I used to work in the Murray Hill central office right next to Bell Labs. We had one of the first prototypes of the videophone. You would not believe it now but, it originally started out the size of a refrigerator. Now we hold a computer and a video phone all in one hand. Our motto back in the day was: One system, it works. I'm proud to say I helped build that system.
Well, I'M glad you got to participate, and that you're proud of it. Here in Century XXI (in '21, oddly enough) we may not yet have reached the Jetson Stage of things, but your part in helping us along is most definitely appreciated. 😊 👄 ☎️📲 👂
I remember as a 12 year old going to the fair in 1962. We had relatives in Bellevue and it was so exciting. Even flew in the small helicopter that looked ultra modern. The elevators going up the Space Needle were so fast, it was scary. They even filmed a local TV show there live. This brought back some fun memories. Even the monorail was fun to ride in. I remember some of the exhibits now that this video reminded me of them. Great video!
Imagining what the future will be like is way better than actually living in it. When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for the 21st century. Now that I'm here, um...yeah.
Everyone has to visit the Space Needle at least once in their life. It's such an iconic structure and the views is gorgeous. I can't get enough of the awesome production music!
In a way some of these predictions did happen, push buttons did end up replacing old rotary phones. The bellboy became the pager, cell phones have been able to hold numbers in the memory since the early 2000's, apps allow for some electronics to be turned on remotely and for people to check the weather. Wasn't a perfect prediction but it was fairly close.
The talent and dedication of all those workers in the Bell Laboratories are exactly what made this world what it is today, those dedicated men and women were some of the most talented people in the world! It's amazing in new way back when what features were forthcoming with the phone network and Central offices and yet they did, some of the best people in the world made what we now know to be the Bell System!
Don’t forget about the viscous business practices of Bell Telephone that caused the government to break up their monopoly. A lot more innovation came after the breakup due to the competition among companies.
@@tennissir1986 and they made more money than before they broke up by all of the baby bells that were still one subsidiary but with different names, so Judge Green screwed up on that one
@@westwasbest Wrong. The job of a court presiding over a monopoly is not to hurt or help the monopolistic company - but to allow other companies to compete on a level playing ground. The other companies got much bigger and one of bell systems spin-off companies - Lucent was unable to compete at all.
@@tennissir1986 Lucent was at&t, AT&T long lines were responsible for all of these Bell system companies, so as I said the breakup was nothing but unnecessary and unwarranted, because all that happened was AT&T broke up into many different companies IE: Southern Bell, Mountain Bell, and all the others, with the exception of ITT which basically manufactured equipment nobody else really provided local phone service in any of these locales, so as I said, it backfired!
@@westwasbest Basic common sense says that when a company grow’s by how AT & T did by gobbling up smaller competitor companies - the consumer loses out. That after the breakup the remaining competitors made stupid business decisions is not a factor to the original decision.
If I had a time machine, this is where I'd get off. Maybe just a year or two earlier. Plenty of optimism, enduring mid-century architecture, Henry Mancini's music, doo wop music, jazz, Alfred Hitchcock movies, and cars with chrome and fins.
@fbw71u Both are true. But if I could stop by the World's Fair in 1962, I think it would be just before U.S. urban decay, so it should be fun. At least where I'm from (California), things have been turning around, but we have a lot of catching up.
@fbw71u It's slow, but there's downtown urban renewal in L.A., and more rail service. The same in San Francisco (if you can deal with the homeless issue). It's nothing like Europe, but compared to the 70's and 80's when there was nothing but a few belching city buses, things are improving.
@@roachtoasties I was born a year after this World's Fair. Growing up in Oakland, Saturdays were the best. Finish household chores and the sisters and I would go Downtown to shop, window or real purchases. We could go from 11th & Broadway all the way to the Sears store at 25th &Telegraph. Fabric store for Secondgirl to load up, music store to listen to new releases, dress boutiques to try on dresses to beg mom first later. Not just scrolling online for crap we didn't need, overspend and forget why we bought it when arrives later in the week...if it wasn't stolen by a porch pirate.
@@PhyrexianSurgeon actually it was useful at the time when it was being built it was supposed to be a full line from the north to south of Seattle. This was supposed to come after the fair once it paid back it’s revenue which it did over the course of six months during the world fair. Alweg came back to Seattle and said would you like a full system Seattle denied it just like in La
@plateshutoverlock because they don’t mix with traffic and they need little construction blueprint. All you need is a concrete beam and two concrete rails not four tracks with ties gravel, softening material then building the station itself then station house and all the extra overhead wires or third rail in the video you can see the third rail is tied to the running beam on the side. This is DC powered which is direct current. The original project for the LA system there is a UA-camr who speaks on discussion of the Seattle monorail and the LA monorail project proposals. It’s called how LA denied the Seattle on top of this. Japan has built 10 over the last few decades. The first one was built in 1964 for the Hida airport. For the Olympics, this was also built by alweg Hitachi.
Just to be a fussy creep, "populace" is the word you meant. Populous is an adjective about having a certain amount of people. "Populace" is the noun. Careful, grammatical errors can lead to living in a tent city!
