Posted on 06/02/2002 8:10:42 AM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
During the 1930s and later, it was common for telephone prefix numbers to use the first two letters of a name. The song title was the telephone number of the Hotel Pennsylvania , at 7th and 33rd in New York City, which served as Glenn Miller's home base during his many month tenure at the hotel's Cafe Rouge beginning January 1940. The hotel was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad, across the street, to go with the Pennsylvania Station ("You leave the Pennsylvania Station 'bout a quarter to four..." from "Chattanooga Choo-Choo"). In recent years, the hotel was the Statler Hilton but has re-emerged, once again, as the Hotel Pennsylvania. Through all the years, the phone number has remained the same -- 736-5000 or PE 6-5000.
Guy at work used to work for the FCC regulating Ma Bell until the break up. He explained that under the law, Ma Bell could realize a fixed profit rate on capital, including home installed handsets. Repair calls were charged against operating expenses, on which profits were subject to FCC review to determine whether or not costs were justified, prudent and necessary. And repair calls resulted in a dissatified customer who would clamor for more laws unfavorable to AT&T. So from the phone company's POV the logistics trade (repair v. initial cost) was a no brainer.
When my father-in-law gave up his house a few years ago we found out he was still renting his phones from AT&T! (About 50¢ a month, not a bad ROI for ~$10.00 twenty+ years ago.) - Over the years we've bought him at least two phones - I called up AT&T to return their equipment. I had to drive 20 miles to an office that did FEDEX, mail drops and had a couple of dumpsters filled with phones. They took back the touch-tone phones, and made me fill out some forms. They weren't interested in the rotary-dial "Black Beauty" sitting on the desk next to me. Makes a real authentic telephone ring, the dial works, has a ringer equivalence of 1.0 and serves as a contingency cudgel.
So from the phone company's POV the logistics trade (repair v. initial cost) was a no brainer.
Smart move.
Side note: The computer processing power that cost a million dollars twenty years ago costs less than $500 today. Had the government regulated the computer industry as they have virtually every other industry it would probably cost well over a thousand dollars if not two, three or five thousand.
They weren't interested in the rotary-dial "Black Beauty"
If it's the one I'm thinking of, my grandmother had one of those.
and serves as a contingency cudgel.
LOL!!!
I member dropping the handset on my big toe and nearly broke it -- my toe that its.
I've never been a collector, but have thought that if I did, I'd collect phones from different eras.
I do business with this joint, it's not a fleebag, but well on its way.
An elderly gentleman checked in and paid for a three-day stay with his credit card, he didn't check out on his scheduled date. The asst. manager went to check on the room, and saw that there was a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door, and through a crack in those heavy hotel drapes, he could see the guy sleeping in bed, so he left.
Three days later, they finally opened the door, and you guessed it, the old guy had been dead for days. The air conditioning was blasting and there was no bad odor yet.
The hotel contacted the cops, who took the body away. I was sitting with the manager the day after (I had already been told the story) when the asst. manager called him to inquire how post the loss of revenue for the three days that the guy was dead in the room. The manager yelled at him, and told him that there was no loss, just to charge the guy's credit card for the extra days he occupied the room.
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