The Telephone Industry Discovers the Social Benefits of Communication

"Touch Someone": The Telephone Industry Discovers Sociability Author(s): Claude S. Fischer Source: Technology and Culture, Vol.
29, No. 1 (Jan., 1988), pp. 32-61 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Society for the History of Technology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3105226 . Accessed: 15/10/2013 21:20
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The Telephone "TouchSomeone": Discovers Sociability Industry

CLAUDE S. FISCHER
The familiarrefrain,"Reach out, reach out and touch someone," has been part of American Telephone and Telegraph's (AT&T's) campaign urging use of the telephone for personal conversations. did not alwayspromote such sociability; Yet, the telephone industry fordecades it was more likely to discourage it.The industry's "discovand cultural constraints illustrateshow structural ery" of sociability of a technology. interactwithpublic demand to shape the diffusion While historianshave corrected simplisticnotions of "autonomous technology" in showing how technologies are produced, we know much less about how consumers use technologies. We too often
of California, Berkeley. DR. FISCHERis professor of sociology at the University deliveredto the Social Science HistoryAssoSome materialpresentedhere was initially ciation, Washington,D.C., October 1983. The research was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (grant RO-20612), the National Science Foundation (grant SES83-09301), the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Committee of California,Berkeley.Furtherworkwas conducted as a Felon Research, University low at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford,California, with financial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Archival research was facilitated by the generous assistanceof people in the telephone industry:at AT&T, Robert Lewis, Robert Garnet,and Mildred Ettlinger;at the San Francisco Pioneer Telephone Museum, Don Thrall, Ken Rolin, and Norm Hawker; at the Museum of Independent Telephony, Peggy Chronister; at Pacific Bell, Robert Deward; at Bell Canada Historical,Stephanie Sykesand Nina Bederian-Gardner;at Illinois Bell, Rita Lapka; John A. Flecknerat the National Museum of American History also provided assistance. Thanks to those interviewedfor the project: Tom Winburn,Stan Damkroger, George Hawk Hurst, C. Duncan Hutton, Fred Johnson, Charles Morrish, and Frank Pamphilon. Several research assistantscontributed to the work: Melanie Archer,John Chan (who conducted the interviews), Steve Dern6, Keith Dierkx, Molly Haggard, Barbara Loomis, and Mary Waters.And several readers provided useful comments on prior versions,including Victoria Bonnell, Paul Burstein, Glenn Carroll, Bernard Finn, Robert Garnet, Roland Marchand, Michael Schudson,John Staudenmaier,S.J.,Ann Swidler, Joel Tarr, Langdon Winner,and auditorsof presentations. None of these colleagues, of course, is responsibleforremaining errors. ? 1988 by the Societyfor the Historyof Technology.All rightsreserved. .00 0040-165X/88/2901-0002$01
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The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability
33
take those uses (especially of consumer products) for granted, as if derived fromthe nature of the technoltheywere straightforwardly or dictated its creators.' by ogy In the case of the telephone, the initialuses suggested by its promoters were determinedby-in addition to technicaland economic considerations-its cultural heritage: specifically, practical uses in common with the telegraph. Subscribers neverthelesspersisted in using the telephone for "trivialgossip." In the 1920s, the telephone to endorsingsuch sociability, shiftedfromresisting industry respondat to least consumers' insistentand innovative uses of ing, partly, the technologyfor personal conversation.After summarizingtelephone historyto 1940, this article will describe the changes in the uses thattelephone promotersadvertisedand the changes in theirattitudestoward sociability; it will then explore explanations for these
changes.2
'See C. S. Fischer,"Studying Technologyand Social Life,"pp. 284-301 in High Technology,Space, and Society:EmergingTrends,ed. M. Castells (Beverly Hills, Calif., 1985). For a recent example of a studylooking at consumers and sales, see M. Rose, "Urban Environments and Technological Innovation: Energy Choices in Denver and Kansas City,1900-1940," Technology and Culture 25 (July1984): 503-39. 'The primarysources used here include telephone and advertisingindustry journals; internal telephone company reports,correspondence, collections of advertisefromAT&T and PacificTelephone (PT&T); ments,and other documents,primarily privately published memoirsand corporate histories;governmentcensuses, investigaconducted byJohn Chan, withretions,and research studies; and several interviews, tired telephone company employees who had worked in marketing.The archives used most are the AT&T Historical Archives,New York (abbreviated hereafter as AT&T ARCH), and the Pioneer Telephone Museum, San Francisco (SF PION MU), with some material from the Museum of Independent Telephony, Abilene (MU IND TEL); Bell Canada Historical,Montreal (BELL CAN HIST); Illinois Bell Information Center, Chicago (ILL BELL INFO); and the N. W. Ayer Collection of Advertisementsand the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, National Museum of American History,SmithsonianInstitution, Washington,D.C. A bibliographyon the of the telephone is unusually short,especiallyin comparison withthose social history on later technologiessuch as the automobile and television.There are industrialand corporate histories,but the consumer side is largely untouched. For some basic and Telesources, see J. W. Stehman, The Financial History of theAmerican Telephone on the (Boston, 1925); A. N. Holcombe, Public Ownership of Telephones graphCompany Continent ofIndependent ofEurope(Cambridge, Mass., 1911); H. B. MacMeal, The Story (Chicago: Independent Pioneer Telephone Association, 1934); J. L. Walsh, Telephony in Telephony Pioneers Connecticut (New Haven, Conn.: MorrisF. TylerChapter of the TelThe FirstHundred Years ephone Pioneers of America, 1950); J. Brooks, Telephone: (Chi(New York, 1976); A. Hibbard, Hello-Goodbye: My Story of Telephone Pioneering in CanofTelecommunications from Afar:TheHistory cago, 1941); Robert Collins,A Voice ada (Toronto, 1977); R. L. Mahon, "The Telephone in Chicago," ILL BELL INFO, A Centennial Central; Hello, World: MS, ca. 1955; J. C. Rippey, Goodbye, ofNorthHistory
34
Claude S. Fischer A Brief History oftheTelephone
Within about two years of A. G. Bell's patent award in 1876, there were roughly 10,000 Bell telephones in the United States and fierce patent disputes over them,battlesfrom which the Bell Company (later to be AT&T) emerged a victoriousmonopoly. Its local franchisees' subscriberlists grew rapidly and the number of telephones tripled between 1880 and 1884. Growthslowed during the totaled 266,000 next several years, but the number of instruments table 1.) by 1893.9 (See As long-distancecommunication, telephonyquicklythreatenedtein its settling early patent battle with Western legraphy. Indeed, Union as compensaconcessionsto Western financial Bell Union, gave local As of business. for loss communication, tion telephonyquickly overwhelmed nascent effortsto establish signaling exchange systems (except for stocktickers). During Bell's monopoly,before 1894, telephone service consisted basically of an individual line for which a customerpaid an annual flatfee allowing unlimitedcalls withinthe exchange area. Fees varied widely,particularly by size of exchange. Bell rates dropped in the mid-1890s, perhaps in anticipationof forthcoming competition. In 1895, Bell's average residentialrate was $4.66 a month (13 percent of an average worker'smonthlywages). Rates remained high, especially in the larger cities (the 1894 Manhattan rate for a twopartyline was $10.41 a month).4 On expiration of the original patents in 1893-94, thousands of new telephone vendors, ranging from commercial operations to
Bell (Omaha, Nebr.: Northwestern western Bell, 1975); G. W. Brock,The TelecommunicaStructure TheDynamics tions (Cambridge, Mass, 1981); I. de S. Pool, Industry: ofMarket Enterthe Telephone (Norwood, N.J., 1983); R. W. Garnet, The Telephone Forecasting 1876-1909 (Baltimore, HorizontalStructure, prise: The Evolutionof the Bell System's 1985); R. A. Atwood, "Telephony and Its Cultural Meanings in Southeastern Iowa, of Iowa, 1984); Lana Fay Rakow, "Gender, Com1900-1917" (Ph.D. diss., University munication, and the Technology: A Case Study of Women and the Telephone" of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1987); and I. de S. Pool, (Ph.D. diss., University ed., The Social Impactof the Telephone (Cambridge, Mass., 1977). (Note that AT&T, Bell, and similarcorporate names refer,of course, to these companies--or their direct ancestors-up to the U.S. industry reorganizationof January 1, 1984.) from AT&T, Events in Telecommunications History(New York: AT&T, 3Statistics Statistics BiStates, 1979), p. 6; U.S. Bureau of the Census (BOC), Historical oftheUnited centennialEd., pt. 2 (Washington, D.C., 1975), pp. 783-84. see BOC, Telephones and Tel4Ratesare reportedin scattered places. For thesefigures, egraphs1902, Special Reports, Department of Commerce and Labor (Washington, D.C., 1906), p. 53; and 1909 AnnualReport ofAT&T (New York, 1910), p. 28. Wage data are fromHistorical Statistics (n. 3 above), tables D735-38.