One of my early memories was at age of six,going to the fair. What that stood out was getting on that elevator in the needle,being at the back and someone said "let the little guy get up front. Having never been higher than a second floor ,I freaked,and fainted! Still have a fear of heights!! Mmm, something new for the therapist!!!
We went in the late 60’s, so I was around 6 and I totally remember being scared in those elevators. As I recall they had glass on the front doors and I didn’t want to be anywhere near those and I remember pushing my way to the back.
really, mr. historically accurate? think about your comment and then look at when starbucks was 1st opened in the public market. you'll quickly realize your comment was really stupid.
Grew up in Queens (NY), near the 1964-65 Fair. Must have visited at least 20 times over the two years that it was open. Occasionally we would cut classes and spend a few hours during the week when it wasn't crowded. Remember the hours long wait for the GM exhibit? There was even an opening cut in a fence on Rodman St. (now College Pt. Blvd.) where someone could gain access for free, not me of course. Loved the chairs with the built-in speakers on the ride at the Bell System exhibit. Made a "Picturephone" call to a girl in California. Great memories. Ironically, went on to work for AT&T 6 years later - for 40 years.
@@emmarose4234 No, unfortunately. Lived in NYC, 3000 miles away, and a teenager - not a chance. The 1964 NY Fair looked almost identical to the Seattle Fair.
Kind of funny when you think of all the features we love on cellphones, or take for granted used to be features that Bell charged you extra to provide them. And they completely missed on the Picture Phone too.
Bell tried to develop picture phone to promote bradband, but it was too expendive for home use and lacked the resolution for businesd uses like document sharing.
As recently as a decade ago, some phone companies were still charging $0.50 per month for touchtone service. If my phone company did, I just wouldn't pay the fee. I use rotary phones more than touchtone phones anyways.
Some of these displays made it down to Disneyland after the fair to the pre- and post- show areas of Circle-Vision 360 when The Bell System/AT&T was the sponsor. I remember using them as a kid. They lasted until the late1970s until PSA (airline) took over sponsorship.
I Rode the Heck otta the Monorail!!!! My first ride up the elevator to the Space Needle, the Doors opened 2/3rds up!!!! My Mom Grabbed My Suit Jacket just as i leaned out to check out how high we were!!!!
@@cesaranthonyviralta5495 If the elevator kept moving, I would assume it was a mechanical failure in the door causing it become detached from the motor. The alternative is a major problem with the controller which resulted in the door opening and the safety circuit having no effect.
Ah, the days of Brylcreem and Aqua Net. “Hey! Let’s dash through the fair, knock down some old couples and crash the lines at every exhibit!” I remember seeing these same Bell displays when we visited their exhibit at Disneyland when I was a very young kid in ‘62. They either moved them from the Seattle World’s Fair or had an identical one at Disneyland.
The touch tone version of that card dialer (WE 2660) helped me get lots of concert tickets from local radio stations in the San Francisco area when I was a kid. The best concerts I went to was Yes, Johnny Winter (both at Winterland) and Grateful Dead Wall of Sound special (Cow Palace) all in 1974!
All that innovative stuff that some ppl are saying Bell System didn't materialize, actually they did... By patenting. A portion of your Nest Thermostat purchase, FaceTime, the call waiting or text on your smartphone is going to AT&T.
I thought that John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury space capsule was on display at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair before it was moved to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, where it's remains to this day.
I don't remember call waiting and forwarding in 1962! My big sister hogged the phone all the time. She probably knew and didn't tell me when I got a call!
I remember the '62 World's Fair fondly. The Space Needle is still here, of course, as is the United States Science Exhibit -- now the Pacific Science Center -- but a lot has changed. Not just on the fairgrounds themselves (now called the Seattle Center) but even riding the monorail you're now in a canyon of high-rise office, retail, and residential buildings on the south end of the line, and the north end goes through the MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture) -- formerly the EXP (Experience Music Project) -- which wasn't even imagined by a young Paul Allen back then. In many ways it's sad, but then again the Century 21 Exhibition WAS about progress and change.
"And along with being able to turn on your air conditioner by phone, hackers and criminal syndicates will be able to record you secretly by turning on your cell phone cam! What a great century it's gonna be!"
The Bell Lab invented quite a few feature in the late 50's that we use today. Think about it the Bell Labs invented the ESS Touch Tone and with out it we would not have computers and iPhones that we use today.
@therazorsedge28 Returns, hehehehe. By the way, while we’re on the topic of world’s fairs, are you a fan of the 1964 New York World’s Fair as well? I sure am. (My late dad went there, because his dad worked on electrical stuff there.)
In 1962 the Bell System was still serving major cities with 1920s switching technology that wouldn’t be replaced until the early 70s. Rotary dial for for that 1920s technology. Touch tone phones were for the first wave of digital technology...ESS.
