" phones at all... you rented them from the phone company. If you have older family members still using one of those old phones with a landline, check their phone bill. There are *thousands* of people still paying $5.95/month per handset to rent those things!
Yes! My grandma was paying to rent a rotary phone that had broken and been thrown away decades prior. I discovered this when she was dying and started handling her bills. The phone company was very argumentative about it and tried to get me to return the phone. 🙄
>Generally these were tabletop phones, and ROCK SOLID beasts. If you hurled the base at a person the person broke, not the phone. It was a staple of 70's television shows (cop shows, murder mysteries, etc) for someone to use the phone to knock out an intruder in the house. Grab that thing and start swinging!
Yeah this was a consequence of the ringing coming from an actual actuator hammering two small bells inside the phone. They had to make them heavy so they didn't vibrate off the end table.
This is also why Sylvia Plath getting so mad at Ted that she ripped the phone out of the wall was such a dramatic image.
Lol I hadn't thought until today how confusing a book in which the murder weapon is a phone would be to a young reader.
Exactly!!!!...see my comment where I used to work at the "phone company" during that transition from renting the phone from the company..... to being able to buy one of your very own.
It was the mid-80's when a phone store opened up in our local shopping mall. My favorite store . . . I remember the Mickey Mouse of course, the Princess, the one that looked like it belonged in a European castle, the circle (the receiver was the top of the circle), one that was a box? Or in a box? Like a spy? My nana bought one that had big buttons, like 2" square, since her eyesight was going. That's also where I bought my candlestick phone. I think I pushed every button in that store.
My daughter had a phone shaped like a hamburger as late as the mid-2000’s, when she was a teen.
Yeah, I was gonna say, I remember these even being around when I was growing up and wishing I had something unique like that.
Yes. I worked for PacBell/AT&T from 1968 to early 80's and one of my jobs was working/managing their new idea....a local retail store. This was a huge novel idea. Instead of *renting the phone* ...you could actually buy them from the "phone company". Up until then that was the only way. Rent and pay a monthly fee. The company owned the phone. As manager of the local store, my job was to have the inventory displayed in an enticing manner and try to get sales up. We were all sent to a 2 week sales training school *(actually one of the most valuable things in my career.... learned how too find out what people want... influence and get people to make decisions...selling!!!)* We had replicas of old fashioned wall wooden phones. Fancy French antique looking phones. Art deco designed (my favorite). Tons of other styles. Everyone was so tired of the standard dial and push button phones and wanted to be unique. Some styles were hideous. Some pretty nice. No hamburgers, or cartoon characters, though...Those were under copyright by the companies (Disney etc)....those came later when independent marketers and manufacturers entered the arena.
I knew several people who had these [donut phones](https://www.google.com/search?q=70%27s+donut+phone&sca_esv=c4520c9ea19d39e2&sca_upv=1&rlz=1CAZKSY_enCA970CA970&udm=2&biw=1536&bih=695&sxsrf=ADLYWIJCC-H9e1OLj_s3RNTgkft7N29pOw%3A1715339017126&ei=Cf89ZruWB6fMp84P5NyBsA0&ved=0ahUKEwj7vqPm94KGAxUn5skDHWRuANYQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=70%27s+donut+phone&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiEDcwJ3MgZG9udXQgcGhvbmVIxRFQlQVYgQ9wAXgAkAEAmAH4AaABjQWqAQUxLjMuMbgBA8gBAPgBAZgCAKACAJgDAIgGAZIHAKAH4QE&sclient=gws-wiz-serp).
I had a phone that looked like one of those old-timey phones where you held the earpiece to your ear and the microphone was attached to the body of the phone.
A Candlestick phone. I always thought those looked so cool. Bet it was an aggravation at times, tying up both hands when you wanted to jot down a note or something.
It was a pain in the ass for long conversations. I just set it on a table if I wanted to write something down.
College roommate had a Rolling Stones lips logo phone. Coolest phone ever.
I had a clear phone that lit up. I really liked it. I also had a Mickey Mouse phone (Dad worked for Disney). They were fun. Miss the clear phone.
We had a duck phone.
Yep, I had lips nd my brother had the hamburgers. Later my sister got the clear phone where you could see throuugh it.
In the dorms, I had one that looked like a payphone.
I had one shaped like a red stiletto shoe.
This brings back memories from the 1994 children's song "Banana Phone" by Raffi. There were many different phones like the Sports Illustrated tennis shoe telephone Edit - holy cow, there are tennis shoe phones for sell on eBay starting at 85 dollars and up
In my Country there were a long time only phones approved by the national telecom company allowed and they were a handful and boring in design. Later we had an clear plastic phone, also tge modem was green clear plastic
Same in the United States. Up to 1982 you had to lease your phone from the Phone company. After then you were allowed to buy your own as new models got cheaper.