TELEPHONE 1880-1940 DEVELOPMENT,
35
TABLE 1
PerTeleNumber of Telephones phones per 1,000 People Percentage in Bell System Percentage Independent, Connected to Bell centage Residential, Connected to Bell
1880 ........ 54,000 1885 ........ 156,000 1890 ........ 228,000 1895 ........ 340,000 1900 ........ 1,356,000 1905 ........ 4,127,000 1910 ........ 7,635,000 1915 ........ 10,524,000 1920 ........ 13,273,000 1925 ....... . 16,875,000 1930 ........ 20,103,000 1935 ........ 17,424,000 1940 ........ 21,928,000 1980 ........ 180,000,000
1 3 4 5 18 49 82 104 123 145 163 136 165 790
100 100 100 91 62 55 52 57 66 75 80 82 84 81
0 0 0 0 1 6 26 30 29 24 20 18 16 19
68 67 65 63 65 74
SOURCEs.-U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics BicentennialEd., pt. 2 (Washington, States, oftheUnited Abstract States 1982-83 (Washington, D.C., 1975), pp. 783-84; and U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical oftheUnited D.C., 1984), p. 557.
small cooperative systems, sprang up. Although they typically served areas thatBell had ignored,occasional head-to-headcompetition drove costs down and spurred rapid diffusion:almost a ninefold increase in telephones per capita between 1893 and 1902, as compared to less than a twofoldincrease in the prior nine years.5 Bell responded fiercelyto the competition, engaging in price and other aggressive tactics. It also wars, political confrontations, customerswithcheaper partylines, cointried to reach less affluent box telephones,and "measured service" (chargingby the call). Still, Bell lost at least half the marketby 1907. Then, a new management under Theodore N. Vail, the mostinfluential figurein telephone history,changed strategies.Instead of reckless,preemptiveexpansion and price competition, AT&T bought out competitors where it fiscalconwhereitwas losing.Withtighter could and ceded territories
D.C., 1938), p. 147. AT&T has al(Washington, Proposed Report:Telephone Investigation see, e.g., 1909 Annual ReportofAT&T, ways officially challenged this interpretation;
Commission 1902 (n. 4 above);Federal Communications 5BOC,Telephones, (FCC),
pp. 26-28.
36
Claude S. Fischer
as well, AT&T's rate of expantrol,and facingcapital uncertainties sion declined.6 Meanwhile, the "independents" could not expand much beyond their small-town bases, partlybecause they were unable to build theirown long-distance lines and were cut offfromBellcontrolled New York City. Many were not competitivebecause they were poorly financed and provided poor service. Others accepted or even solicitedbuyoutsfromAT&T or its allies. By 1912, the Bell Systemhad regained an additional 6 percentof the market. During this competitiveera, the industryoffered residentialcustomers a varietyof economical party-line plans. Bell's average residential rate in 1909 was just under two dollars a month (about 4 the local exchange percent of average wages).' How much territory covered and what services were provided-for example, nighttime operators-varied greatly,but costs dropped and subscriber lists grew considerably.These basic rates changed littleuntil World War II (although long-distance charges dropped). In the face of impending federal antitrust moves, AT&T agreed in late 1913 to formalizeits budding accommodationwiththe independents. Over several years, local telephone service was divided into regulated geographic monopolies. The modern U.S. telephone system-predominantlyBell local service and exclusivelyBell longdistance service-was essentially fixed fromthe early 1920s to 1984. The astronomical growth in the number of telephones during the pre-Vail era (a compound annual rate of 23 percent per capita from 1893 to 1907) became simplyhealthygrowth (4 percent between 1907 and 1929). The systemwas consolidated and technically improved, and, by 1929, 42 percent of all households had telephones. That figureshrank during the Depression to 31 percent in 1933 but rebounded to 37 percentof all households in 1940. Sales Strategies The telephone industrybelieved, as President Vail testifiedin and ad1909, thatthe "public had to be educated ... to the necessity
6See, e.g., AnnualReport ofAT&T, 1907-10; and FCC, Proposed (n. 5 above), Report pp. 153-154. On making deals withcompetitors, see, e.g., Rippey (n. 2 above), pp. 143ff. lines ofAT&T, p. 28. Charges for minimal,urban, four-party 71909 Annual Report ranged from$3.00 a monthin New York(about 6 percentof the average manufacturing employee's monthlywages) to $1.50 in Los Angeles (about 3 percent of wages) and much less in small places with mutual systems;see BOC, Telephones and TeleFire-Alarm and Police-Patrol 1912 (Washgraphsand MunicipalElectric SignalingSystems, Statistics ington,D.C., 1915); and Historical (n. 3 above), table D740.
37
vantage of the telephone."sAnd Bell saluted itselfon its success in an advertisemententitled "Blazing the Way": Bell "had to invent the business uses of the telephone and convince people that they were uses . . . [Bell] built up the telephone habit in cities like New York and Chicago.... It has fromthe startcreated the need of the telephone and then supplied it."g meant advertising, face-to-face so"Educating the public" typically and public relations.In the early years, these effortsinlicitations, cluded informationalcampaigns, such as publicizing the existence of the telephone, showing people how to use it, and encouraging courteous conversationon the line.'0Once the threatof nationalizaand publicity tion became serious,"institutional" encouradvertising voters to feel toward the warmly industry." aged As to gettingpayingcustomers,the first question vendors had to ask was, Of whatuse is thismachine?The answerwas not self-evident. For roughlythe first twenty-five years,sales campaigns largelyeminformational notices in newspapers, "news" ployed flyers,simple storiessupplied to friendly editors(manyof whomreceivedfreeservice or were partnersin telephony),public demonstrations, and personal solicitationsof businessmen. As to uses, salesmen typically
on December 9, 1909, in State of New York,Report 8Testimony of theCommittee of the Senate and Assembly to Investigate and Telegraph (AlAppointed Telephone Companies bany, 1910), p. 398. Collection of Business Americana, Na9AyerCollection of AT&T Advertisements, tional Museum of American History,SmithsonianInstitution. o0See,e.g., PacificTelephone Magazine (PT&T employee magazine, hereafter PAC in SF PION MU folder labeled TEL MAG), 1907-40, passim; 1914 advertisements "Advertising"; MU IND TEL "Scrapbook" of Southern Indiana Telephone Comin directories of the day; "Educating the Public to the pany clippings; advertisements 64 (June 21, 1913): 32-33; "Swearing over Proper Use of the Telephone," Telephony 9 (1905): 418; and "Advertising and Publicity-1906 the Telephone," Telephony -1910," box 1317, AT&T ARCH. see R. Marchand, "Creating the Corporate "On AT&T's institutional advertising, in America" (paper presented to Soul: The Origins of Corporate Image Advertising the Organization of American Historians,1980), and N. L. Griese, "AT&T: 1908 OriCampaign," Journal Advertising gins of the Nation's Oldest Continuous Institutional 6 (Summer 1977): 18-24. FCC, Proposed (n. 5 above), has a chapReport ofAdvertising Conter on "Public Relations"; see also N. R. Danielian, AT&T: The Story ofIndustrial quest(New York, 1939), chap. 13. For a defense of AT&T public relations,see A. W. (New York, 1941). Among the publicityeffortsalong System Page, The Bell Telephone subsidiesof the press,and courtingof reportersand polthese lines were "free"stories, and apiticians(documented in AT&T ARCH). In one comical case, AT&T frantically parently unsuccessfullytried in 1920 to pressure Hal Roach to cut out from a Harold Lloyd filmhe was producing a burlesque scene of central exchange hysteria (see folder "Correspondence-E. S. Wilson,V.P., AT&T," SF PION MU).
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Claude S. Fischer
stressed those that extended applicationsof telegraphsignaling. For example, an 1878 circularin New Haven-where the first exchange was set up-stated that "your wife may order your dinner, a hack, your familyphysician,etc., all by Telephone without leaving the servantsor messengersto do it." (It got almost no house or trusting In these uses, the telephone directlycompeted withresponse.)12 and decisively defeated-attempts to create telegraph exchanges thatenabled subscribers to emto signal for servicesand also efforts a sort of mail" as "electronic ploy printingtelegraphs system.'" In this era and for some years later, the telephone marketers sought new uses to add to these telegraphicapplications. They offered special services over the telephone, such as weather reports, concerts,sports results,and trainarrivals.For decades, vendors cast about for novel applications: broadcastingnews, sports, and music, nightwatchmancall-inservices,and the like. Industrymagazines eagerly printed stories about the telephone being used to sell prodabout forestblazes, lullaby a baby to sleep, ucts, alert firefighters men oftenattriband get out voterson electionday. And yet,industry uted weak demand to not having taught the customer "what to do withhis telephone."14 In the firsttwo decades of the 20th century,telephone advertisAT&T employed a Bos"modern.""5 ing became more professionally
12Walsh (n. 2 above), p. 47. 13S. Schmidt,"The Telephone Comes to Pittsburgh" of (master'sthesis,University
(n. 2 above), p. 30; D. Goodman, "Early Electrical Pittsburgh,1948); Pool, Forecasting Communicationsand the City: Applicationsof the Telegraph in Nineteenth-Century Urban America" (unpub. paper, Departmentof Social Sciences,Carnegie-Mellon Unin.d., courtesyof Joel Tarr); and "Telephone Historyof Dundee, Ontario," versity, City File, BELL CAN HIST. 14On special services and broadcasting, see Walsh (n. 2 above), p. 206; S. H. Aronson, "Bell's ElectricalToy: What's the Use? The Sociology of Early Telephone Usage," pp. 15-39, and I. de S. Pool et al., "Foresightand Hindsight: The Case of the Telephone," pp. 127-58, both in Pool, ed., Social Impact(n. 2 above); "BroadenInk 74 (March 9, 1911): 20; G. O. Steel, "Advertising the Possible Market,"Printers' Ink 51 (April 12, 1905): 14-17; and F. P. Valentine, ing the Telephone," Printers' "Some Phases of the Commercial Job," Bell Telephone 5 (January 1926): Quarterly 34-43. For illustrations of uses, see, e.g., PAC TEL MAG (October 1907), p. 6, (January 1910), p. 9, (December 1912), p. 23, and (October 1920), p. 44; and the independent magazine, Telephony. lists the E.g., the index to vol. 71 (1916) of Telephony under "Telephone, novel uses of": "degree conferredbytelephone,dispatchfollowing ing tugs in harbor service, gauging water by telephone, telephoning in an aeroplane." On complaints about not having taught the public, see the quotation from H. B. Young, ca. 1929, pp. 91, 100 in "Publicity Conferences-Bell System1921-34," box 1310, AT&T ARCH, but similarcommentsappear in earlier years, as well as positiveclaims,such as Vail's in 1909. '5The followingdiscussiondraws largelyfromexaminationof advertisement collections at the archives listed in n. 2. Space does not permitmore than a few examples