Questions: We all know about custom calling features, so no need to ask about that. I do need to know what code the bird needed to poke at 3:55 to get fed. Now that's important. There's also the issue of the dogs at 11:23. If the family is "many miles away on vacation" why are they just concerned about watering the lawn? Their dogs are left wandering around the house. Who's taking care of them? Important stuff!
rofl. The Bell Boy, an early pager. Little did people know that was the beginning of the end of being able to say "I didn't get your message" or not be able to get away lol.
Am I imagining it or was there also a demo of the picture phone at the fair? I was just 4 years old exactly when I went to the fair so my memory may be faulty but I can swear there was, perhaps not as part of the main Bell Telephone exhibit but elsewhere, maybe in the Science Center?
Lmao I remember when my family and I were at a museum back in Chicago (we were kids) and my brother dialed 911 on one of those phones and was shook. “Taylor, I dialed 911, I’m scared. What if the police come? 😭”
Yes, Dick Tufeld, the voice of the robot, in Lost in Space, the original series and the movie. He was also the narrator heard at the beginning of the episodes.He also did some voice over work for ABC in the 60’s.
Every where you go now,you see every one looking at there sell phone,even when walking!!!!!when I was little in the 1960s,we used to go out for country rides every Sunday,,and enjoy mother nature,and go hiking,and fishing,and so many family things,cell phones have ruined all that
Hello again, I’m sure that there’s a better way to make a request like this but I’m not 100% sure who or where to reach out to. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I’m a filmmaker and musician in Seattle, Washington and would really love to use some of the footage in this video for a project I’m currently working on. Whoever is monitoring this channel, would you be kind enough to reply and let me know if it is even remotely possible for me to gain access to some of this footage for this phone project? Thank you so much!
Hello! I am a Seattle based filmmaker and would like to inquire about using some of this footage for a project. How would I go about getting permission? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you, Shay
Curt Chase Actually they had a pretty funny accessory for cell phones a while back - a wired black handset just like a desk phone. But sorry, no rotary dial.
@@chazdesimone7306 LOL. Yes, I've seen that handset in those gag catalogs a few years ago! You plug it into the earphone jack of your cellphone and looks like you're talking on an old corded phone! I took the gag one step further and purchased an X-Link bluetooth cellular gateway unit. By using the bluetooth function of your smartphone, the device bridges the cellphone to old standard "pots" corded house phones! Makes old phone fully operational with dial tone and ringer! I actually modified my X-Link to work in my car! I set an old pushbutton desk phone on the dash! Fullyfunctions. I hid my cellphone and stuff under the passenger seat. I totally amazed my friends and even a few strangers with the setup! It was funny.
Yea, I wish I was young and pretty so I could shove everyone out of the way to stand in front of those who were waiting and cut in line to walk in a building first.
The teenagers seen in this film held hands so much that they were either very good actors or real-life boyfriend and girlfriend. Both of them, if still alive, have to near or around 80 years of age (as of 2022).
We do, with no wires and a bunch of other stuff. Who needs call forwarding when you bring your phone with you. "Phone" is a little used app on my smart phone.
I know!!! I would really love to have a party line. I was born in the 80s, so I never got a chance to experience one. Boy, the fun I could have with that now!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_forwarding As for conference calls on your typical smartphone, just put the call on hold, dial 3rd party, then you can merge both calls into a conference call...
I'm sure the government will be tapping into that too. Use up your assigned amount and off to the energy re-education camp for you as AOC would have it. Twelve more years is all we have left. Run with it.
The Transistor was developed at Bell Laboratories? Bologna! Everybody knows that it was back-engineered from a flying saucer that crashed in the New Mexico desert in 1947. XD
If they found a crashed ship, we would have had a lot more "inventions" than rudimentary transistors. The transistor was discovered during a study on semiconductors.
@@user2C47 it was sarcasm. That "XD" at the end is an approximation of a sideways face, laughing so hard that their eyes are closed. I think "emoji" is the current term for that.
There's one thing about this video that depresses me: It shows Seattle back at a time when average working people could actually afford to live there because the rest of the country was still under the mistaken impression that there was nothing there but lumber mills and a boat yard. The World's Fair obviously changed that. You could say more or less the same thing about the entire west coast back then.
Yeah, it's not just Seattle. I grew up in Grays Harbor, WA. Not an expensive place. I've been getting priced out of owning a home ever since I started working. I work hard and save money and I'm not a spendthrift and I've always had great credit scores. I just don't make enough money in horticulture or in retail. My Dad was a grocery store clerk and he raised two children and built a house. Retail Clerks had a Union then, so he got raises and dental and health and vacation and some sick days. But America thinks that Retail workers are only worth being crapped on, so they crossed the Retail Union lines and went to work for scabs like Ernst, Eagle, PaynPak, House of Values, so they could buy cheap crapola and work for peanuts - after all, their husbands/Dads are Union Pipefitters and Millworkers, so what do they care about anyone getting benefits? When the other Unions start whining about how undervalued their contributions are, I sneer at them and their hypocrisy. They want me to lend them my strength, so they can turn around and crap on my and my loved ones. If they wanted Solidarity from my, then they should have showed some towards me and my loved ones, over the last 40 - 50 years. Americans don't deserve to be served. They mistake service for servants.