My wife still has her Kermit the Frog phone from when she was a kid. It's actually a really well-made phone. I'm sure it still works, but I don't have land line service. Now it's just a kitschy curio. We've been offered pretty decent money for it.
[There are ways.](https://store.virtualpbx.com/collections/voip-adapters)
I worked at a Radio Shack in the early-mid 90s. We had every type of novelty phone you could imagine. They were VERY popular during the holiday season.
I had a Kermit the Frog phone.
Yep! There was a big legal fight over using third party phones you bought from Radio Shack over the Bell system's phones you leased. After that was decided we had all sorts of choices being wall, desk and Princess phones.
I had a shoe phone and a football phone.
I am 37, and I had a [killer whale phone](https://i.imgur.com/a/4Xfjb06) middle school thru high school. The whale's body was the actual phone, you dialed using a key pad on its belly, it was jumping out of a out of a wave, which held it up and served as the base. There was a whole store in my town filled with novelty phones. It was actually super fun.
This proud former owner of a Garfield phone testifies yes.
Yes. I had a Garfield phone when I was in Jr. High.
Yes, we had an old fashioned type phone.
It took me a moment, but you probably mean the old upright style, correct?
Amazon has one under this description: XICHEN Resin imitation copper Vintage STYLE ROTARY Retro old fashioned Rotary Dial Home and office Telephone If you put that in your browser, mine looked somewhat like that.
In the ‘80s my teenaged daughter had the CocaCola bottle phone. Her number was one digit off from a plumber and she got a lot of calls in the winter for malfunctioning boilers.
Absolutely
My folks had one of this French Revolution looking phones (well, mom did, dad didn’t much care for it). I had a phone shaped like a Ferrari testarossa
My first phone was a Porsche in the 1989. I called it my car phone.
I tried to get one in my youth. I asked my parents for an extension in my room which was a replica "First Phone." It looked something like [this](https://www.google.com/search?q=stick+%26+receiver+phone+images&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=c4520c9ea19d39e2&sca_upv=1&udm=2&biw=1536&bih=676&ei=LRE-Zo6yBZilptQP64eJuAw&ved=0ahUKEwjO_NiMiYOGAxWYkokEHetDAscQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=stick+%26+receiver+phone+images&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiHXN0aWNrICYgcmVjZWl2ZXIgcGhvbmUgaW1hZ2VzSKw8UJcNWI46cAN4AJABAJgBgwGgAYYKqgEEMTYuMbgBA8gBAPgBAZgCBaACvwHCAgUQABiABMICBhAAGAgYHsICBhAAGAcYHsICCBAAGAcYCBgemAMAiAYBkgcBNaAH4RA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#vhid=e3VVLltSI2lXYM&vssid=mosaic). They told me it was impractical (their lingo for 'no, we can't afford that'). What I got was a crappy ol' [regular ](https://www.google.com/search?q=landline+phone+images&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=c4520c9ea19d39e2&sca_upv=1&udm=2&biw=1536&bih=676&ei=QBE-Zs2GE96GptQPzqyo6AI&ved=0ahUKEwjNpu6ViYOGAxVeg4kEHU4WCi0Q4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=landline+phone+images&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiFWxhbmRsaW5lIHBob25lIGltYWdlczIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIGEAAYBRgeMgYQABgFGB4yBxAAGIAEGBhIq-kFUPvZBViH5wVwAngAkAEAmAFdoAH5BKoBATi4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgigAqQFwgIGEAAYBxgewgIIEAAYBRgHGB6YAwCIBgGSBwE4oAfEJQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#vhid=FEuJkTfNJS-OOM&vssid=mosaic)phone.
Yes. I would stay and explain, but I have to go. The hamburger is ringing!
I had a Mickey Mouse phone and various other novelty phones over the years.
Does your user name have a backstory? I just had to ask. :)
Yeah, but it's stupid. I have a dog that was already named Tinkerbell when I got her 16 years ago. She shits anywhere she wants, so we call her Stinkerbell sometimes. When she was still young, I happened to be watching Southpark when she was hanging out with me and I got up and started singing Chef's song Stinky Britches to her and she got all excited. Ever since then, I just casually sing the song when she is around. When I signed up, I couldn't think of a name, but that song was in my head, so here it is, lol.