39
ton agency to dispense "free publicity"and later brought its chief, into the company.It began national advertising camJ.D. Ellsworth, and local Bell with for retheir companies paigns supplied copy Some of the was gional presses. advertising implicitly competitive (e.g., stressingthat Bell had long-distanceservice), and much of it was institutional, directed toward shaping a favorable public opinion about the Bell System. Advertisements for selling service emand texts ployed drawings,slogans, designed to make the uses of the telephone-not just the technology-attractive. (The amount and kind of advertising in refluctuated, especiallyin the Bell System, to available and sponse competition, supplies, politicalconcerns.)'6 From roughly 1900 to World War I, Bell's publicity agency advertised uses of the telephone by plantingnewspaper "stories"on telephones in farm life, in the church, in hotels, and the like."7The national advertisements, beginning around 1910, addressed mostly businessmen.They stressedthatthe telephone was impressiveto customers and saved time,both at work and at home, and often noted the telephone's convenience for planning and for keeping in touch withthe officeduring vacations. A second major theme was household management. A 1910 series, for example, presented detailed suggestions:Subscriberscould theaters, inns, rental agents, coal telephone dressmakers,florists, and the like. Other uses were suggested, too, such dealers, schools, as conveyingmessages of moderate urgency (a businessman calling home to say thathe will be late, callinga plumber),and conveyinginvitations(to an impromptuparty,for a fourthat bridge). kin by telephone, calling home from Sociabilitythemes ("visiting" a business trip,and keeping "In Touch with Friends and Relatives")
of hundreds of advertisements in the sources. See esp. at AT&T ARCH, fileslabeled and Publicity"; at SF PION MU, folderslabeled "Advertising" and "Pub"Advertising licityBureau"; at BELL CAN HIST, "Scrapbooks"; at ILL BELL INFO, "AT&T Ad384B, "Adver."; and at the Ayer Collection (n. 9 above), vertising"and microfilm the AT&T series. 16For explicitdiscussions,see Mahon (n. 2 above), e.g., pp. 79, 89; PublicityVicePresident A. W. Page's commentsin "Bell SystemGeneral Commercial Conference, 368B, ILL BELL INFO; and commentsby Commercial Engineer 1930," microfilm K. S. McHugh in "Bell System General Commercial Conference on Sales Matters, see 368B, ILL BELL INFO. On the originsof in-house advertising, 1931," microfilm N. L. Griese, "1908 Origins" (n. 11 above). '7See correspondence in "Advertisingand Publicity-Bell System-1906-1910, Folder 1," box 1317, AT&T ARCH. Some reports claimed that thousands of stories were placed in hundreds of publications.Apparently no national advertisingcampaigns were conducted prior to these years; Bell marketingstrategyseemed largely confined to price and service competition.See N. C. Kingsbury,"Results from the Ink (June 29, 1916): 182-84. American Telephone's National Campaign," Printers'
40
ClaudeS. Fischer
rare and almost alwayssuggested appeared, but theywere relatively an invitation or news of safe arrival a such as message sending rather than having a conversation. A few advertisements also pointed out the modernity of the telephone ("It's up to the times!"). But the major uses suggested in early telephone advertising were for business and household management; sociabilitywas rarelyadvised.'" Withthe decline of competition and the increasein regulationdurthe Bell stressed 1910s, ing public relationseven more and pressed local companies to follow suit. AT&T increasinglyleft advertising basic services and uses to its subsidiaries, although much of the copy still originated in New York, and the volume of such advertising declined. Material from Pacific Telephone and Telegraph (PT&T), apparentlya major advertiser among the Bell companies,indicates the substanceof "use" advertising during that era.'9 PT&T advertisements for 1914 and 1915 include,aside frominformational noticesand general paeans to the telephone, a few suggestions for businessmen (e.g., "You fishermenwho feel these warm days of Spring luring you to your favoritestream.... You can adjust affairsbefore leaving, ascertain the condition of streams, secure accommodations, and always be in touch with business and mentionthe home or women, such home"). Several advertisements as those suggesting that extension telephones add to safety and those encouraging shopping by telephone. Just one advertisement in thisset explicitly suggestsan amiable conversation:A grandmothwoman is erly speaking on the telephone, a country vista visible the window behind her, and says: "My! How sweet and through clear my daughter's voice sounds! She seems to be righthere with me!" The text reads: "Let us suggest a long distance visit home was unusual. today." But thissort of advertisement and after World War I, there was no occaDuring immediately sion to promote telephone use, since the industry struggledto meet demand pent up by wartime diversions. Much publicitytried to ease customerirritation at delays. Only in the mid-1920s did AT&T and the Bell companies refo'81n addition to the advertisingcollections,see A. P. Reynolds, "Selling a Tele12 (1906): 280-81; id., "The Telephone in Rephone" (to a businessman),Telephony tail Business," Printers' Ink 61 (November 27, 1907): 3-8; and "Bell Encourages Shopping by Telephone," ibid., vol. 70 (January 19, 1910). from AT&T Vice-PresidentReagan to PT&T President H. D. Pillsbury, "9Letter March 4, 1929, in "Advertising," SF PION MU; W. J. Phillips, "The How, What, When and Whyof Telephone Advertising," talkgivenJuly7, 1926, in ibid.; and "AdConference-Bell System--1916,"box 1310, AT&T ARCH, p. 44. vertising
41
The for the first time in years,to sales efforts.2" cus their attention, and discussed adBell leaders was a advertiser, actively system major focused on the 1920s. services, high-profit vertisingduring Copy such as long distance and extension sets; modern "psychology,"so to speak, influenced advertisingthemes; and Bell leaders became fromotherconsumergoods. Sociamore sensitive to the competition increased, bilitysuggestions largely in the context of long-distance marketing. In the United States,long-distance advertisements stilloverwhelmkin business but with now appeared uses, ingly targeted "visiting" as a frequent suggestion. Bell Canada, for some reason, stressed family ties much more. Typical of the next two decades of Bell are these, both from 1921: Canada's long-distanceadvertisements are How it calls "Whynight good would sound to hear mothpopular. er's voice tonight,he thought-for there were times when he was lonely-mighty lonely in the big city";and "it's a weeklyaffairnow, those fond intimatetalks.Distance rolls away and for a few minutes every Thursday nightthe familiarvoices tell the littlefamilygossip that both are so eager to hear." Sales pointersto employees during thisera oftensuggestedprovidingcustomerswithlistsof theirout-oftown contacts'telephone numbers. In the 1920s, the advertisingindustrydeveloped "atmosphere" techniques, focusing less on the product and more on its conseA similar shift may have begun in quences for the consumer.21 Bell's advertising, Bell Telephone Comas well: "The Southwestern it is has that decided [in 1923] selling somethingmore vital pany than distance, speed or accuracy.... [T]he telephone.. . almost brings[people] face to face. It is the next best thingto personal contact. So the fundamental purpose of the current advertisingis to sell the company's subscriberstheir voices at their true worth-to help them realize that 'Your Voice is You.'... to make subscribers thinkof the telephone whenevertheythinkof distantfriendsor relatives "22 This attitudewas apparentlyonly a harbinger,because .... of the 1920s the sociabilitytheme was largely remost during
20Seen. 16 above. (New York, 1983); S. Fox, The Mirror 21D. Pope, The Making ofModernAdvertising and Its Creators Makers:A History (New York, 1984); M. SchudofAmerican Advertising The Uneasy Persuasion son, Advertising: (New York, 1985), pp. 60ff;R. Marchand,Adver1920-1940 (Berkeley, Calif., Dream: Making Wayfor Modernity, tisingthe American 1985); and R. Pollay,"The Subsiding Sizzle: A DescriptiveHistoryof PrintAdvertis49 (Summer 1985): 24-37. ofMarketing ing, 1900-1980," Journal Ink 123 (April 26, 22W. B. Edwards, "Tearing Down Old Copy Gods," Printers' 1923): 65-66.
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Claude S. Fischer
to long distanceand did not appear in manybasic serviceadstricted vertisements. Bell Systemsalesmen spent the 1920s largelyselling ancillaryservices, such as extension telephones, upgrading from party lines, and long distance,to currentsubscribers, ratherthan finding new customers. Basic residential rates averaged two to three dollars a month (about 2 percent of average manufacturingwages), not much different froma decade earlier,and Bell leaders did not consider seeking new subscribersto be sufficiently profitableto pursue new The limited subscriber advertisingcontinued the seriously.23 of earlier PT&T themes contended that resilargelypractical years. dential telephones, especially extensions,were useful for emergencies, for social convenience (don't miss a call about an invitation, call your wife to set an extra place for dinner), and for avoiding the embarrassment of borrowing a telephone,as well as for its familiar business uses. A 1928 Bell Canada sales manual stressedhousehold practicalityfirstand social invitationssecond as tactics for selling basic service.24 Then, in the late 1920s, Bell Systemleaders-prodded perhaps that,for the first time,more American famiby the embarrassment lies owned automobiles, gas service, and electrical appliances than subscribed to telephones-pressed a more aggressivestrategy. They builtup a full-fledged sales force.And theysoughtto marketthe teleand convenience"-that is, as more than a pracphone as a "comfort tical device-drawing somewhat on the psychological, sensualist themesin automobile advertising. They focused not only on upgradthe service of current subscribers but also on reaching those car ing owners and electricity users who lacked telephones. And the social character of the telephone was to be a key ingredientin the new sales strategies.25 Before "comfortand convenience"could go far,however,the Deattention to basic serviceonce again. Subpressiondrew the industry's scriberswere disconnecting.Bell companies mounted campaigns to
23On rates, see W. F. Gray, "Typical Schedules for Rates of Exchange Service," and related discussion,in "Bell SystemGeneral Commercial Engineers' Conference, 1924," microfilm 364B, ILL BELL INFO. 24BellTelephone Company of Canada, "Selling Service on the Job," ca. 1928, cat. 12223, BELL CAN HIST. 25Comments, esp. by AT&T vice-presidents Page and Gherardi, during "General Commercial Conference, 1928," and "Bell SystemGeneral Commercial Conference, 1930," both microfilm368B, ILL BELL INFO, expressed a view that telephones should be part of consumers' "life-styles," not simply their practical instruments. One hears many echoes of "comfortand convenience" at lower Bell levels during this period.