I used to work in the Murray Hill central office right next to Bell Labs. We had one of the first prototypes of the videophone. You would not believe it now but, it originally started out the size of a refrigerator.
Now we hold a computer and a video phone all in one hand. Our motto back in the day was: One system, it works.
I'm proud to say I helped build that system.
Well, I'M glad you got to participate, and that you're proud of it. Here in Century XXI (in '21, oddly enough) we may not yet have reached the Jetson Stage of things, but your part in helping us along is most definitely appreciated. 😊
👄 ☎️📲 👂
I remember as a 12 year old going to the fair in 1962. We had relatives in Bellevue and it was so exciting. Even flew in the small helicopter that looked ultra modern. The elevators going up the Space Needle were so fast, it was scary. They even filmed a local TV show there live. This brought back some fun memories. Even the monorail was fun to ride in. I remember some of the exhibits now that this video reminded me of them. Great video!
I was there, too. Twice in the summer of '62. It was great fun. Too bad that they didn't show the Bubbleator
Walking Seattle Center now days. It is amazing to think it held this amazing event. Wish North America still had worlds fairs and expos.
And no rain?
That's Unpossible!
Can't anymore, they spend all the money on killing people and spying on you.
They do, they're just called "cons" now.
@49jubilee yes all the time
Oh, but we do, we do...and a permanent one, too. And it's called E.P.C.O.T. (surprise)! 😃 😁
Imagining what the future will be like is way better than actually living in it. When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for the 21st century. Now that I'm here, um...yeah.
Kind of disappointing.
I remember all of these features when they were introduced. Boy do I feel old.
RadioChief I hear ya Chief. Alexander Graham Bell and I were in the same kindergarten class in Scotland. 📞
Kelly Coleman, I think RadioChief is talking about having been to the Century 21 Exposition (the World’s Fair shown here).
I join you being the 1957 model I am... LoL
People back then took pride in their appearance when out in public.
Clothes were a lot cheaper and better made then and a single adult could make enough money for a family of 4, this is no longer the case.
I never knew that you could do so many things with a rotary telephone. I need to get one of those! Thank you AT&T.
auto28521 Can’t do this with an iPhone: weapon, paperweight, doorstop, emergency rope.
auto28521 Many homes had kitchen wall phones with fifty foot long cords too.
In fact, ESS works better with DTMF, and needed a separate processor to efficiently handle dial pulsing.
My next door neighbor has an app on his cell phone that opens and closes his chicken coop by remote control.
I remember when I was a kid and we went to a push button phone from a rotary dial phone. I thought it was so cool and futuristic! :)
Clayton Coffman I remember when smoke signals were invented.
Touch tone dialing wasn't available in my town until 1980
Wow they have push button phones now
I thought that touch tone phones didn't get introduced until the 1964 New York World's Fair.
I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy to learn about DNA.
@NibiruLives Really! I bet they have Great Grandchildren now, and if they were blood related, their offspring joined the circus! LOL.
Digital Paradise Studios And a double helix made of playing cards too. I still haven’t figured that one out. 🤔
There was a novelty to it still, since the structure of DNA was discovered less than 10 years prior to this.
Not sure if they learned anything.
Lol.. hey look at these spinny things.
Wow sure is a trip
Everyone has to visit the Space Needle at least once in their life. It's such an iconic structure and the views is gorgeous.
I can't get enough of the awesome production music!
In a way some of these predictions did happen, push buttons did end up replacing old rotary phones. The bellboy became the pager, cell phones have been able to hold numbers in the memory since the early 2000's, apps allow for some electronics to be turned on remotely and for people to check the weather. Wasn't a perfect prediction but it was fairly close.
@@NerdyNEET Yeah no one could have predicted Web MD but thats hardly the fault of the makers of this short
the internet was still top secret military research back then.
That girl is just SO EXCITED about every little darned thing!!! LOL
The talent and dedication of all those workers in the Bell Laboratories are exactly what made this world what it is today, those dedicated men and women were some of the most talented people in the world! It's amazing in new way back when what features were forthcoming with the phone network and Central offices and yet they did, some of the best people in the world made what we now know to be the Bell System!
Don’t forget about the viscous business practices of Bell Telephone that caused the government to break up their monopoly. A lot more innovation came after the breakup due to the competition among companies.
@@tennissir1986 and they made more money than before they broke up by all of the baby bells that were still one subsidiary but with different names, so Judge Green screwed up on that one
@@westwasbest Wrong. The job of a court presiding over a monopoly is not to hurt or help the monopolistic company - but to allow other companies to compete on a level playing ground. The other companies got much bigger and one of bell systems spin-off companies - Lucent was unable to compete at all.
@@tennissir1986 Lucent was at&t, AT&T long lines were responsible for all of these Bell system companies, so as I said the breakup was nothing but unnecessary and unwarranted, because all that happened was AT&T broke up into many different companies IE: Southern Bell, Mountain Bell, and all the others, with the exception of ITT which basically manufactured equipment nobody else really provided local phone service in any of these locales, so as I said, it backfired!
