Payphone Projects
A couple of payphone-related items that allude to this site in name and/or spirit crossed my desk last week. The "Baseball Payphone Stadium Project" and the "Payphone Revival Project". Click to read more.
The Panic in Needle Park. Phone Booth. 1971.
Screengrab of a Volkswagen and a green Manhattan phone booth from the 1971 film "The Panic in Needle Park."
Radio Disney Payphone Opera
I sometimes hear, very faintly, the sound of Radio Disney when I pick up certain payphones. Today that sound of broadcast radio interference was just part of a sound world which could only exist inside a payphone. LIsten in.
Rocky
"Rocky" using a payphone. From "The Rockford Files."
More Payphone Scam News
For each toll-free call made from a payphone the owner of the phone gets about 50¢ in FCC-mandated dial-around compensation. Some shady payphone owners exploited this income opportunity by programming their phones to dial dial dial every toll-free number that still allowed calls from payphones. After a while those robocalls add up, and get rich, real rich, until you get sent away.
February 3, 2012, 3:24pm
A man using a payphone. February 3, 2012.
Phone Booth – Short Film
Geet Sharma's short film "Phone Booth" uses a malfunctioning payphone as a metaphor for corruption in India. The film is short, elequent, and it captures images of an interesting-looking payphone from India.
Polivio Payphone: Gone, But Not Forgotten
All that remains of the Polivio Payphone that once stood at 31-08 Astoria Boulevard South is a set of 4 metal spikes and a photograph I left as a memento.
Greenwood Inn Phone Booth. Greenwood, Delaware. October, 2005.
October, 2005, photo of a highway phone booth outside the Greenwood Inn in Greenwood, Delaware.
AT&T: 100th Anniversary of the Payphone (1989)
Awesome video from 1989, when AT&T celebrated the 100th anniversary of William Gray's public telephone. The text on Techchannel.ATT.com includes a much-appreciated shoutout from AT&T to the Payphone Project: "The best and most entertaining website that tracks the de-evolution of payphones and phone booths is The Payphone Project, which has been tracking the decline of those cultural icons since 1995."
Metropolitan Opera House Payphone
It was not exactly worth the price of admission, but during the second intermission of the January 24, 2012, performance of "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera House I headed down to the concourse level to find a payphone. I expected to find the payphone. Its existence was mentioned and more-or-less confirmed in the "Facilities and Services" section of the Playbill.
Some Payphone Somewhere
Some picture of some payphone somewhere.
SORRY! Temporarily OUT OF SERVICE
This sticker on a New York City payphone seems helpful enough... Until one notices that the clip art on this sticker shows a rotary dial payphone. That makes it seem like this payphone has been out of service since the 1980s.
South Wales: End of the line for public phone boxes?
The South Wales Evening Post carries a jeremiad of sorts on the state of public phone boxes.
Curbside Payphone, Queens
This is my favorite type of payphone: On the curb. Almost on the street. In traffic. This public pay telephone is public in more ways than you might think. Using this phone is a public act. People see you, study you, try to imagine why you are using a pay phone when other communication alternatives abound.
Loco Hills, New Mexico
Photo by Daniel Zubiate of a Phone Booth in Loco Hills, New Mexico. January, 2004.
Where is the Suicide Hotline Telephone on the RFK/Triborough Bridge?
One species of public telephony which most of us would hope never enters our lives, but which we might take sour comfort in knowing exists, is the suicide hotline phone found on bridges and in some high places. There is said to be such a hotline phone on the RFK/Triborough Bridge. I looked for it. For 2 years I have looked for it. I can not find it.
Canada: $1 Payphone Calls?
"Using a payphone -- yes, they're still out there -- will cost $1 instead of 25 cents in Nova Scotia if a rate increase requested by Bell Aliant is approved by regulators. "'If it is approved, and when it is implemented, it will be the first time the cost of a pay telephone call has gone up in about 20 years,' spokesman Mark Duggan said Monday."
Payphone Sounds: Recorded Messages
These sounds capture recorded messages which are unique to payphones, meaning most people would never hear them. Listen to timeless payphone classics such as "Your call cannot be completed from a payphone at this time", "The Call You Have Made Requires a Coin Deposit" and other greatest hits.
Out of Focus, On the Payphone.
A woman with a baby stroller in tow tries to make a call from a payphone. Her body language seemed to indicate that the call did not go through.
Payphone Gone: 32-01 31st Street
There are still payphones at the intersection of Broadway and 31st Street in Astoria. This payphone (seen in a photo from 2008) is no longer among them.
Payphone Gone: Broadway in Astoria
It's another payphone that once was, that is gone gone gone. This is a former payphone. This is a NON-PAYPHONE. This payphone is DECEASED.
Payphones Gone: Soloman Liquors
These Verizon payphones seldom if ever worked, but this did not stop people from sidling up to one of the phones, lifting the receiver, depositing coin(s), dialing a phone number, and waiting for an answer. Well into the phantom ringing of the phone the caller might have realized that the phone did not work. Or maybe not. I do not know. This is a behavior I have seen many times, even with payphones like this one with wiry entrails dangling about.
Sacramento: Payphones a Thing of the Past?
The Sacramento Press has an elegiac photo essay of payphones in Sacramento. Some are abandoned, some are in use. Some are blighted and others are loose.
Payphone Scammer Gets 3 Month Prison Sentence
It looks like Nicolaos Kantartzis will be using a payphone for the next few months. A PRISON payphone. The Huffington Post and numerous other sources report on this Washington, D.C., payphone owner turned jailbird payphone scammer. Stories like this help explain why some owners of toll-free numbers block calls from payphones. Even without the risk of robbery by these type of robo-dialing bandits it simply might not make sense for business owners to compensate payphone owners 50¢ for serving as the middle-man for incoming calls.
The Greatest Payphone Songs of All Time
Is it Jim Croce's "Operator"? Is it ELO's "Telephone Line"? Is it a song you might not have considered? What is the greatest payphone song of all time? I think I know.
Corner Payphone. 2011.
An everyday payphone at an everyday street corner.