43
save residential connections by mobilizingall employees to sell or save telephone hookups on their own time (a program that had startedbefore the Crash), expanding sales forces,advertisingto current subscribers,and mountingdoor-to-door"save" and "nonuser" The "pitches" PT&T suggested campaigns in some communities.26 to its employees included convenience (e.g., saving a trip to market), avoiding the humiliationof borrowinga neighbor's telephone, and simplybeing "modern." Salesmen actuallyseemed to rely more on pointingout the emergencyuses of the telephone-an appeal especially telling to parents of young children-and suggesting that job offersmightcome via the telephone. Having a telephone so as to be available to friendsand relativeswas a lesser sales point. By since A. G. Bell's invention,salespeople did not now, a half-century but had to convince potentialcushave to sell telephone serviceitself tomersthat theyneeded a telephone in theirown homes." During the Depression, long-distanceadvertisingcontinued, employingboth business themes and the themes of familyand friendaddressed to both nonusers and ship. But basic service advertising, would-be disconnectors,became much more common than it had been for twenty years. The firstline of argument in print ads for basic service was practicality-emergencyuses, in particular-but suggestionsfor sociable conversationswere more prominentthan they had been before. A 1932 advertisementshows four people sittingaround a woman who is speaking on the telephone. "Do Come Over!" the text reads, "Friends who are linked by telephone have good times." A 1934 Bell Canada advertisement featuresa couple who havejust re"We got out of touch with all of our subscribed and who testify, friendsand missed the good timeswe have now." A 1935 advertisement asks, "Have you ever watched a person telephoning to a friend? Have you noticed how readily the lips part into smiles... ?" And 1939 copy states,"Some one thinksof some one, reaches for the telephone, and all is well." A 1937 AT&T advertisement reminds us that "the telephone is vital in emergencies, but that is not the whole of its service.... Friendship's path often folmolows the trail of the telephone wire." These family-and-friend
26SeeA. Fancher,"EveryEmployee Is a Salesman forAmericanTelephone and Tele28 (February26, 1931): 45-51, 472; "Bell Conferences," graph," Sales Management 1928 and 1930 (n. 25 above), esp. L. J. Billingsley,"Presentionof Disconnections," a sales magazine for PT&T, ca. 1928-31, SF PION in 1930 conference; Pacemaker, MU; and Telephony, passim, 1931-36. interviewsby John Chan with retired industryexecutives in 27PT&T Pacemaker; northernCalifornia; see also J. E. Harrel, "Residential Exchange Sales in New England Southern Area," in "Bell Conference, 1931" (n. 16 above), pp. 67ff.
44
Claude S. Fischer
tifs,more frequent and frank in the 1930s, forecastthe jingles of today, such as ".. . a friendlyvoice, like chicken soup/is good for out, reach out and touch someone.'"28 your health/Reach This briefchronologydraws largelyfromprepared copy in indusA systematic try archives, not from actual printed advertisements. in California conof two northern however, survey, newspapers firms the impression of increasing sociabilitythemes. Aside from to farmwives'isolation,the first one 1911 advertisement soreferring in in addressed the Antioch 1929, Ledgerappeared ciabilitymessage to parents: "No girl wants to be a wallflower."It was followed in the 1930s with notices for basic service such as "Give your friends access to your home," and "Call the folksnow!" In 1911, adstraight in the Marin (County)Journal vertisements stressedthe convenience of the telephone for automotivetourists.Sociabilitybecame prominent in both basic and long-distance advertisementsin the late 1920s and the 1930s withsuggestionsthat people "broaden the circle of friendly contact"(1927), "Voice visitwithfriendsin nearbycities" (1930), and call grandmother(1935), and with the line, "I got my telephone for convenience. I never thought it would be such fun!" (1940).29 The emergence of sociability also appears in guides to telephone salesmen. A 1904 instruction booklet for sales representatives presents manysellingpoints,but onlyone paragraph addresses residential service. That paragraph describesways that the telephone saves time and labor, makes the household run smoothly,and rescues users in emergencies,but the only barely social use it notes is that the telephone "invites one's friends,asks them to stay away, asks them to hurryand enables themto invitein return."Conversationtelephone "visiting"-per se is not mentioned. A 1931 memorandumto sales representatives, entitled"Your Tele28There is some variation among the advertisingcollections I examined. Illinois Bell's basic service advertisementsused during the Depression are, for the most part, similar to basic service ads used a generationearlier. The PacificBell and Bell Canada advertisementsfeature sociable conversations much more. On the other in thatsociability is almostexclusively a famhand, the Bell Canada ads are distinctive ily matter. Friendship, featured in U.S. ads all along, emerges clearly in the Canadian ads only in the 1930s. The 1932 ad cited in the text appears in the August 17 issue of the Antioch (Calif.) Ledger.The "chickensoup" jingle, sung by Roger Miller, was a Bell Systemad in 1981. On the "Touch Someone" campaigns, see M. J. Arlen, Seconds(New York, 1980). See also "New Pitch to Spur Phone Use," New York Thirty October 23, 1985, p. 44. Times, 29These particularnewspapers were examined as part of a larger studyon the social historyof the telephone that will include case studies of three northernCalifornia communitiesfrom 1890 to 1940.
45
phone," is, on the other hand, full of tips on sellingresidentialservand longest subsectionbegins: ice and encouraging its use. Its first will Your "Fosters telephone keep your personal friendfriendships. and Real are too rare and valuable to alive active. friendships ships be broken when you or your friendsmove out of town. Correspondo not flourishfor long dence will help for a time,but friendships on lettersalone. When you can't visitin person, telephone periodically. Telephone calls will keep up the whole intimacyremarkably well. There is no need for newly-madefriendsto drop out of your life when theyreturnto distanthomes." A 1935 manual puts practias sales argumentsbut explicitly discalityand emergencyuses first cusses the telephone's "social importance," such as saving users frombeing "lefthigh and dryby friendswho can't reach [them]conThis account, so far, covers the advertisingof the Bell System. There is less known and perhaps less to know about the independent companies' advertising. Independents' appeals seem much like those of the Bell System, business,emergencies,and practistressing to sociability cality,except perhaps for showingan earlier sensitivity among theirrural clientele.3, In sum, the variety of sales materials portray a similar shift. From the beginningto roughlythe mid-1920s,the industry sold service as a practicalbusiness and household tool, with only occasional mention of social uses and those largely consistingof brief messages. Later sales arguments,for both long-distanceand basic service, featured social uses prominently, including the suggestion that the telephone be used for converations ("voice visiting") among
Union Telephone Company ContractsDepartment,Instructions and Infor30Central mation 1904, ILL BELL INFO. Note that Central Union had been, at for Solicitors, least through 1903, one of Bell's most aggressive solicitorsof business. Illinois Bell Commercial Department,Sales Manual 1931, microfilm, ILL BELL INFO. Ohio Bell Telephone Company, "How You Can Sell Telephones," 1935, file "Salesmanship," BELL CAN HIST. S'Until 1894, independent companies did not exist. For years afterward,they largely tried to meet unfilled demand in the small cities and towns Bell had underserved. In other places, they advertised competitively against Bell. Neverthemen oftenexhorted the independentsto use "salesmanshipin print" less, advertising to encourage basic service and extensive use. See, e.g., J. A. Schoell, "Advertising 70 (June 10, 1916): 40-41; and Other Thoughts of the Small Town Man," Telephony R. D. Mock, "Fundamental Principlesof the Telephone Business: Part V, Telephone Advertising,"series in ibid., vol. 71 (July 22-November 21, 1916); D. Hughes, "Right Now Is the Time to Sell Service," ibid., 104 (June 10, 1933): 14-15; and L. M. Berry, "Helpful Hints for Selling Service," ibid., 108 (February 2, 1935): 7-10. See also Kellogg Company, "A New Business Campaign for " (Chicago: Kellogg, 1929), MU IND TEL.
veniently."s30
46
ClaudeS. Fischer
friendsand family. While it would be helpfulto confirm thisimpressionisticaccount withfirmstatistics, forvarious reasons it is difficult to draw an accurate sample of advertising copy and salesmen's pitchesforover sixtyyears. (For one, we have no easily defined "universe" of advertisements. Are the appropriate units specificprinted ads, or ad campaigns? How are duplicates to be handled? Or ads in neighboringtowns?Do theyinclude planted stories,insertsin telephone bills, billboards, and the like? Should locally generated ads be included? And whatof nationallyprepared ads not used by the locals? For another, we have no clear "population" of ads. The available collections are fragmentary,often preselected for various in thatdirectionappears, however,in table 2, in reasons.) An effort which the numbers of "social" advertisements show a clear increase, both absolutelyand relatively.
TABLE 2
COUNTS OF DOMINANT ADVERTISING THEMES BY PERIOD
Sources and Types of Advertisements
Prewar
1919-29
1930-40
Antioch (Calif.) Ledger: Social, sociability ...................... Business, businessmen ................. Household, convenience, etc............ Public relations,other ................. Total .............................. Approximate ratio of social to others .................... Marin (Calif.) Journal: Social, sociability ...................... Business, businessmen ................. Household, convenience, etc............ Public relations,other ................. Total .............................. Approximate ratio of social to others .................... Bell Canada: Social, sociability ...................... Business, businessmen ................. Household, convenience, etc............ Public relations,other ................. Total .............................. Approximate ratio of social to others ....................
1 6 5 0
(1) (5) (5) (0)
1 1 3 4 9
(1) (1) (3) (3) (8)
6 2 4 1
(4) (1) (3) (1)
12 (11) 1:11 1 2 12 0 (1:10) (1) (2) (12) (0)
13 (9) 1:1 (1:1) 43 10 20 25 98 (20) (3) (20) (16) (59)
1:8 (1:7) 5 8 3 19 35 (2) (2) (3) (13) (20)
15 (15) 1:14 5 20* 28 30* (1:14) (2) (20) (28) (30)
1:6 (1:9) 25 15 3 25 68 (1) (2) (3) (40) (46)
1:1 (1:2) 59* 24* 23* 2 (9) (4) (6) (2)
83* (80) 1:16 (1:39)
108* (21) 1:1 (1:1)
1:2 (1:45)
The Telephone Discovers Sociability Industry