@@westwasbest Basic common sense says that when a company grow’s by how AT & T did by gobbling up smaller competitor companies - the consumer loses out. That after the breakup the remaining competitors made stupid business decisions is not a factor to the original decision.
If I had a time machine, this is where I'd get off. Maybe just a year or two earlier. Plenty of optimism, enduring mid-century architecture, Henry Mancini's music, doo wop music, jazz, Alfred Hitchcock movies, and cars with chrome and fins.
@fbw71u Both are true. But if I could stop by the World's Fair in 1962, I think it would be just before U.S. urban decay, so it should be fun. At least where I'm from (California), things have been turning around, but we have a lot of catching up.
@fbw71u It's slow, but there's downtown urban renewal in L.A., and more rail service. The same in San Francisco (if you can deal with the homeless issue). It's nothing like Europe, but compared to the 70's and 80's when there was nothing but a few belching city buses, things are improving.
Don't forget the racism 😐
@@roachtoasties I was born a year after this World's Fair. Growing up in Oakland, Saturdays were the best. Finish household chores and the sisters and I would go Downtown to shop, window or real purchases. We could go from 11th & Broadway all the way to the Sears store at 25th &Telegraph. Fabric store for Secondgirl to load up, music store to listen to new releases, dress boutiques to try on dresses to beg mom first later. Not just scrolling online for crap we didn't need, overspend and forget why we bought it when arrives later in the week...if it wasn't stolen by a porch pirate.
@MisterHot Do you know how tired and played out that stupid remark is?
My family drove across the country in 1962 to see the Seattle World's Fair. It was there that we saw push button telephones for the first time!!!
and now land lines are nearly extinct
You're very welcome.
Thanks for uploading this.
Can i break free from all of this now and go home.
Hey ur still uploading. Are you actually ATT?
Now send me back to those days
Love this channel so much retro technology
0:41 wearing her finest prom dress to ride the monorail! Monorail! Monorail! It will improve your future, it will be stupendous!
just drove by the monorail this morning and thought about how little it's actually used
albear972 With petticoats!
Monorails are futuristic because _____________?
@@PhyrexianSurgeon actually it was useful at the time when it was being built it was supposed to be a full line from the north to south of Seattle. This was supposed to come after the fair once it paid back it’s revenue which it did over the course of six months during the world fair. Alweg came back to Seattle and said would you like a full system Seattle denied it just like in La
@plateshutoverlock because they don’t mix with traffic and they need little construction blueprint. All you need is a concrete beam and two concrete rails not four tracks with ties gravel, softening material then building the station itself then station house and all the extra overhead wires or third rail in the video you can see the third rail is tied to the running beam on the side. This is DC powered which is direct current. The original project for the LA system there is a UA-camr who speaks on discussion of the Seattle monorail and the LA monorail project proposals. It’s called how LA denied the Seattle on top of this. Japan has built 10 over the last few decades. The first one was built in 1964 for the Hida airport. For the Olympics, this was also built by alweg Hitachi.
The populace of Seattle has sure changed since 1962..... I didn't see any tents on the streets under the monorail.
Wes Johnston 🔥 🔥 🔥
Back in those days, you could just jail the homeless and nobody would notice.
Just to be a fussy creep, "populace" is the word you meant. Populous is an adjective about having a certain amount of people. "Populace" is the noun. Careful, grammatical errors can lead to living in a tent city!
@@MajorGeneralPanic Yeah, let's let murderers go to make room to put all the homeless in our jails.
@@brianarbenz7206 your write! lol.... You're correct and I edited the word in my post. I detest grammar errors and even I made one!
I am in love with this channel. Thanks ATTTech!!
I love how they RUN to every exhibit and CUT in line and push their way inside. I guess they didn't have manners back then
Yeah. Arrogant little bastards.
Sounds like 2022.
That's a big problem TODAY, with middle age women in China!!!
She's DAZZLED by his Orlon sweater and strung out on cotton candy
One of my early memories was at age of six,going to the fair. What that stood out was getting on that elevator in the needle,being at the back and someone said "let the little guy get up front. Having never been higher than a second floor ,I freaked,and fainted! Still have a fear of heights!! Mmm, something new for the therapist!!!
We went in the late 60’s, so I was around 6 and I totally remember being scared in those elevators. As I recall they had glass on the front doors and I didn’t want to be anywhere near those and I remember pushing my way to the back.
Very cool, well-produced, and highly enjoyable!
That ending was just too precious for words.
Yet you found some.
Best color quality I've seen so far. I Have 2 copies of this film.
You can tell it's Seattle cuz she's jacked on caffeine
really, mr. historically accurate? think about your comment and then look at when starbucks was 1st opened in the public market. you'll quickly realize your comment was really stupid.
@@cornjobb I think it was just a joke. The acting is a tad over the top in this film.
@@cornjobb to be fair most of us are very caffenated
Luke Hauser 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Alatina Thucklemuggin good grief. It was a joke. You must be a blast at parties.
I've been binging on these vintage reels for I don't know how long. Someone please help...