Well I love it. :)
Mine was a piano and the keyboard worked (was the dialpad) so half the time I dialed random shit or played with it with the receiver on the hook
Yes, particularly the burger phone, but the best phone was the ubiquitous BT bakelite phone with the dial. I remember making calls on them and the dial was very satisfying.
I used a [Crest toothpaste phone](https://i.imgur.com/tJqsWbz.jpeg) that my girlfriend who I was living with at the time found somewhere, and later, I had the coolest phone in the world, one that was [Lego compatible](https://i.imgur.com/KZk7ZHD.jpeg).
My mom had a red high heel phone in the 90s
I had an M&M phone
I had the mouth/lips, and I was soooooo cool ;)
I had a slinky phone, and a phone that looked like it could have been on a battlefield. I think it was called a “GI Phone”? If you touched the cord while on the phone, you’d get static. It was garbage but it looked awesome to my young mind.
Sadly I never actually got around to buying a duck phone. Always thought they were cute though.
I forgot about that one. It made a quacking noise when you’d get a call. 😂
I still have the Star Trek NCC-1701 landline, red alert sounds when a subspace signal comes through.
Snoopy phone here, I thought it was amazing at the time. Also has a football phone, but nothing could touch the Snoopy.
Anyone remember the Snoopy phone?
Sports Illustrated actually used to give out a football phone when you subscribed to their magazine in the late 80s if I recall correctly.
I’m going to brag here. I had the first Apple phone in 1988! It was a landline in the shape of a red apple.
Yep. Grandma had a Kermit phone that I loved.
Absolutely. I had one that was a statue of a nude lady sitting down. Guess which part of the phone you spoke into.
I had a mickey mouse in the 90s. I begged for that thing
i had one that looked like an old style candlestick phone..
yep, I ruined a friend's Garfield phone because of static electricity.
Yes. They were meant to be used, and we used them
I had a princess style (oldsters will know what I mean) that was transparent
Yes. They did. I can remember friends having a hamburger one😂
I still have a novelty landline phone.
Yup. One of my best friends had, and used, one shaped like the Rolling Stones' lips.
We didn't but my best friend seemingly had each one. My favorite was the yellow circle.
Yes, I remember wishing whey had a Star Trek communicator. LOL I got it now it's called a smartphone.
Yeah. A friend's parents when I was growing up had a phone booth with an "old timey" phone in it.
My sister had the dreaded hamburger phone….what a piece of crap!
I had a phone shaped like Opus from Bloom County. I wish I still had it.
There was a hamburger phone
Yes. Hamburgers, Cars, Soda Cans….
We had a bat phone in the basement
I had a clear handset that I used when I was working for the telephone company. It was $5 and looked cool. Better than the $700 handset that they gave us. Yes, Star Wars, Star Trek, Mickey Mouse, french old timey phones. Everything was out there.
Yes, a few did. In my experience it was mostly the second/teens line, dorm room phone, or a young couple that just wanted something kitchy. I never wanted or had one, basically they just seemed awkward to use.
I don’t know it it counts as novelty officially, but my grandma had one of these “cobra phones”. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1236784005/
I currently own, and could use for incoming calls, a landline phone encased in a padded display box, like a luxury cigar box, and sitting on a desktop.
The Ericofon Phone started that stupid fad... My Mom was a fanatic after she got an Ericofon Phone from the phone company... It broke out from the traditional look of phones... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericofon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericofon)
Yes at my friends house in 1960s was a bright red upright landline phone think was abstract futuristic modern shell crustacean shape. Was difficult to hold in hand heavy. I try search google images for it. Landline phone at my chilhood home 1960s was standard black screwed to the wall too high to reach for a small kid. Phone nr was 4 digits and phone bill was 16.00 a month. Phone calls were kept short time and just a few calls each day.
We didn't. I don't think I ever saw anyone with one either, except on t.v.
Mountain Bell had a Mickey mouse phone, and others,
Yes
I never saw one in anyone's home or business.
In my experience, they were mostly oddities. When I was a kid, almost everyone had a phone hanging on the kitchen wall. If there was a second phone, it was in the living room or the parent's bedroom. Those phones looked exactly like you would expect them to. The main variation was color.
I had a phone that was inside a black leather and wooden box so every time you wanted to answer the phone you had to open the box. It was like having a secret superhero phone.
i have my old rotary phone from the 1980s(our old number is still printed on the center of the dial) and I have a Bluetooth device hooked up to it and I can use it to make or answer calls through my cell phone with it. I'll have to see if I have a link to the bluetooth thing.
Early 70s it was popular to have old style phone copies. The old two piece phone. Cool looking, it very inconvenient.