TABLE 2 (continued)
Sources and Types of Advertisements Prewar 1919-29
47
1930-40
PacificTelephone, 1914-15: Social, sociability ...................... Business, businessmen ................. Household, convenience, etc............ Public relations,other ................. Total .............................. Approximate ratio of social to others .................... Assorted Bell ads, 1906-10: Social, sociability ...................... Business, businessmen ................. Household, convenience, etc............ Public relations,other ................. Total .............................. Approximate ratio of social to others ....................1:8
2 7 18 16 43 1:21 4 13 11 9 37
(1) (6) (16) (9) (32) (1:31) (4) (12) (11) (9) (36) (1:8)
in the Antioch were sampled from 1906 to 1940 by Barbara Loomis; those in the SOURCES.-Advertisements Ledger MarinJournalwere sampled from 1900 to 1940 byJohn Chan. The Bell Canada collectionappears in scrapbooksat Bell Canada Historical; the Pacific collection is in the San Francisco Pioneer Telephone Museum. The AT&T advertisements are fromAT&T ARCH, box 1317. Other, spotty collectionswere used forthe studybut not counted All coding was done by the author. here because theywere not as systematic. advertisements. NoTE.--Counts in parenthesesexclude explicitly long-distance Usuallyeach ad had one dominant theme.When more thanone seemed equal in weight, the ad was counted in bothcategories."Social, sociability" refers to the use of the telephone for personal contact,includingseason's greetings, and conversationbetween invitations, friendsand family. testof (Note thatthe inclusionof briefmessagesin thiscategorymakes the analysisa conservative towardsociability the argumentthattherewas a shift themes.)"Business,businessmen"refersto theexplicituse of the telephone for business purposes or general appeals to businessmen--e.g.,thatthe telephone will make one a more forceful entrepreneur."Household, convenience,etc." includesthe use of the telephone forhousehold management, and foremergencies,such as illnessor burglary. "Public personal convenience (e.g., don't get wet,order play tickets), informational notices(such as how to use the telephone), relations,other" includes general institutional advertising, index is the ratioof non-long-distance social ads to non-longand other miscellaneous.Perhaps the mostconservative ads fluctuate distance household ads. (Business ads move to specialitymagazines over the years; public information thisratiochanges from withpoliticalevents; and long-distanceads maybe "inherently" social.) In the Antioch Ledger, 1:5 to 4:3; in the MarinJournal,from 1:12 to 1:1; and in Bell Canada's ads, from 1:14 to 1.5:1. Even these ratios forseveralreasons. One, I was much morealertto social thantootherads and was more thorough understatethe shift, withearlysocial ads than any othercategory.Two, the household categoryis increasedin the lateryearsbynumerous ads forextensiontelephones. Three, the natureof the social ads counted here changes. The earlierones overwhelmnot conversation.Withrare exception,onlythe later and invitations, inglysuggest using the telephone forgreetings and "warm human relationships"and suggest chats. ones discuss friendliness *Estimated.
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Claude S. Fischer Attitudes toward Industry Sociability
a change in This change in advertising themesapparentlyreflected the actual beliefs industrymen held about the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell himselfforecastsocial chitchatsusing his invention. He predicted thateventuallyMrs. Smithwould spend an hour on the telephone with Mrs. Brown "very enjoyably... cutting up Mrs. Robinson.""2 But for decades few of his successors saw it that way. Instead, the early telephone vendors often battled their residential customers over social conversations,labeling such calls "frivolous" and "unnecessary." For example, an 1881 announcement complained, "The fact that subscribershave been free to use the wires as they pleased withoutincurringadditional expense [i.e., flat of large numbers of communicarates] has led to the transmission In 1909, a local telephone mantions of the most trivial character."3" ager in Seattle listened in on a sample of conversations coming through a residentialexchange and determined that 20 percent of the calls were orders to stores and other businesses, 20 percent were from subscribers'homes to their own businesses, 15 percent and 30 percent were "purely idle gossip"-a were social invitations, rate thathe claimed was matchedin other cities.The manager's concern was to reduce thislast, "unnecessaryuse." One tacticfor doing so, in addition to "education" campaigns on proper use of the telephone, was to place time limitson calls (in his survey the average call had lasted over seven minutes). Time limitswere often an explicit effortto stop people who insistedon chattingwhen there was "business" to be conducted."4
32Quotedin Aronson, "ElectricalToy" (n. 14 above). 33Proposed announcement by National Capitol Telephone Company, in letter to Bell headquarters,January20, 1881, box 1213, AT&T ARCH. In a similarvein, the conversapresidentof Bell Canada confessed,ca. 1890, to being unable to stop "trivial were also exaspetions"; see Collins,A Voice (n. 2 above), p. 124. The Frenchauthorities rated by nonserious uses; see C. Bertho, Tel4graphes et tdlephones (Paris, 1980), pp. 244-45. Traffic-What Shall Be Done with It?" Telephony 18 34C. H. Judson, "Unprofitable (December 11, 1909): 644-47, and PAC TEL MAG 3 (January, 1910): 7. He also writes,"the telephone is going beyond its original design, and it is a positive fact that a large percentage of telephones in use today on a flat rental basis are used more in entertainment, diversion,social intercourseand accommodation to others, than in actual cases of business or household necessity"(p. 645). MacMeal, Independent (n. 2 above), p. 240, reports on a successfulcampaign in 1922 to discourage and advertisements. calls were-at least officiallygossipersthroughletters Typically, limitedto fiveminutesin many places, although it is unclear how well limitswere enforced.
49
An exceptional few in the industry, believing in a more "populist" telephony,did, however,tryto encourage such uses. E. J.Hall, Yale-educated and originallymanager of his family'sfirebrick busiin in initiated the first service" Buffalo 1880 and "measured ness, later became an AT&T vice-president.A pleader for lower rates, Hall also defended "trivial"calls, arguing that they added to the total use-value of the system.But the evident isolation of men like Hall underlines the dominant antisociability view of the pre-World War I era.35 OfficialAT&T opinions came closer to Hall's in the later 1920s when executives announced that, whereas the industryhad previtheynow ously thoughtof telephone serviceas a practicalnecessity, realized that it was more: it was a "convenience,comfort,luxury"; its value included its "trivial"social uses. In 1928, PublicityVicePresidentA. W. Page, who had entered AT&T fromthe publishing industrythe year before, was most explicit when he criticizedearlier views: "There had also been the point of view [in the Bell System and among the public] about not using the telephone for frivolousconversation.This is about as commercialas if the automobile people should advertise.'Please do not take out this car unless you are going on a serious errand... .' We are faced, I think,witha state of public consciousness that the telephone is a necessityand not to be trifledwith, certainlyin the home." Bell sales officials and convenience,"inwere told to sell telephoneserviceas a "comfort cluding as a conversationaltool.36 Although this change in opinion is most visible for the Bell System,similartrendscan be seen in the pages of thejournal of the indeespecially in regard to rural pendent companies, Telephony, customers. Indeed, early conflictabout telephone sociability was most acute in rural areas. During the monopoly era, Bell companies largely neglected rural demand. The depth and breadth of
35Hall'sphilosophyis evident in the correspondence over measured service before 1900, box 1127, AT&T ARCH. Decades later, he pushed it in a letterto E. M. Burgess, Colorado Telephone Company, March 30, 1905, box 1309, AT&T ARCH, even awaycalls made by childrenand should inarguing thatoperatorsshould stop turning uses." The biographicalinformation comes froman obitstead encourage such "trivial uary in AT&T ARCH. Another,more extremepopulist was John L. Sabin, of PT&T and the Chicago Telephone Co.; see Mahon (n. 2 above), pp. 29ff. SA. W. Page, "Public Relations and Sales," "General Commercial Conference, 368B, ILL BELL INFO. See also commentsby Vice-President 1928," p. 5, microfilm Gherardi and others in same conference and related ones of the period. On Page see G. J. Griswold,"How AT&T Public Relations Poliand the changes he instituted, 12 (Fall 1967): 7-16; and Marchand,Advertiscies Developed," PublicRelations Quarterly ing (n. 21 above), pp. 117-20.
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Claude S. Fischer
that demand became evident in the firsttwo decades of this century,when proportionallymore farm than urban households obtained telephones, the former largely from small commercial or both spurred telephone subcooperative local companies. Sociability scriptionand irritatedthe largelynon-Bell vendors. The 1907 Census of Telephones argued that in areas of isolated farmhouses "a sense of communitylife is impossible without this ... The sense of lonelinessand inseready means of communication. curityfelt by farmers'wives under former conditions disappears, and an approach is made toward the solidarityof a small country town." Other official bore similarwitness.37 Rural teleinvestigations One independent company offiphone men also dwelton sociability. cial stated: "When we started the farmersthought they could get along withouttelephones.... Now you couldn't take them out. The women wouldn't let you even if the men would. Socially, they have been a godsend. The women of the countykeep in touch witheach other, and with their social duties, which are largely in the nature of church work."38 stressedthe pracAlthoughthe episodic sales campaignsto farmers tical advantages of the telephone, such as receiving market prices, weather reports,and emergencyaid, the industry addressed the social theme more often to them than to the general public. A PT&T series in 1911, for example, focused on the telephone in emergencies, staying informed,and savingmoney. But one additional advertisementsaid it was: "A Blessing to the Farmer'sWife .... It relieves the monotonyof life.She CANNOT be lonesome withthe Bell Service ... .""3 For all that,telephone professionalswho dealt with farm1907 (Washington,D.C., 1910), pp. 77-78; see 37BOC, Special Reports:Telephones: also U.S. Congress, Senate, CountryLife Commission,60th Cong., 2d sess., 1909, S. Doc. 705; and F. E. Ward, The FarmWoman's USDA Circular 148 (WashingProblems, ton, D.C., 1920). See also C. S. Fischer,"The Revolutionin Rural Telephony,"Journal ofSocial History (in press). 9 (June 38Quoted in R. F. Kemp, "Telephones in Country Homes," Telephony 1905): 433. A 1909 article claims that "[t]he principle use of farm line telephones has been their social use.... The telephones are more often and for longer times held for neighborlyconversationsthan for any other purpose." It goes on to stress that subscribersvalued conversationwith anyone on the line; see G. R. Johnston, "Some Aspects of Rural Telephony," Telephony 17 (May 8, 1909): 542. See also R. L. Tomblen, "Recent Changes in Agricultureas Revealed by the Census," Bell Telephone 9 (October 1932): 334-50; and J. West(C. Withers), Quarterly Plainville,U.S.A. (New York, 1945), p. 10. (Calif.) Ledgerin 1911. For some exam39ThePT&T series appeared in the Antioch ples and discussions of sales strategiesto farmers,see Western Electric, "How to Build Rural Lines," n.d., "Rural Telephone Service, 1944-46," box 1310, AT&T ARCH; Stromberg-CarlsonTelephone ManufacturingCompany, Telephone Factsfor