Grew up in Queens (NY), near the 1964-65 Fair. Must have visited at least 20 times over the two years that it was open. Occasionally we would cut classes and spend a few hours during the week when it wasn't crowded. Remember the hours long wait for the GM exhibit? There was even an opening cut in a fence on Rodman St. (now College Pt. Blvd.) where someone could gain access for free, not me of course. Loved the chairs with the built-in speakers on the ride at the Bell System exhibit. Made a "Picturephone" call to a girl in California. Great memories. Ironically, went on to work for AT&T 6 years later - for 40 years.
Did you go to the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle in 1962?
@@emmarose4234 No, unfortunately. Lived in NYC, 3000 miles away, and a teenager - not a chance. The 1964 NY Fair looked almost identical to the Seattle Fair.
Kind of funny when you think of all the features we love on cellphones, or take for granted used to be features that Bell charged you extra to provide them. And they completely missed on the Picture Phone too.
Man, back in the 80's we paid $3.50 to have the newfangled touch-tone service. It was a miniature computer in your house Pacific Bell said.
Bell tried to develop picture phone to promote bradband, but it was too expendive for home use and lacked the resolution for businesd uses like document sharing.
As recently as a decade ago, some phone companies were still charging $0.50 per month for touchtone service.
If my phone company did, I just wouldn't pay the fee. I use rotary phones more than touchtone phones anyways.
@@brettknoss486 I much prefer Janetband on my phone.
#Grrrooowwrrrr
:-)
Did they? My cell phone does. Skype.
By 1979 the Bellboy was only an inch wide and 4 inches tall and it could broadcast a voice message.
Thanks for sharing your amazing video! I like how the cinematography is timeless.
10:59 reminds me of the AT&T "You Will" ads from the '90s.
10:59
The Seattle World's Fair's focal point was the iconic Space Needle, still standing today. The grounds would evolve into Seattle Center.
san antonio had a needle too at their world's fair
Some of these displays made it down to Disneyland after the fair to the pre- and post- show areas of Circle-Vision 360 when The Bell System/AT&T was the sponsor. I remember using them as a kid. They lasted until the late1970s until PSA (airline) took over sponsorship.
Great history
I Rode the Heck otta the Monorail!!!!
My first ride up the elevator to the Space Needle, the Doors opened 2/3rds up!!!!
My Mom Grabbed My Suit Jacket just as i leaned out to check out how high we were!!!!
gravelman5789 jeepers creepers! Did the doors malfunction?!?
@@cesaranthonyviralta5495 If the elevator kept moving, I would assume it was a mechanical failure in the door causing it become detached from the motor. The alternative is a major problem with the controller which resulted in the door opening and the safety circuit having no effect.
This channel never disappoints 👏🏽 👏🏽 👏🏽
Ah, the days of Brylcreem and Aqua Net. “Hey! Let’s dash through the fair, knock down some old couples and crash the lines at every exhibit!” I remember seeing these same Bell displays when we visited their exhibit at Disneyland when I was a very young kid in ‘62. They either moved them from the Seattle World’s Fair or had an identical one at Disneyland.
The touch tone version of that card dialer (WE 2660) helped me get lots of concert tickets from local radio stations in the San Francisco area when I was a kid. The best concerts I went to was Yes, Johnny Winter (both at Winterland) and Grateful Dead Wall of Sound special (Cow Palace) all in 1974!
Look for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of this. Its great.
At 0:51 we can see the Flight to Mars haunted house which was also at Adventurers Inn just a few years later!
All that innovative stuff that some ppl are saying Bell System didn't materialize, actually they did... By patenting. A portion of your Nest Thermostat purchase, FaceTime, the call waiting or text on your smartphone is going to AT&T.
I really admire their admire their optimism for the future. Theyve been through hell and they really want a better future
That monorail ride looks like a ride on the DC metro rail.
YESSS look at att advancing technology, making the standards !
Grandma is on speed dial !!!
call transfers were the absolute best
I thought that John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury space capsule was on display at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair before it was moved to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, where it's remains to this day.
Now the midway, food circus, and gift shops are all gone. Luckily the space needle, art museum, science center, playhouse & opera house still remain.
I don't remember call waiting and forwarding in 1962! My big sister hogged the phone all the time. She probably knew and didn't tell me when I got a call!
when the world was objectively better
“Golly gee wiz Sally, this is keen!”
I remember the '62 World's Fair fondly. The Space Needle is still here, of course, as is the United States Science Exhibit -- now the Pacific Science Center -- but a lot has changed. Not just on the fairgrounds themselves (now called the Seattle Center) but even riding the monorail you're now in a canyon of high-rise office, retail, and residential buildings on the south end of the line, and the north end goes through the MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture) -- formerly the EXP (Experience Music Project) -- which wasn't even imagined by a young Paul Allen back then. In many ways it's sad, but then again the Century 21 Exhibition WAS about progress and change.
Actually it was '64-'65, when I was a Junior, Senior in High School.
@@nocusr No, it wasn't. The Seattle "Century 21" World's Fair was 1962. The 1964 World's Fair was in New York City.
"And along with being able to turn on your air conditioner by phone, hackers and criminal syndicates will be able to record you secretly by turning on your cell phone cam! What a great century it's gonna be!"
