A Halloween Phone Booth

My friends at Gilbey’s Bar in Astoria added some Halloween cheer to their place by dumping the skeletal remains of this un-named barfly into their old wood booth.

A rotary dial payphone was removed from this old wood booth in early 2008, surviving in service far longer than one would expect not just for a payphone in a bar but for a rotary dial payphone. A small number of rotary dial payphones still survive and remain actively used in the wilds of the 5 boroughs, though one should be careful about advertising this fact. The phone companies are known to “fix” such phones when made aware of them, replacing the rotary dialers with touchtone. (UPDATE, February 2012: Read about the Rotary Dial Payphone Revival of 1994.)

This booth is now just a booth. Technically it is not a phone booth because it contains no phone.

Wood booths like this remain relatively common at older restaurants and bars around town. Most of NYC’s old phone booths have been converted to closets or, as in this instance, a display case for holiday cheer. Cell phone users sometimes retreat to these old booths to get away from the noise, and amorous couples sometimes duck in to use the booths as makeout chambers. Mostly, thought, the booths remain empty or serve as storage space.