51
ers often fought the use of the line for nonbusiness conversations, overflow withcomat least in the earlyyears. The pages of Telephony not the least that on about farmers theytied many grounds, plaints lines chats. the for up More explicitappreciationof the value of telephone sociabilityto acfarmersemerged later.A 1931 account of Bell's rural advertising tivitiesstressed business uses, but noted that "only within recent years [has] emphasis been given to [the telephone's] usefulness in everydayactivities.. . the commonplaces of rural life." A 1932 article in the Bell Telephone notes that "telephone usage for soQuarterly cial purposes in rural areas is fundamentally important."Ironically, in 1938, an independent telephone man claimed that the social an effective sales point because the theme had beenbut was no longer automobile and other technologieshad already reduced farmers'isolation!40 was also tied up As some passages suggest,the issue of sociability with gender. When telephone vendors before World War I addressed women's needs forthe telephone,theyusually meant household management, security,and emergencies. There is evidence, however, that urban, as well as rural, women found the telephone When industrymen criticizedchatting to be useful for sociability.4'
Farmers (Rochester, N.Y., 1903), Warshaw Collection,SmithsonianInstitution;"Facts 9 (April 1905): 303. In Printers' Ink, "The regardingthe Rural Telephone," Telephony WesternElectric," 65 (December 23, 1908): 3-7; F. X. Cleary,"Selling to the Rural District,"70 (February 23, 1910): 11-12; "WesternElectric Getting Farmers to Install Phones," 76 (July 27, 1911): 20-25; and H. C. Slemin,"Papers to Meet 'Trust'Competition,"78 (January 18, 1912): 28. 40R. T. Barrett,"Selling Telephones to Farmersby Talking about Tomatoes," Printers'Ink (November 5, 1931): 49-50; Tomblen (n. 38 above); and J. D. Holland, "Tele114 (February 19, phone Service Essential to Progressive Farm Home," Telephony 1938): 17-20. See also C. S. Fischer,"Technology'sRetreat:The Decline of Rural Tele(in press). phones, 1920-1940," Social Science History 41A1925 surveyof women's attitudestoward home appliances by the General Federation of Women's Clubs showed that respondentspreferredautomobiles and telephones above indoor plumbing; see M. Sherman, "What Women Want in Their Home Companion 52 (November 1925): 28, 97-98. A census survey Homes," Woman's of 500,000 homes in the mid-1920s reportedlyfound that the telephone was considered a primaryhousehold appliance because it, withthe automobile and radio, "offer[s] the homemaker the escape from monotony which drove many of her Telephone Magazine, in-house organ of United predecessors insane"; reported in Voice who Communications,December 1925, p. 3, MU IND TEL. One of our interviewees conducted door-to-doortelephone sales in the 1930s said that women were attracted in order to talk to kin and friends,second for appointmentsand to the service first shopping, and third for emergencies,while, for men, employmentand business reasons ranked first. See also Rakow, "Gender" (n. 2 above), and C. S. Fischer,"Women and the Telephone, 1890-1940," paper presentedto the AmericanSociological Association, 1987.
52
Claude S. Fischer
on the telephone, they almost always referred to the speaker as "she." Later, in the 1930s, the explicitappeals to sociability also emfor example, phasized women; the figuresin such advertisements, women. were overwhelmingly In rough parallel withthe shiftin manifest advertising appeals tothere was a shiftin industryattitudesfrom irritaward sociability, tion with to approval of sociable conversations as part of the convenience,and luxury." telephone's "comfort, Economic Explanations to suggestsoWhywere the telephonecompanieslate and reluctant ciable conversations as a use? There are several,not mutuallyexclusive, possible answers. The clearest is that there was no profitin in it later. at first but profit sociability Telephone companies, especiallyBell, argued thatresidentialservice had been a marginal or losing proposition,as measured by the and thatbusirevenues and expenses accounted to each instrument, ness servicehad subsidized local residentialservice.Whetherthisargument is valid remainsa matterof debate. Nevertheless,the belief that residential customers were unprofitablewas common, espeand no doubt discouraged intensivesales cially among line workers, At times, Bell lacked the capital to coneffortsto householders.42 structlines needed to meet residentialdemand. These constraints seemed to motivateoccasional orders fromNew York not to advertise basic serviceor to do so onlyto people near existingand unsaturated lines.43And, at times, there was a technical incompatibility
42See, e.g., J. W. Sichter, "Separations Procedures in the Telephone Industry," paper P-77-2, Harvard University Program on InformationResources (Cambridge, Mass., 1977); Public Utilities Digest,1930s-1940s, passim; "Will Your Phone Rates Double?" Consumer believed (March 1984): 154-56. Chan's industryinterviewees Reports thiscross subsidyto be true,as, apparently, did AT&T's commercialengineers; see various "Conferences"cited above, AT&T ARCH and ILL BELL INFO. 43E.g.,commercialengineer C. P. Morrill wrote in 1914 that "we are not actively makes thisnecseekingnew subscribers except in a fewplaces whereactivecompetition essary. Active selling is impossibledue to rapid growthon the PacificCoast." He encouraged sales of party lines in congested areas, individual lines in place of party lines elsewhere, extensions,more calling, directory advertisements, etc., rather than see PAC TEL MAG 7 (1914): 13-16. expanding basic service into new territories; And, in 1924, the Bell System'scommercialmanagers decided to avoid canvassingin areas that would require plant expansion and to stress instead long-distancecalls and services, especially for large business users; see correspondence from B. Gherardi, vice-president,AT&T, to G. E. McFarland president, PT&T, July 14, 1924, and November 26, 1924, folder "282-Conferences," SF PION MU, and exchage with McFarland, May 10 and May 20, 1924, folder "Correspondence-B. Gherardi," SF PION MU.
53
between the qualityof serviceBell had accustomed its business subscribersto expect and the qualityresidentialcustomerswere willing to pay for. Given these considerations,Bell preferred to focus on the business class, who paid higher rates, bought additional equipment,and made long-distance calls.44 Still, when they did address residentialcustomers,why did teletheme until the 1920s, rephone vendors not employ the sociability for so on uses? lying long only practical Perhaps social calls were an untouched and elastic market of consumer demand. Having sold the serviceto thosewho mightrespond to practicalappeals-and perhaps by World War I everyoneknew those practical uses-vendors might have thought that furtherexpansion depended on selling Similarly,vendors may have "new" social uses of the telephone.45 enrolled all the subscribers they had thought they already could-42 percentof Americanhouseholds in 1930-and shiftedattention to encouraging use, especially of toll lines. We have seen how sales efforts for intercity calls invoked friendsand family.But It leaves as a puzzle whythe sociabilthisexplanationdoes not suffice. themes continued in the ity Depression when the industryfocused inon subscribers and also whythe industry's again simplyensuring ternal attitudesshiftedas well. Perhaps the answer is in the rate structures.Initially,telephone companies charged a flatrate for unlimitedlocal use of the service. In such a system,extra calls and lengthycalls cost users nothing but are unprofitableto providers because they take operator time and, by occupyinglines,antagonize otherwould-be callers. Some incalls on flatrates.46Discouragblamed "trivial" dustrymen explicitly then made sense. on the telephone ing "visiting" in many telephone excontinued flat-rate charges Although the period, Bell and othsmaller ones, throughout changes,especially ers instituted "measured service" in full or in part--charging additionallyper call-in mostlarge places during the era of competition. In St. Louis in 1898, for example, a four-party telephone cost for calls a 600 dollars a year, plus eight cents a call year forty-five in excess.47 This systemallowed companies to reduce basic subscrip44The storyof the Chicago exchange under John L. Sabin illustratesthe point. See R. Garnet, "The Central Union Telephone Company," box 1080, AT&T ARCH. 45Thispoint was suggestedbyJohn Chan fromthe interviews. 46See n. 33, 34. This is also the logic of a recent New York Telephone Co. campaign to encourage social calls: The advertisingwill not run in upstate New York "since the upstaterstend to have flat rates and there would be no profitin having them make unnecessarycalls" (see "New Pitch,"n. 28 above). 47Letterto AT&T President Hudson, December 27, 1898, box 1284, AT&T ARCH. On measured service in general, see "Measured Service Rates," boxes 1127,
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Claude S. Fischer