The Bell Lab invented quite a few feature in the late 50's that we use today. Think about it the Bell Labs invented the ESS Touch Tone and with out it we would not have computers and iPhones that we use today.
Computers existed before.
Also, a li'l thang called a transistor...
Daryl kearney they also invented unix.
no one asked. you're a hoot at parties, though, i imagine.
@@cornjobb popularity is dead... go tell Fred.
The boy in blue is my history teacher now. Mr Ralston
Did he tell you what happened to the girl with the bows?
He did get some poonani?
Are you serious?
@therazorsedge28 Returns, nice to see you! I didn’t know you were into the Century 21 Exposition! 🥰
@therazorsedge28 Returns, hehehehe. By the way, while we’re on the topic of world’s fairs, are you a fan of the 1964 New York World’s Fair as well? I sure am. (My late dad went there, because his dad worked on electrical stuff there.)
In 1962 the Bell System was still serving major cities with 1920s switching technology that wouldn’t be replaced until the early 70s. Rotary dial for for that 1920s technology. Touch tone phones were for the first wave of digital technology...ESS.
Questions: We all know about custom calling features, so no need to ask about that. I do need to know what code the bird needed to poke at 3:55 to get fed. Now that's important. There's also the issue of the dogs at 11:23. If the family is "many miles away on vacation" why are they just concerned about watering the lawn? Their dogs are left wandering around the house. Who's taking care of them? Important stuff!
Maybe they are the neighbors dogs
Don't forget the size of those phone bills that we had to pay for doing anything long distance.
Nothing says "you're cruising into the future" like a monorail 🤣
rofl. The Bell Boy, an early pager. Little did people know that was the beginning of the end of being able to say "I didn't get your message" or not be able to get away lol.
DTMF dialing, Call waiting & Call forwarding in 1962? It was early 80's before we had those features in New England.
That opening shot with the monorail looks like Disneyland 😁👍
I remember watching an MST3K short about this when I was a kid, I miss those days.
Hey do you guys want the gold jacket back or what?
Am I imagining it or was there also a demo of the picture phone at the fair? I was just 4 years old exactly when I went to the fair so my memory may be faulty but I can swear there was, perhaps not as part of the main Bell Telephone exhibit but elsewhere, maybe in the Science Center?
All well and good, but what happens if I dial 42 instead?
The answer to the Universe. Or was that 47?
The equipment will probably wait for 5 more digits, and eventually time out.
I remember all of that (call waiting and call diversion) but not with rotary dial phones
NGL I kind of want to find the soundtrack
Lmao I remember when my family and I were at a museum back in Chicago (we were kids) and my brother dialed 911 on one of those phones and was shook. “Taylor, I dialed 911, I’m scared. What if the police come? 😭”
Or when we dialed "0" when we were at grandma's house! She yelled & said "hang up" the Operator gonna call back & give her hell! Lol
That guy got his ass whipped when his rotary dial was up against the pushbutton phone. Bell System taught him a lesson! 😂
First time I saw this short was on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
It just seems so odd now without the MST3K narration.
Would love to find the name of who wrote the music in the beginning.
Isn’t the narrator at 4:50 the voice of the robot from Lost In Space TOS???
no it isn't. it's the same person who did the voiceovers for all of the irwin allen shows, however.
Yes. Dick Teufeld. And he did the voiceovers for the Irwin Allen shows.
Yes, Dick Tufeld, the voice of the robot, in Lost in Space, the original series and the movie. He was also the narrator heard at the beginning of the episodes.He also did some voice over work for ABC in the 60’s.
WHAAAAT? You can turn your home air conditioning on and off by calling it? What a fun *app*lication! That should be interesting! ;-)
Home automation before smart phone's is amazing
That was b4 global warming, now u just leave it on when u leave! Lol
Every where you go now,you see every one looking at there sell phone,even when walking!!!!!when I was little in the 1960s,we used to go out for country rides every Sunday,,and enjoy mother nature,and go hiking,and fishing,and so many family things,cell phones have ruined all that
Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Speed Calling and 3-Way Calling didn't become available until 20 years later in the early 1980s.
Hello again, I’m sure that there’s a better way to make a request like this but I’m not 100% sure who or where to reach out to. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I’m a filmmaker and musician in Seattle, Washington and would really love to use some of the footage in this video for a project I’m currently working on. Whoever is monitoring this channel, would you be kind enough to reply and let me know if it is even remotely possible for me to gain access to some of this footage for this phone project? Thank you so much!
Hello! I am a Seattle based filmmaker and would like to inquire about using some of this footage for a project. How would I go about getting permission?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Shay
Oh, that red headed Gidget needs to calm the heck down.
That was a great production! wow! To dial a phone # and water the dogs! When are they going to come out with smart phones with rotary dialing?
Curt Chase Actually they had a pretty funny accessory for cell phones a while back - a wired black handset just like a desk phone. But sorry, no rotary dial.
