Once upon a Telephone: An Illustrated Social History [Hardcover]

Ellen Stock Stern (Author), Emily Gwathmey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1994

A study of the telephone chronicles its evolution into contemporary society, its social and historical roles, its symbolism of power, and its place in fashion, and includes a photographic collection of twentieth-century products, advertisements, and more. 20,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Stern (The Good Heart Diet Cookbook, LJ 1/15/82) and Gwathmey (Ticket to Paradise, LJ 11/15/91) have collected ephemera, anecdotes, and excerpts about the telephone. Movie stills, magazine covers, greeting cards, and sheet music are included, along with quotes ranging from Carl Sandburg to Nicholson Baker, from Dorothy Parker to Emily Post. The breezy text, nearly obscured by the lavish illustrations and generous quotes, provides an adequate chronicle of the invention of the telephone, the evolution of telephone equipment, and the development of telephone books and pay phones. Chapters cover telephone operators, telephones and teenagers, and the telephone's importance to business and romance. This book is a delightful romp through 20th-century American social history, and it succeeds in portraying the telephone as ubiquitous in popular culture. For public libraries.
Wendy Knickerbocker, Rhode Island Coll. Lib., Providence
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Among the more amusing facts in this cultural history of the telephone is that, back in the old days, women were called upon to be telephone operators because boys, who initially had the jobs, ``were ill-suited to the delicate work of telephony. Rowdy and restless, they took pleasure in insulting callers, pulling pranks, and crossing wires.'' Filled with movie stills and posters, ads, and text from all kinds of sources, this lively documentary is less concerned with the evolving technology of the telephone than with the way it has been used and represented. Maxwell Smart's shoe phone is here, as is an excerpt from Nicholson Baker's Vox, as Stern (Best Bets, not reviewed) and Gwathmey (Wholly Cow!, not reviewed) rush happily from Alexander Graham Bell to the age of the fax-modem. Still, there's probably a good argument to be made that the pranks of punk kids were preferable to the icy contempt of voice mail. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 135 pages
• Publisher: Pub Overstock Unlimited Inc; 1st edition (December 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151000867
• ISBN-13: 978-0151000869
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,054,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whom shall I say is calling?, October 15, 2010

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Once upon a Telephone: An Illustrated Social History (Hardcover)

Somehow Gwathmey and Stern have managed to source an amazing trove of phone ephemera for their book and what I particularly liked about it was the way all this fascinating graphic material has been splashed over every page in a colorful extravaganza but don't be put off by this because these visual history pages look a treat.

Apart from the usual facts and figures about phones in America over the decades there are plenty of examples of how the ring, ring, ring affected society with sidebars on music ('The Telephone hour song' from the 1960 musical: Bye, bye birdie) movies ('BUtterfield 8' with Elizabeth Taylor or Hitchcock's 'Dial M for murder') business, teenagers or pay phones.

This is one of those lighthearted books that you can dip into and read or see something that was missed the first time.

***LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

4.0 out of 5 stars Dialing up history, December 8, 2007

By 

James D. Crabtree "Doc Crabtree" (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

I got this book for my wife but I think I enjoyed at least as much as she did. Well-illustrated, this book has photos, artwork and first-hand experiences throughout the history of the telephone in America. I learned more than a few things in regards to how the telephone has worked in the past.

An easy read and a fun book to read through.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty and pretty good., June 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Once upon a Telephone: An Illustrated Social History (Hardcover)

Stern and Gwathmey do a wonderful job of presenting the history of the telephone, in words and images. There are quite a lot of photos and other pictures, but the overall effect is not crowded. Rather, the book makes the telephone just about as beautiful as it gets.

Of course, all those photos make for less room for text. But that which is written brings the history of the telephone, and its effect on societies around the globe, to colorful life