tion fees and thus attractcustomers who wanted the service only for occasional use. motivesfor pressing measured Company officialshad conflicting service.Some saw it simplyas economically rational,chargingaccordit use. as means of to Others saw a reducing "trivial"calls and ing A few others, such the borrowingof telephones by nonsubscribers. as E. J. Hall, saw it as a vehicle forbringingin masses of small users. The industry might have welcomed social conversations, if it could charge enough to make up for uncompleted calls and for the subscribers frustrated busy lines produced. In principle,under measured service,it could. (As it could with long distance, where each was apparminutewas charged.) Althoughmechanicaltimemetering not for most or all of this available ently period, rough time in since for local calls existed principle, "messages" were typicharges as five or fraction thereof.Thus, "visitdefined minutes cally long any four "messages." minutes should have cost callers for twenty ing" In such systems, the companies would have earned income fromsoand mighthave encouraged it.48 ciability However, changes from flatrates to measured rates do not seem to explain the shifttoward sociability around the 1920s. Determinextent measured service was the that actuallyused forurban resiing dential customers is difficult because rate schedules varied widely from town to town even withinthe same states.But the timingdoes not fit. The big exchanges with measured residential rates had them earlyon. For example, in 1904, 96 percentof Denver's residential subscriberswere on at least a partial measured system,and, in 1905, 90 percent of those in Brooklyn, New York, were as well. (Yet, Los Angeles residential customers continued to have flat
1213, 1287, 1309, AT&T ARCH; F. H. Bethell, "The Message Rate," repr. 1913, AT&T ARCH; H. B. Stroud, "Measured Telephone Service," Telephony 6 (September TheTelephone and Tel1903): 153-56, and (October 1903): 236-38; and J. E. Kingsbury, (London, 1915), pp. 469-80. ephone Exchanges 48Theodore Vail claimed in 1909 thatmechanical time meteringwas impossible (in to a New York State commission,see n. 8 above, p. 470). See also Judson testimony (n. 34 above), p. 647. In 1928, an operating engineer suggested overtimecharges on five-minute calls and stated that equipment for monitoring overtimewas now available; see L. B. Wilson, "Report on CommercialOperations, 1927," in "General Commercial Conference, 1928," p. 28, microfilm368B, ILL BELL INFO. On the five-minute limit,see "Measured Service,"box 1127, AT&T ARCH, passim; and Bell Canada, The FirstCentury of Service(Montreal, 1980), p. 4. There is no confirmation on how strictoperators in factwere in chargingovertime.The Bell System,at least, was never known for its laxness in such matters.
55
There is littlesign that these rate systemsaltered signifirates.)49 in themesemerged. cantly the next twenty-five yearswhile sociability in small flat rates Conversely, persisted exchanges beyond the 1930s. Moreover, sociabilitythemes appeared more often in rural sales campaigns thanin urban ones, despite the factthe rural areas remained on flat-rate schedules. concern that long social calls occupied lines and opAlthough erators-with financiallosses to the companies-no doubt contributed to the industry's resistanceto sociability, it is not a sufficient exof those attitudes of the of their or, especially, planation timing change. Technical Explanations Industry spokesmen early in the era would probably have claimed thattechnicalconsiderationslimited"visiting" by telephone. Extended conversations monopolized partylines. That is whycompanies, often claimingcustomerpressure,encouraged, set--or sought legal permissionto set-time limitson calls. Yet, this would not exbecause as late as 1930, plain the shifttoward explicit sociability, 40-50 percent of Bell's main telephones in almost all major cities were still on party lines, a proportion not much changed from 1915.50 A related problem was the tying up of toll lines among exchanges,especiallythoseamong villagesand small towns.Rural cooperatives complained that the commercialcompanies provided them with only single lines between towns. The companies resisted setting up more, claiming they were underpaid for that service. This
49Denver:letterfromE. J. Hall to E. W. Burgess, 1905, box 1309, AT&T ARCH; 1902 (n. 4 above); Los Angeles: "Telephone on the PaBrooklyn: BOC, Telephones, cificCoast, 1878-1923," box 1045, AT&T ARCH. 66 500n company claims, see, e.g., "LimitingPartyLine Conversations,"Telephony data, compare (May 2, 1914): 21; and MacMeal (n. 2 above), p. 224. On party-line the statistics in the letterfromJ. P. Davis to A. Cochrane, April 2, 1901, box 1312, AT&T ARCH, to those in B. Gherardi and F. B. Jewett,"Telephone Communications System of the United States," Bell System Technical Journal 1 (January 1930): 1-100. The formershow, e.g., that,in 1901, in the fivecitieswiththe most subscribers, an average of 31 percent of telephones were on partylines. For those fivecities in 1929, the percentagewas 36. Smallerexchangestended to have even higherproportions. See also "Supplemental Telephone Statistics, PT&T," "Correspondence-Du Bois," SF PION MU. The case of Bell Canada also failsto supporta party-line explanation. Virtuallyall telephones in Montreal and Toronto were on individual lines until 1920.
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Claude S. Fischer
single-lineconnection would create an incentiveto suppress social conversations,at least in rural areas. But this does not explain the shift toward sociabilityeither. The bottleneckwas resolved much later than the sales shiftwhen it became possible to have several calls on a single line.51 The developmentof long distancemightalso explain increased sociabilityselling. Over the period covered here, the technologyimproved rapidly, AT&T's long-distance charges dropped, and its costs dropped even more. The major motiveforresidentialsubscribers to use long distancewas to greetkinor friends. overAdditionally, time was well monitored and charged. Again, while probably to the overall frequencyof the sociability theme, longcontributing distance development seems insufficient to explain the change. Toll calls as a proportionof all calls increased from2.5 percent in 1900 to 3.2 percent in 1920 and 4.1 percent in 1930, then dropped to 3.3 percent in 1940. They did not reach even 5 percent of all calls until the 1960s.52 More important,the shifttoward sociabilityappears in campaigns to sell basic service and to encourage local use, as well as in long-distance ads. (See table 2.) Cultural Explanations While both economic and technical considerations no doubt framed the industry's attitudetowardsociability, neitherseems sufficient to explain the historical change. Part of the explanation probaof the telephone men. bly lies in the cultural"mind-set" In niany ways, the telephone industrydescended directlyfrom the telegraph industry.The instruments are functionally very similar; technicaldevelopmentssometimesapplied to both. The people who developed, built,and marketedtelephone systems were predomcame froma family ininantlytelegraphmen. Theodore Vail himself volved in telegraphyand started his career as a telegrapher. (In contrast,E. J. Hall and A. W. Page, among the supportersof "triviality," had no connections to telegraphy.J. L. Sabin, a man of the
51"Carriercurrents" allowed multiple conversationson the same line. The first one was developed in 1918, but for many years they were limited to use on longdistancetrunklines,not local tolllines. See, e.g., R. Coe, "Some Distinguishing Characteristicsof the Telephone Business," Bell Telephone 6 (January 1927): Quarterly 47-51, esp. pp. 49-50; and R. C. Boyd,J. D. Howard, Jr.,and L. Pederson, "A New Carrier System for Rural Service," Bell System Technical Journal26 (March 1957): 349-90. The first long-distancecarrierline was establishedin Canada in 1928, after the long-distancesociability theme had emerged; see Bell Canada, FirstCentury, no. 46, p. 28. Statistics 52BOC,Historical (n. 3 above), p. 783.
Discovers The Telephone Sociability Industry
57
same bent, did have roots in telegraphy.)Many telephone companies had startedas telegraph operations. Indeed, in 1880, Western Union almostdisplaced Bell as the telephonecompany.And the organization of WesternUnion served in some waysas a model for Bell. Telephone use often directlysubstitutedfor telegraph use. Even the language used to talk about the telephone revealed its ancestry. claimed that the telephone sysFor example, an early advertisement tem was the "cheapest telegraphserviceever." Telephone calls were long referred to as "messages." American telegraphy,finally,was rarelyused even for briefsocial messages.53 and for decades to No wonder, then, that the uses proposed first follow largely replicated those of a printing telegraph: business communiques,orders, alarms,and calls for services.In thiscontext, industrymen reasonably considered telephone "visiting"to be an of the service. Internal documents suggest abuse or trivialization saw the technologyas a busithat most telephone leaders typically for the middle class, claimed convenience and a instrument ness on these marginaladvantages, that people had to be sold vigorously and believed thatpeople had no "natural" need for the telephoneindeed, that most (the rural and workingclass) would never need it. Customers would have to be "educated" to it.54AT&T Vice53Onthe telegraphbackgroundof earlytelephoneleaders, see, e.g., A. B. Paine, Theodore N. Vail(New York, 1929); Rippey (n. 2 above); and W. Patten,Pioneering theTelethiswas true of phonein Canada (Montreal: Telephone Pioneers, 1926). Interestingly, Bell and the major operations. But the leaders of small-towncompanies were typically businessmenand farmers;see, e.g., On theLine (Madison: WisconsinState Telephone Association, 1985). On WesternUnion and Bell, see G. D. Smith,TheAnatomy and theOrigins American IndusBell, Western Electric, ofthe ofa Business Strategy: Telephone (Baltimore, 1985). The "cheapest telegraph"appears in a Buffalo flierof Novemtry ber 13, 1880, box 1127, AT&T ARCH. On the infrequentuse of the telegraph for social messages, see R. B. DuBoff, "Business Demand and Development of the TeleReview54 (Winter 1980): graph in the United States, 1844-1860," BusinessHistory 459-79. 54In the very earliest days, Vail had expected that the highest level of development would be one telephone per 100 people; by 1880, development had reached four per 100 in some places; see Garnet (n. 2 above), p. 133, n. 3. It reached one per 100 Americans before 1900 (see table 1). In 1905, a Bell estimateassumed that twenty telephones per 100 Americanswas the saturationpoint and even that"mayappear beyond reason"; see "Estimated Telephone Development, 1905-1920," letter from S. H. Mildram,AT&T, to W. S. Allen, AT&T, May 22, 1905, box 1364, AT&T in its ARCH. The saturationdate was forecastfor 1920. This estimatewas optimistic per 100 was reached only in 1945-but verypessiprojected rateof diffusion-twenty misticin its projected levelof diffusion.That level was doubled by 1960 and tripled by 1980. One reads in Bell documentsof the late 1920s of concern that the automobile and other new technologieswere far outstripping telephone diffusion.Yet, even then,there seemed to be no assumptionthatthe telephone would reach the near unior the radio. in American homes of, say,electricity versality
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Claude S. Fischer