@@chazdesimone7306 LOL. Yes, I've seen that handset in those gag catalogs a few years ago! You plug it into the earphone jack of your cellphone and looks like you're talking on an old corded phone! I took the gag one step further and purchased an X-Link bluetooth cellular gateway unit. By using the bluetooth function of your smartphone, the device bridges the cellphone to old standard "pots" corded house phones! Makes old phone fully operational with dial tone and ringer! I actually modified my X-Link to work in my car! I set an old pushbutton desk phone on the dash! Fullyfunctions. I hid my cellphone and stuff under the passenger seat. I totally amazed my friends and even a few strangers with the setup! It was funny.
This probably worked using a small rotary switch attached to the phone line, rather than running 10 phone lines to each subscriber.
@RetroVintageItems27 How much extra was that?
I would have lived at the Bell System exhibition.
Monorail! Monorail!
With everything that's going on in the world these days, I yearn to go back to a time this corny.
"oh gee golly Sally, whiz bang what a fine day!"
“This telecommunications industry trade show was a keen idea for a first date, Johnny!”
The future looks exciting.
Are the other Bell System shorts public domain?
Yea, I wish I was young and pretty so I could shove everyone out of the way to stand in front of those who were waiting and cut in line to walk in a building first.
Hahahahahahaahaa
You don't, just yell "nosebleed!" works every time.
Nobody was standing in line.
Did you see how they shoved their way past old people when they got off the monorail in the beginning? Rotten entitled millennials.
Brent Dozier I prefer making fake puking sounds.
The teenagers seen in this film held hands so much that they were either very good actors or real-life boyfriend and girlfriend.
Both of them, if still alive, have to near or around 80 years of age (as of 2022).
I pointed it out that either the young couple's acting was very convincing or tgey were in fact a real-life couple offscreen.
Such a clean cut boy with a haircut the opposite of the beatles
why don't we have these telephone features today??
We do, with no wires and a bunch of other stuff. Who needs call forwarding when you bring your phone with you.
"Phone" is a little used app on my smart phone.
I know!!! I would really love to have a party line. I was born in the 80s, so I never got a chance to experience one.
Boy, the fun I could have with that now!
DiscoverPlatinum you still can, they're called 900 numbers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_forwarding
As for conference calls on your typical smartphone, just put the call on hold, dial 3rd party, then you can merge both calls into a conference call...
I want to know when this was filmed. :( exact day
No clouds.
Totally Fake.
;-)
and i want to eat a can of frosting
How the world would change if these things were to happen! Amazing
12:03 Best. Animatronics. Ever.
That’s funny! But I did notice she moved her eyes to the extreme right and left and hardly move her head. Maybe her wires were crossed.
Dad: Who the hell called for the weather in Auckland 600 times?!
When do these phones come out?
yep with the internet today adjust your heat and cooling with nest and so forth internet thermostat . turn on the sprinkler also the lighting so forth
I'm sure the government will be tapping into that too. Use up your assigned amount and off to the energy re-education camp for you as AOC would have it. Twelve more years is all we have left. Run with it.
The Transistor was developed at Bell Laboratories? Bologna!
Everybody knows that it was back-engineered from a flying saucer that crashed in the New Mexico desert in 1947. XD
If they found a crashed ship, we would have had a lot more "inventions" than rudimentary transistors. The transistor was discovered during a study on semiconductors.
@@user2C47
it was sarcasm. That "XD" at the end is an approximation of a sideways face, laughing so hard that their eyes are closed. I think "emoji" is the current term for that.
I can only imagine their faces if someone from the future walked in with an iPhone.
They really weren't far off... 11:00
the Telephony of Things! Yeah, they got it almost right
LOL! That "pager"! It should have come with wheels.
By 1975 the Bellboy was one inch wide and 4 inches long. It could broadcast a voice message instead of a beep.
It came with two convenient handles.
There's one thing about this video that depresses me: It shows Seattle back at a time when average working people could actually afford to live there because the rest of the country was still under the mistaken impression that there was nothing there but lumber mills and a boat yard. The World's Fair obviously changed that. You could say more or less the same thing about the entire west coast back then.
Yeah, it's not just Seattle. I grew up in Grays Harbor, WA. Not an expensive place. I've been getting priced out of owning a home ever since I started working. I work hard and save money and I'm not a spendthrift and I've always had great credit scores. I just don't make enough money in horticulture or in retail.
My Dad was a grocery store clerk and he raised two children and built a house.
Retail Clerks had a Union then, so he got raises and dental and health and vacation and some sick days.
But America thinks that Retail workers are only worth being crapped on, so they crossed the Retail Union lines and went to work for scabs like Ernst, Eagle, PaynPak, House of Values, so they could buy cheap crapola and work for peanuts - after all, their husbands/Dads are Union Pipefitters and Millworkers, so what do they care about anyone getting benefits?
When the other Unions start whining about how undervalued their contributions are, I sneer at them and their hypocrisy. They want me to lend them my strength, so they can turn around and crap on my and my loved ones.
If they wanted Solidarity from my, then they should have showed some towards me and my loved ones, over the last 40 - 50 years.
Americans don't deserve to be served. They mistake service for servants.