Lily Tomlin’s “One Ringy-dingy” served as a sort of bookend piece, the skit chopped up and placed between other skits. The black comedy about the “omneepotent” (“That’s ‘potent’ with an ‘omni’ in front of it.”) Ma Bell certainly makes a strong argument for the eventual breakup of the telephone monopoly.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=k9e3dTOJi0o
Carol Burnett gave a memorable rendition of the gossipy switchboard operator, but the queen of the cord boards has to be Rosalind Russel in the 1958 film “Auntie Mame.” Russel’s operator dealt comically with chaos and tangled wires – and she left the viewer with choice quotes like “…there’s no such place as San Francisco…”. Clearly, managing a switchboard was not for neophytes, and the fact that most calls were routed swiftly and correctly says a lot about the competence of those who operated them.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=uLBohfck_Fo
It wasn’t long before such operators were almost entirely replaced by the automated PBX. That automation has since gone digital, with auto attendant services and virtual PBXs that may be adjusted over the web. Today, making a call from San Francisco to “Mr. Blibliblibli” happens without tangled cords or comical mishaps.
Photo credit: “T” altered art.
Originally published May 06, 2009, updated Oct 07, 2022