Payphones Past

phone booths

At the NYPL, Where Payphones Don’t Work But the Booths are Cozy

A woman in one of the NYPL Schwartzman branch phone booths. May, 2017.

6 years ago

Phone Booth Hunting in Old School Yearbooks

Phone booth hunting in publicly posted college and high school yearbooks turned up some interesting stuff. Until the mid-2000s, if…

6 years ago

Steppingstone Park Phone Booth

I made a small pilgrimage out to Great Neck, Long Island on Saturday, to check in on the phone booth…

6 years ago

Phone Booth Scene from Steven Spielberg’s “Duel” (1971)

Here is a cool phone booth scene from Steven Spielberg's "Duel", starring Dennis Weaver. This was Spielberg's first full-length film,…

8 years ago

Payphones Seen in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan”

I grabbed screenshots of some of the more interesting appearances of payphones in"Manhattan", the 1979 film directed (in black and…

8 years ago

New Year, Old Payphones

When I first heard about 80s.nyc, a Streetview for NYC in the 1980s, I thought it sounded like inspiration for…

8 years ago

A Phone Booth at Journal Square: P.J. Ryan’s Squared

I spotted an old wood phone booth at PJ Ryan's Squared, a bar at the Journal Square PATH Station in…

8 years ago

Jerry Seinfeld: Pay Phone Standup Routine (1984)

Most folks under the age of 40 would probably have no idea what Jerry Seinfeld is talking about in this…

8 years ago

Phone Booths of Astoria, 1960s. Steinway Street Near Broadway.

I spotted these beautiful 1960s Manhattan phone booths while clicking through an underappreciated Facebook group called Astoria Beat.

8 years ago

Manhattan’s Last Outdoor Phone Booths: What’s The Deal?

One of the more oddball moves by the CityBridge consortium was its replacement of Manhattan's classic American Airlight style phone…

8 years ago

Jorge Vasconcelos: 42nd Street Phone Booths, 1985.

Photo is from November 25, 1985, by Jorge Vasconcelos. Please take a tour of his Flickr stream.

8 years ago

Camp Rudder Phone Booths, Florida Panhandle. Photo by Tanja Kropf.

Camp Rudder, on the Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle, is home to this row of 7 phone…

8 years ago

NYC Phone Booth Roundup

Just a few sightings of phone booths around New York, with more to come.

8 years ago

Two in a Row From Barbara Van der Aue

Phone booth photos from Michigan And Missouri, taken by a follower of the Payphone Project Facebook page.

8 years ago

West Virginia House For Sale, Phone Booth Included

This West Virginia house for sale might be a fixer-upper but it comes with an unusual perk: A phone booth…

8 years ago

On Being Seen

I finally watched the "CBS Sunday Morning" segment that aired a few months ago. It's good!

8 years ago

Phone Booth Scene from “Number Please?” (1920)

The phone booth scene steals the show in the 1920 short film "Number Please", starring Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis.

8 years ago

Phone Booths Return to Times Square

Afghan-American artist Aman Mojadidi has brought Airlight phone booths to Times Square in Manhattan, bringing a whiff of the 1980s…

8 years ago

Working Payphone. Four Seasons Lodge, New Hampshire.

A photo of a working payphone in North Conway, New Hampshire, led me to see if the Payphone Project's other…

8 years ago

Did William Howard Taft Get Stuck In A Phone Booth?

An anecdote from 1908 claims that presidential candidate William Howard Taft once got trapped inside a phone booth, necessitating that…

8 years ago

Payphones Aplenty in Panama. Here’s One From Santa Fé.

Panama still has many payphones, writes Mary Roush: "There are payphones on Contadora and Saboga in the Pearl Islands and,…

8 years ago

The Payphone Project on “CBS Sunday Morning”

The Payphone Project get about a minute of air time on CBS Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley. Reviews all seem…

8 years ago

London, 1975: Phone Booths at Tube Station

Photo from the London underground, 1975. Man using one of three phone booths in the London tube. From Flickr photographer…

8 years ago

The Modern Phone Booth. Flickr Photographer Darryl Smith.

Cell phone users take cover in phone booths once reserved for public pay telephone customers. From Flickr photographer Darryl Smith.

9 years ago

Those new outdoor phone booths are so doggone handy …

The advertisement below appeared in the August 6, 1957, edition the Panama City News-Herald. It appeared in numerous publications nationwide.…

9 years ago

Diner. Painting by Richard Estes.

Diner. A photorealistic painting by Richard Estes.

9 years ago

An Amazing New York City Phone Booth Photo

The date was February 4, 1978. Why was fashion designer Calvin Klein standing in a New York City phone booth…

9 years ago