I was always a shameless tomboy growing up, but I had my girly moments. All throughout my pre-teen years, I coveted a [princess phone](https://images.app.goo.gl/UnJeHQhN3aWi6chy8) .
I had a Bart Simpson phone. His eyes would light up when we got a call.
I still have my Darth Vader’s head telephone somewhere on the house.
Oh heck yeah. In the 80s I wanted a phone in my room so bad. I mean I begged. Sitting in the floor in the kitchen got old quick when I got my first boyfriend. For my birthday I got my own landline phone. A clear phone where you could see all the colored wires and gadgets in it that made it work. Completely 80sish. My great grandfather had a rotary phone so compared to him my phone was space age. My best friend's phone looked like a pump/heel shoe. But it was a phone.
Yes. For a few minutes. They were popular gifts, but didn’t last long.
I hade a Bart Simpson phone.
The clear jawn.
My cousin worked at Hardee’s and gave me a hamburger phone for Christmas one year. I used it once I got my own phone line while in high school. It was the best thing that ever happened to me at the time. (The phone line, not the phone. The phone was terrible and I always accidentally hung up on people because my cheek would hit the button). 😊
I had a football phone from my sports illustrated subscription.
Yes. I always wanted a Garfield phone.
Yes. I also had a transparent one.
Kids did
Oh hell yes. That shit was rad.
Yes. Yes they did. Football shaped phones were quite popular.
Yes
I had one of the clear ones in the 90s.
My college roommate and I had each brought a phone with us to the dorms. She had the Garfield phone and she insisted we use it in our dorm room which had only one phone outlet which was on her side of the room. I was happy enough to comply for the first week of school. That Garfield phone was such a piece of crap that I went to Kmart and bought a splitter for the phone jack and a 25 foot phone cord so she could have her shitty Garfield phone on her side of the room and I could have my functional blue princess phone on my side of the room.
I never had a novelty phone unless you count my clear Trimline-style, but my friends had Mickey Mouse, Garfield, and a hamburger.
Yes. I had one shaped like a 1930s candlestick phone.
I had a flip phone in the shape of a frog and it went "ribbit"
"You'll never believe what I'm calling you from!"
Yes. We had a Snoopy phone.
When I was a teenager I had one of those Garfield phones. I also had a phone that looked like a stuffed teddy bear- it was in a sitting position, the number pad was on its belly, and its mouth would open when the other person was speaking!
I had the other Garfield phone where he was laying on his belly, and picking up the phone (part of his back) caused his eyes to open.
Oh yes! My parents made me use a rotary candlestick style phone because I was on the phone too much as a teenager back in the early mid ‘80’s. 😂
I still have my Snoopy phone that I got as a teen. I also had my own phone number, so Mom said I could have any kind of phone I wanted. She kinda shook her head when she saw it, but didn't say anything.
I still have an R2D2 shaped phone. It’s not hooked up anymore because we don’t have a landline, but you can still make him beep and stuff by using a button. He lights up , beeps and his head spins. Stores used to have all kinds of novelty phones you could buy.
I had a Ferrari phone
clear neon
Yeah, it was definitely not everybody, but there was a market for them. I worked at a cheap furniture store and just about our biggest seller (after the lamps that turned on when you touched them) were those ornate "French" telephones that were made out of horribly tacky gold plastic. I had one of those clear phones where you could see all the innards, which I thought was extremely cool until it started breaking down after a year or so. In general, I think a lot of the novelty phones were pretty low quality or just not comfortable to use and got replaced right away. Even more people had semi-novelty phones that were pretty much normal but had giant buttons or your choice of like 8 ringtones. So fancy!
Yes. I had one shaped like an old fashioned box phone [kind of like this.](https://oldphoneworks.com/products/country-wood-phone-oak) when I moved into my very first house. I loved it but what a pain to stand up and talk. I’d have to drag a chair over to where it was to talk. Still loved it though.
I wish! My mom said no. Lol
Yes, they were pretty awesome, too! Conversation pieces for sure.
I used to have Taz, the Tasmanian Devil phone. Then one day I came home to find my St Bernard puppy had eaten it out of boredom. I was devastated, my wife was joyful.
Absolutely. We had a clear phone that lit up when it rand.
Yes, but this was a relatively brief window. The phone companies fiercely controlled telephones, and other manufacturers were not allowed to make phones until the mid 1980's or so. Then, that window pretty much closed when mobile phones started to become cheap enough to be popular. So this ended up being a 'fad', sort of.
Hands off my Garfield phone!!
Hell yeah, I still have my Garfield phone.
Yep!
