Hanging on the Telephone: Theme Thursday

Random Fun Facts about All Things Telephonic:

Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone invention in 1876, just hours before Elisha Grey patented his device to transmit speech electronically.

Yes, indeed, the first words spoken over the telephone were by Mr. Bell and they were: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."

The first telephone at the White House was installed in 1877, under President Hayes. The telephone number: 1.

Operator, well, could you help me place this call?

See, the number on the matchbook is old and faded

In 1888, a coin operated telephone was patented by William Gray.

In 1892, long distance service opened between New York and Chicago.

The first song about the telephone was "Hello My Baby" in 1899.

Ev'ry single morning you will hear me yell

Hey central, fix me up along the line

He connects me with my honey and I ring the bell

"Hello Frisco, Hello New York", was written in 1915, to commemorate the first phone call between....you guessed it: San Francisco and New York City.

One of the earliest fake numbers used in movies was: 555-2106, used in Panic in the Year Zero, 1962.

867-5309/Jenny was released in 1981, and created the fad of calling that number and asking for....Do I really need to tell you? Jenny.

Jenny, I got your number, I need to make you mine

In 1958, Wichita Falls, Texas was the first American city to institute true number calling: 7 digits without letters or names.

In 1935, the first automatic answering machine was invented by Willy Muller. The 3 feet tall machine was popular with Orthodox Jews forbidden from answering the phone on the Sabbath.

The first cell phone call was made on April 3, 1973, by Martin Cooper.

Operator, can you help me please

Give me the area code and the number that I need

Bells Are Ringing began life as a Broadway musical in 1956. The story revolved around Ella who works at an answering service.

The Guinness Book of World Records lists the first whisper in the current record holding Telephone Game as "They inherited the earth and then the army came and scorched it."

Early touch-tone phones had only 10 buttons. The * and # buttons were added circa 1968, for advanced functions.

Tick, tick, tock it's a quarter to 2

And I'm done, I'm hanging up on you