Weird Stuff In Black and White TV Shows

[K.M. Richards]

Up in Ventura, California (about an hour north of L.A.) the local vs. toll was dependent on which phone company you had.

The Ventura, Ojai and Saticoy exchanges were MIller, MIner and MItchell (Pacific Telephone) and local calls were dialed only using the last five digits (the "64" was common and the central office switch was configured for that).

The Oxnard and Camarillo exchanges were HUnter and HUbbard (General Telephone) and they also used only the last five digits for dialing ("48" being common).

I recall that changing when direct-dialed long distance started, sometime in the 1960s.

 

[KeithE4]

Right through the mid-'60s, all you needed to dial in my single-exchange hometown in suburban Boston was 4-xxxx. The exchange was SUnset 4, but within the exchange the 78 was dropped. To dial out-of-town numbers, you dialed 1-xxx-xxxx and an operator would intercept and ask for your number.

We had that in Bloomington IN as well. We could dial 5 digits, without the common 33 (formerly EDison) until touchtone service arrived in 1971, then all 7 digits had to be dialed. That also eliminated the requirement to give our number to the operator when dialing Long Distance.

When I lived in Cedar Falls IA in the mid '60s, we had a common 266 prefix and could just dial the last 4 digits until 1967, when another prefix was added. But to dial Waterloo (a local call, with prefixes starting with 23x), all 7 digits needed to be dialed. I don't remember if the switch got confused if someone in Cedar Falls dialed the number 2345. It could have been 266-2345 or 234-5xxx.

 

[K.M. Richards]

When I lived in Cedar Falls IA in the mid '60s, we had a common 266 prefix and could just dial the last 4 digits until 1967, when another prefix was added. But to dial Waterloo (a local call, with prefixes starting with 23x), all 7 digits needed to be dialed. I don't remember if the switch got confused if someone in Cedar Falls dialed the number 2345. It could have been 266-2345 or 234-5xxx.

Since only one telephone number was affected, there are two possible ways telco could have dealt with it. The easiest would have been to keep 266-2345 as a "reserved" unassignable number; the other would have been for the switch to be programmed to go to the local number if no additional digits were dialed within a couple of seconds of the fourth digit.

 

[semoochie]

I visited Long Beach in 1978 and was warned about watching prefixes carefully. You could direct dial long distance with just seven digits. I hadn't paid attention during later trips to LA. Is it still like that?

 

[ixnay]

The Oxnard and Camarillo exchanges were HUnter and HUbbard (General Telephone) and they also used only the last five digits for dialing ("48" being common).

Oxnard/Camarillo had a HUbbard exchange? So did Boothwyn, Pennsylvania (where I grew up).

Were there any MOther exchanges anywhere?

And in my part (anyway) of the Philadelphia area (which also had a TRemont and a GLenwood exchange) , local calls were seven digits or nothing. Don't know if it was that way before I was born in 1961 or not.

And don't forget, the fabulous Fleetwoods of Olympia, WA named themselves for the telephone exchange they shared.

ixnay

 

[JeffM]

Here we go skipping off to ABB-land again, but anyway.

In the Duluth, MN/Superior, WI area, in the 50's and 60's the exchanges were RAndolph and MArket in Duluth (Northwestern Bell) and EXport and CYpress in Superior (Wisconsin Telephone.) Also, despite being neighboring cities (across a bridge) long distance charges applied when calling between them until direct dialing came in around 1970. (The only exceptions I recall were businesses that paid for special numbers on each side, including department stores and radio stations.)

A couple years ago we went to ten-digit dialing even for local numbers because the two companies (now both merged into CenturyLink) claimed they had run out of seven-digit combinations. No doubt the result of Gen-Xers "needing" dedicated mobile numbers for their Yorkiedoodles.

 

[joebtsflk1]

And to whack this way into the weeds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgoIJ9UDm5E

 

[K.M. Richards]

I visited Long Beach in 1978 and was warned about watching prefixes carefully. You could direct dial long distance with just seven digits. I hadn't paid attention during later trips to LA. Is it still like that?

I posted the reply in ABB in order to prevent this thread from going even farther off-topic than it already is ...
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?687731-Area-Codes&p=6055137#post6055137