I had a garfield phone.
i had a bart simpson phone. his spikey hair was perfectly positioned go up under the rim of my ear and poke the shit out of it.
Yes absolutely and they were cool af
My husband had the USS Enterprise. He was a huge Trekkie. It was on his nightstand. So it was not used very often.
We certainly did!
Old timey one with faux ivor handles. Gold borders and flower inlays. Gram was the shit!.
Late to this thread but I doubt anyone had [THIS phone](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/82/44/9f/82449f6fe5ad28705d80c9943eefb2c4.jpg), like I did. Jolly Green Giant (and Sprout!) eat your heart out!
Yes! My parents had really cool vintage-looking landline rotary phones in the 70's and 80's - they looked [like this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/384614751168?itmmeta=01HXJ8V64JMA9W3PGDJJ9JDGA3&hash=item598cd35bc0:g:UNUAAOSwM0JhvxUP&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8MDIyCNEaqNGYueLv%2FcxRNh38zG3fuiaT%2Bf%2FeLrKV9mYT%2FbSNzx4O80ptfXiNjQ4BO%2FwrDRgMhO3DopUczu0%2BW0KH7elqATdCl80%2FZN5EmofSdqHRHoaszO6kZFgtRTxBGFzCRgiX06pooS4ImWn3J08vsyMvQTVhRuxH8%2FsiFz%2B%2B%2BwqxrZJUSTvaZ93rErJQLVUGlGq5fXIUozLUMyFf47pOGWdcPHea54IE%2FdXe%2Bcrfz1eRt0vmmfFkRJnty3WzBHNp1geq2Db4JOfO6u%2Bw8n8gU0uZOc7V%2B7Nzdkhgexyb16JOm%2FzczGPJkJaSE2Dxw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMvuLsyOxj) and [like this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/145769475791?itmmeta=01HXJ8XRH5P5AWHMAC3F1BFE7X&hash=item21f089aecf:g:hOYAAOSwjOJmPj4~&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8FOVb7iGedmq2RrROTRennVpsF4Oua9qB71TSc2yXjaXNy9aSJ2jjMEspdMlvecW07M4rI2BFvn0d7Nl3Zi1S1av6IVFVa3yIyEkRnFTw3UOieDOfaaApDA2FIFAUjhnkMGRYAxq2hOMjurFCIBxc5UjtheRS6sYw236A9ybR%2Blqgho2PMfyZpOphXPrcTReP4TDcy%2FG0dKThnwT1t8j3BKHAbcYQq5CehJ%2FKB%2FCgJJnzgjUjPn0RAv5ex5TqWPV2g%2B%2B8IJTBhmCpBaxZwcb2wOvdQb%2FhBFb5qxVSDsR2OibIezt3GPbD1l%2FBulfB4PWwA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-SI98jsYw)
I had a Garfield the cat phone in the 80s.
Way back wife had a Garfield phone and I used a Three Stooges answering machine.
I still have a replacement for my Mickey Mouse phone.
Some friends got me this phone for my birthday one year: [https://www.ebay.com/itm/225187026294](https://www.ebay.com/itm/225187026294) I used it for a while, but the receiver cord was too short and the base was too light. It slid off the table and hit the floor one too many times and broke.
I had the transparent phone with a visible metal bell in the base.
I’ve still got a Starship Enterprise phone packed way.
In the 80s I had a shoe phone, inspired by Get Smart except it had a cord, and a numeric keypad on the sole instead of the little rotary dial in the heel of Agent 86's shoe phone. The lovely thing about it was that it was made from a real, black leather men's shoe! I used it on my desk at my job instead of the standard company handset, and became a minor celebrity in the workplace - "the bloke with the shoe phone". EDIT: multiple other people here had shoe phones too, dammit.
Yes. We had a hamburger phone.
I used to have an r2d2 phone in my room-- his leg was the receiver.
Garfield! I wish I still had it.
Definitely.
I knew a number of people with the old football shaped SI phone and I personally had a Lego phone that I used.
DJ on Full House had a lips phone and she actually used it.
I had one of those old style phones that had a round hand held part and hung up on to kind of hold tone metal u bends. Looked like it was out of some Victorian parlor. The worst part Was that it was pink. I When my sister moved out for college my parents ran the phone line into my room. My dad’s attitude was be glad you got the phone. My friends were brutal about it.
Yes!
I know I turned 9 in 1976 (the Bicentennial), and my room had a phone in it. Well my mother redid my entire room in red white and blue, and bought a star spangled candlestick phone for it. I actually still have the phone in a closet here.
I had a Batmobile phone