PresidentPage was reactingprecisely againstthistelegraphy perspective in his 1928 defense of "frivolous"conversation.At the same of telephone adeffect conference,he also decried the psychological vertisementsthat explicitlycompared the instrumentto the teleIndustryleaders long ignored or repressed telephone sociabilityfor the most part, I suggest,because such conversationsdid not fit their understandingsof what the technologywas supposed to be on makingsuch callsfor.Only afterdecades of customerinsistence of and perhaps prodded by the popularity competingtechnologies, come to adopt sosuch as the automobileand radio-did the industry as a means of exploitingthe technology. ciability This argument posits a generation-long lag, a mismatch,between how subscribersused the telephone and how industry men thought it would be used. A variantof the argument(posed by several auditors of this article) suggests that there was no mismatch,that the accuratelyreflectedpublic pracindustry'sattitudesand advertising tice. Sales strategies changed toward sociabilityaround the mid1920s because, in fact,people began using the telephone that way occurred for perhaps one more. This increase in telephone visiting or more reasons-a drop in real costs, an increase in the number more comof subscribers available to call, clearer voice transmission, fortableinstruments (fromwall sets to the "French" handsets), measured rates, increased privacy with the coming of automatic dial followed usage. and so on-and the industry's switching, marketing To address this argument fullywould require detailed evidence on the use of thetelephoneover time,whichwe do not have. Recollections by some elderly people suggest that theyvisitedby telephone less often and more quicklyin the "old days," but theycannot specify exact rates or in what era practices changed.56On the other and fragments of nuhand, anecdotes,commentsbycontemporaries, merical data (e.g., the 1909 Seattle "study")suggest that residential users regularly visited by telephone before the mid-1920s, whatever the etiquette was supposed to be, and that such calls at least equaled calls regardinghousehold management.Yet, telephone adin the period overwhelmingly stressedpracticaluse and igvertising nored or suppressed sociability use. Changes in customers'practicesmay have helped spur a change
GreaterToll Service,""General Com55Page53 in L. B. Wilson (chair), "Promoting mercial Conference, 1928," microfilm 368B, ILL BELL INFO. 56Thiscommentis based on the oral historiesreported by Rakow (n. 2 above) and conducted in San Rafael, Calif., by John Chan for this project. by several interviews See also Fischer,"Women" (n. 41).
graph.15
59
in advertising-although thereis no directevidence of thisin the industryarchives-but some sort of mismatchexisted for a long time between actual use and marketing.Its source appears to be, in large measure, cultural. This explanation gains additional plausibilityfrom the parallel case of the automobile, about which space permitsonly brief mention. The early producers of automobileswere commonlyformerbicycle manufacturerswho learned their production techniques and annual models) dur(e.g., the dealershipsystem, marketing strategies the craze of the 1890s. As the bicycle ing bicycle was then, so was the automobile initiallya playthingof the wealthy.The early sales campaigns touted the automobile as a leisure device for touring, joyriding, and racing. One advertisingman wondered as late as 1906 whether"the automobile is to prove a fad like the bicycleor a of the country."" lastingfactorin the industry That the automobile had practical uses dawned on the industry quickly. Especially afterthe success of the Ford Model T, advertisements began stressing themessuch as utility and sociability-in parbe that families could ticular, strengthenedby touring together. Publicistsand independent observersalike praised the automobile's role in breaking isolation and increasing community life.58As with the telephone, automobile vendors largely followed a marketthe basic sources on the history of the automobile drawn fromare: J. B. 57Among Automobile: A BriefHistory Rae, TheAmerican (Chicago, 1965); id., The Road and Car in American Life (Cambridge, Mass., 1971); J. J. Flink, AmericaAdoptsthe Automobile, 1895-1910 (Cambridge, Mass., 1970); id., The Car Culture (Cambridge, Mass., 1976); and J.-P. Bardou, J.-J. RevoluChanaron, P. Fridenson,and J. M. Laux, TheAutomobile tion,trans. J. M. Laux (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1982). The advertisingman was J. H. Ink 86 (February Newmark,"Have AutomobilesBeen WronglyAdvertised?"Printers' 5, 1914): 70-72. See also id., "The Line of Progress in Automobile Advertising," ibid., 105 (December 26, 1918): 97-102. Ink 92 (July 58G.L. Sullivan, "Forces That Are Reshaping a Big Market,"Printers' 29, 1915): 26-28. Newmark(n. 57 above, p. 97) wrotein 1918 thatit "has takena quarter centuryfor manufacturers to discover that they are making a utility."A 1930s studysuggested that80 percentof household automobile expenditureswas for "famIncome and Expenditures. FiveRegions, Part 2. Familyliving";see D. Monroe et al., Family Consumer Purchases Study, Farm Series, Bureau of Home ily Expenditures, Economics, Misc. Pub. 465 (Washington, D.C., 1941), pp. 34-36. Recall the 1925 survey of women's attitudestoward appliances (n. 41 above). The author of the report, Federation President Mary Sherman, concluded that "Before toilets are installed or washbasinsput into homes, automobilesare purchased and telephones are connected ... [b]ecause the housewife for generationshas sought escape from the monotony rather than the drudgery of her lot" (p. 98). See also Country Life and Ward (n. 37 above); E. de S. Brunner and J. H. Kolb, Rural Social Trends(New York, 1933); and F. R. Allen, "The Automobile,"pp. 107-32 in F. R. Allen et al., Technology and Social Change(New York, 1957).
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Claude S. Fischer
ing strategybased on the experience of their "parent" technology; they stresseda limitedand familiarset of uses; and they had to be awakened, it seems, to wider and more popular uses. The automobile producers learned faster. No doubt other social changes also contributedto what I have and other explanations can be ofcalled the discoveryof sociability, fered. An importantone concerns shiftsin advertising.Advertising tactics,as noted earlier,moved toward"softer"themes,withgreater emphasis on emotionalappeals and on pleasurable ratherthanpraction women cal uses of the product. They also focused increasingly as primaryconsumers,and women were later associated with teleAT&T executives may have been late to adopt phone sociability.59 these new tactics,in part because their advertisingagency, N. W. But in thisanalysis,telephone adconservative. Ayer,was particularly followed perhaps in part beeventually general advertising, vertising cause AT&T executives attributedthe success of the automobile and other technologiesto thisformof marketing."6 and direct evidence to suggest that Still, there is circumstantial the keychange was the loosening,under the influenceof public prachold on the teleticeswiththe telephone,of the telegraphtradition's phone industry. Conclusion Today, most residential calls are made to friends and family, often for sociable conversations.That may well have been true two or three generations ago, too.61Today, the telephone industryenyearsago it did not. Telephone salescourages such calls; seventy-five men then claimed the residential telephone was good for emergencies; thatfunctionis now takenfor granted.Telephone salesmen then claimed the telephone was good for marketing;that function
59Recallthat,early on, women were associated in telephone advertisingwithemerand shopping. gencies, security, "On changes in advertising,see sources cited in n. 21 above. The comment on N. W. Ayer's conservatism comes fromRoland Marchand (personal communication). to establishfor what purpose people actually use the telephone. A 61It is difficult few studies suggestthat most calls by far are made for social reasons, to friendsand family.(This does not mean, however,that people subscribeto telephone service for such purposes.) See Field Research Corporation,Residence Customer Usageand Democonducted for Pacific Bell, 1985 (courtesy R. graphicCharacteristics Study:Summary, Somer, Pacific Bell); B. D. Singer, Social Functions (Palo Alto, Calif.: of theTelephone R&E Associates, 1981), esp. p. 20; M. Mayer, "The Telephone and the Uses of Time," in Pool, Social Impact(n. 2 above), pp. 225-45; and A. H. Wurtzel and C. Turner, "Latent Functionsof the Telephone," ibid., pp. 246-61.
The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability 61 persists ("Let your fingersdo the walking .. . ") but never seemed functo be too importantto residentialsubscribers.62The sociability tion seems so obviouslyimportanttoday,and yetwas ignored or refor almost the first half of its history. sisted by the industry of how and whythe telephoneindustry discovered sociaThe story of technoa for the nature few lessons bilityprovides understanding of It that diffusion. a promoters technologydo not logical suggests or know determine its final that uses; necessarily they seek problems or "needs" for which their technologyis the answer (cf. the home computerbusiness); but thatconsumersmay ultimately determine those uses for the promoters.And the storysuggests that, in vendorsare constrainednot onlyby itstechpromotinga technology, of its nical and economic attributesbut also by an interpretation that uses shaped by its and theirown histories, a culturalconstraint can be enduring and powerful.
62A 1934 survey found that up to 50 percent of women respondents with telephones were "favorable" to shopping by telephone. Presumably,fewer actually did so; see J. M. Shaw, "Buyingby Telephone at DepartmentStores,"Bell Telephone Quar13 (July 1934): 267-88. This is true despite major emphases on telephone shopterly See also Fischer,"Women" (n. 41 above). advertising. ping in industry

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"Touch Someone": The Telephone Industry Discovers Sociability Author(s): Claude S. Fischer Source: Technology and Culture, Vol.

The Telephone "TouchSomeone": Discovers Sociability Industry

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

Claude S. Fischer A Brief History oftheTelephone

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

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The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

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The Telephone Discovers Sociability Industry

Claude S. Fischer Attitudes toward Industry Sociability

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

Discovers The Telephone Sociability Industry

The Telephone Discovers Industry Sociability

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